Going green

So there's a new channel now, called something like Discovery Green.. .or something. Its all about being ecological. I know a lot of people interested in the topic, and interested in ways to be green, including myself. We all know some ways to conserve our resources, and others take, well, a lot of the other kind of green to get going. Still some interesting renovation kinds of shows, and some other kinds of shows as well... like for instance one I watched today.

A group of pretty and young friends who just love doing anything ecological are filmed "being green." What exactly does that mean??? Well, the get filmed being attractive and encouraging other attractive people to be ecological. A few of them have jobs, one is a real estate guy who works in an office, but designs ecological renovations. Another is an actor (I think they mentioned Entourage) who is having a house renovated (stripped down to the lumber bones and rebuilt). This renovation is supposed to make the house a "green" house, as they are using renewable resources etc to build with. It is definitely going to be a luxurious and beautiful home as well, and worth multiple millions most likely. One of the other people is a carpenter/handyman, who works on ecological upgrades and projects with a green theme. Think Andrew Danjumbo with a mission. This guy was the only one on the program that broke a sweat (and even then it was quite attractive). The others rode their bikes, wandered through the farmer's market, got themselves invited to a flower farm, stirred a little compost in a compost pile, then called their carpenter friend to build a compost box for some people the flower woman knew.

Evidently, all you really need to be green, is to be rich and cute. Ok, so maybe the show will be less... pretentious? self absorbed? in future episodes, but really... will I be interested in watching them? Can I call their carpenter friend to help me out with MY eco-projects? I know I'm not cute enough for TV, so probably not. I think their concept of encouraging green living is a good one: walk, ride your bike, grow your food, use renewable resources. I'm not sure they really accomplished that today, and I'm not sure I was interested enough in them to find out if they ever do accomplish it. I'm probably not their intended demographic, and maybe that is the problem, but I would like to see the real people, who have already made these life choices show me how to do it, and how its working out for them. What problems did they have to deal with? How did they over come them? Can the woman who grows all those organic flowers really make a living in CA selling them at a farmer's market???

I worry somewhat that eco-friendly living is something that will be one more line between the haves and the have-nots. That is sad because some of the eco-friendly concepts are very self-sustainable, and would be sooo very helpful for those at the low end of the economic ladder.