A stimulus package for your eyes, ears and mind.

• Design Revolution:  100 Products that Empower People by, Emily Pilloton, (former managing editor of Inhabitat).  She’s got a a book tour, road trip – in a 1972 Airstream hauled by a biodiesel powered truck.
• Fundraiser to benefit INFORM tonight at environmentfurniture.com in NYC, 8-11p.
• Tough times for indie film distribution deals but you can take a peek at scifi and eco-oriented offerings at this year’s Sundance Film Fest, via Popular Mechanics.
• Toughest times of all right now are where all eyes and hearts are focused, in Haiti.  We’ve recently joined The Open Sky Project online community, where we highlight and sell green goods that we’re passionate about.  For the past week, all profits at our shop and Open Sky are being donated to disaster relief efforts in Haiti.  check it out.
• Save the date – Feb 14-17 The Green Shows in NYC.  Can’t wait.
• Grab your swim suits – upcoming MiaGreen Feb 25 & 25 in Miami.  See you there.
• Now going on — Go Green Expo in LA January 22-24.  Eco exhibits galore, while Mariel Hemingway, Jen Boulden, Ed Begley, Jr. and many other experts dish on how to totally go green. (hey, it’s L.A.)  Our very own Cali Rose will be on the scene, bringing it…
• Are you familiar with SYRCL and it’s 8th Annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival?  Me neither.  But our friend Paul Smith of GreenSmith Consulting wrote a nice piece about all the goings on, via triplepundit.com
• Who Turned Out the Lights?  Your Guided Tour to the Energy Crisis by Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson is available in paperback via Amazon, or stop by your local library.  If you’re in need of a primer on this important topic, pick up a copy and get in the game.
• Just released yesterday, Creation, starring Jennifer Connelly as Emily Darwin and her real life husband, Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin.  Brainiacs are sexy.  Hoping to see it this weekend.  I just learned that they had 10 children, but sadly, 3 died at a very young age.
• MagnifEco reports on first-ever Eco Chic Fashion Show at UN headquarters in Geneva to promote biodiversity – For the fashion and beauty worlds – this was a big deal!
• via Metropolis Mag.com and sponsored by Herman Miller – (almost) last call for entries: Next Generation Design Competition: One Fix for the Future, focused on sustainability – enter by January 29, 2010. $10,000 prize + fame, of course.

That’s a wrap for now…keep sending those green, sustainable tips our way.

Love the look of these…simple, modern and sustainably made – when the folks at New Zealand’s Q-Speakers decided to go horizontal with their all-wood speaker design they consulted The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ sound engineer, Dave Levine,  “We want to make a gorgeous horizontal speaker system that doesn’t look like every other system, can we?  Like a water drop in a pool, the sound waves reflect off the metal base and thus Q, with Daves help, created what they call “reflective” audio.

Designed by Grier Govorko and hand-crafted in New Zealand from sustainably grown maple, each Q-speaker uses an internal 70W stereo Class D amplifier and a mono 30W  woofer amplifier.  No wasteful use of plastics by Q – the speaker boxes are solid and perched atop a powder coated aluminum base in white or charcoal.  The piano lacquer white speakers are made in toxin free MDF and hand lacquered.  These speakers aren’t cheap and are only available at specialty audio dealers – they’re designed with architectural attention to detail and built to last.  Now if I could only give them a listen.

We’ve edited a small collection of random pieces and odds ‘n ends from the ever-growing world of eco threads — some casual gear that caught our eye this week.

Here are the stars of next year’s Jersey Shore and I smell trouble — as Snookie says, “I want in.”  No really… this his and hers hemp wear is not only made out of hemp, but features herbal delight graphics.  These duds will definitely put you in the mood for some tropical fun…from Hawaii-based, Island Hemp Wear.

I’m a sucker for a cute drummer boy photo.  Supposedly inspired by Tom DeLonge of yesteryear’s Blink 182 (just kill me), check out Macbeth cruelty-free, Vegan sneaks @ modlife.com/macbeth.

4 Stroke Jeans is a NYC based organic denim house for guys and gals.  From real casual ripped up, just rolled out of bed looks to cleaner casual styles with graphic enhancements, (above, L – nice)!  What more could a hip urban-ite want?

Sticking with our tropical, warm weather theme…Billy & Lola bathing suits go all eco by taking pre-loved antique sheets and turning them into comfy swimwear.  From bikinis to pin-up styles, these are no strange bedfellows.  Makes me want to take the plunge. @ stylemelbourne.com

Our conservative-leaning Supreme Court has handed environmentalists, climate change legislation and Democratic candidates in the upcoming Congressional elections a live grenade.  If you had the feeling our guys in Washington were already bought and sold, it’s only going to get worse.

