Top Green Celebs

From Atlanta in Town

Green Insider: Top 5 Eco Celebs

Submitted by collin on Saturday, 1 October 2011No Comment.By Laura Turner Seydel

It’s hard to explain our fascination with Hollywood celebrities, but there are certainly a few of environmentally minded celebs that deserve our attention. Using their popular status for the betterment of our planet, the below actors and actresses are fighting for what they believe in and inspiring others to follow in their footsteps.

One of the biggest champions for a sustainable future is Leonardo DiCaprio, who after spearheading green building initiatives to help rebuild New Orleans, produced, created and narrated the impactful 2007 documentary, The 11th Hour. In the film he documents the many problems facing our planet’s life systems, like global warming, deforestation and mass species extinction to convey the message that the future of humanity is in jeopardy. Ensuring our planet’s future, his namesake foundation (leonardodicaprio.org) is dedicated to supporting efforts to secure a sustainable future for our planet and all of its inhabitants. Currently, the foundation is working to save tigers, which risk extinction in the next decade if action isn’t taken.

Joining the eco-crusade are Alicia Silverstone, Daryl Hannah and Gwyneth Paltrow. These three women promote a balanced and responsible lifestyle, whether it is eating a vegetarian diet (for awesome vegan recipes, check out Alicia Silverstone’s thekindlife.com), living on a sustainable farm, hosting an eco-wedding or embracing organic and eco-friendly products in their daily lives. Gwyneth Paltrow’s website, GOOP.com, offers readers an array of sustainable options from traveling to shopping, while Daryl Hannah’s DHlovelife.com showcases green news and short films on all aspects of sustainability, like driving a vegetable oil car, raising chickens and composting.

Also getting in on the action are Ed Begley, Jr and George Clooney, both of whom are passionate about finding energy alternatives. In addition to ditching a limo in exchange for a bike as transportation to a recent awards show, Ed Begley, Jr (edbegley.com) showcases how to create and live in an eco-friendly home on his Planet Green TV show, Living with Ed. He further demonstrates how you can create your own green home in his book, Ed Begley’s Guide to Sustainable Living, and with his non-toxic home cleaning products called Begley’s Best.

George Clooney, on the other hand, takes the message of energy alternatives from the TV to the silver screen with Syriana, a film that fictionalized the rampant corruption of the oil industry, to help raise awareness and decrease our nation’s dependence on oil. He is just as passionate about the environment as he is about social issues effecting nations in conflict, like Dafur, Sudan and Haiti.

While it might not be possible for us to produce our own documentary or move to an organic farm, it is possible to be inspired by these celebs by reading their blogs regularly, watching their TV shows or following them through social media sites. Pledge to once a week have a vegetarian meal, swap your car for a bike or watch an eco-film. The more you immerse yourself in how others are working to preserve our planet, the more you’ll want to do your part, too.