Yesterday’s court ruling removes many of the recent restrictions placed on campaign spending for corporations and their dirty step children, political action groups.  The major impact will be a spluge of fact-free and entertaining political attack ads and commercials, many from faceless political action groups financed by big corporations festooned with phony patriotic names like Americans for Liberty or the Campaign for Working Families, (which does anything but).

Some of you may recall attack ad classics like the compellingly racist “Willie Horton” ads used to defeat Democrat, Michael Dukakis, or the more recently rancid “Swift Boat” ads that sank Vietnam war hero John Kerry’s presidential run (why is it always guys from Massachusetts?).  Now, in addition to the anti-environment drivel spewing out of the Fox News pantheon of mentally challenged talking heads, we can look forward to television airwaves filled with crappy, political attack ads.

Corporations fighting:  EPA clean-ups, emissions caps, limits on land use, or food and drug legislation can now pour cash directly into ads supporting their candidate or cause — and we all know, that historically, the American public just eats-up a good ad campaign – witness the sales of questionable products ranging from Pet Rocks and Amish space heaters, to the horribe Snuggie – not to mention this week’s election of the “I love my truck” candidate from, once again, Massachusetts.   The environment is in for a rocky ride.  Maybe it’s time to put down the remote, turn off the home theater system and do something about it.

Always one to drum up some kind of controversy, last June, PETA launched ads promoting veganism featuring the grand daughter of Che Guevara.  Lydia Guevara (above) is featured in the ads wearing bandoliers of carrots and holding up a closed fist.  It is PETA’s first ad promoting vegetarian ideas in South America.

(above), China combated a national waste water issue with a series of surprising billboards.  The Green Family Youth Association of Environmental Protection placed the billboards at runoff sites to raise awareness over the amount of raw sewage being dumped into rivers and streams.  The campaign was named “ Best, Most Smart Ass Ads” by Earthfirst.

For something entirely more depressing, the Environmental Defense Fund launched a television ad with a new twist on the old “save the polar bears” shtick.

The World Wildlife Foundation sells a towel dispenser that illustrates deforestation in South America and a billboard that

uses an awning, (above), to create the effect of rising water.  They also show us a shocking and sad illustration of the logging industry and remind us not to drive too much.

In Columbia, environmental ad campaigns targeted those using air conditioners by plastering this billboard over a building, (above).  The text reads “El aire que enfria tu hogar, caliente el mundo” which means “The air that cools your home heats up the world.”

In Britain, Green Peace  jumped into shocking tv commercials as well, producing these cheeky ads that say “Until the sun shines out of your ass, use an energy-efficient lightbulb instead.”

Even clothing companies like Diesel are jumping onto the eco-conscious ad bandwagon.

Dress in Diesel and you’ll be ready for parrots in Venice, a desert at the Great Wall of China and New York City underwater, (3 ads just above).

In Denver, the summer water shortage, (August 2009), had the city’s ads, (2 just above), reminding its citizens to conserve water when maintaining their grass.

What can we learn from these depressing, humorous, shocking or downright silly ads?  First, that there is money in being green.  Diesel’s primary concern is not to stop global warming, it’s to sell clothes.  Don’t be fooled by companies who claim to be “green,” force them to back it up.  Second, we’ve become desensitized to the usual advertising about sustainability issues.  It’s no longer effective to tell us “hey, this is a problem and we need to do something about it.”  Instead, to get a response, advertisers have to shock us.

As educated consumers you can choose to support any of these campaigns, but the most important thing you can choose to do is educate those who still aren’t engaged.  The people who haven’t yet been sold on the need to reduce, reuse, recycle.  Sometimes it takes real people to get those community members involved.  Real people like you!

The carbon fiber and aluminum Eolic portable wind turbine is the concept of designers Marcos Madia, Sergio Ohashi and Juan Manuel Pantano.  The whole deal folds-up into an easily transportable, vacuum cleaner-like cylinder.  The telescoping tower lets it reach skyward to where the wind is strongest.

With natural disasters on everyone’s minds the idea of a relatively lightweight, portable windpower generator is very compelling.  Remember this is just a concept – but one that just might have legs.

via: gadgetsteria.com

It’s easy to see the green influence of her early years in China in designer Linda Wong’s stylish, eco-conscious handbag collection.  Story goes — she had a “waste not” attitude and her high school mates nicknamed her “the bag police” when it came to using plastic shopping bags.  Wong packed her bags and moved to the U.S. where she sharpened her design chops with stints at Cole Haan and Fila.

And in the fall of 2008 she debuted her signature line, Canopy Verde.

The kickoff collection is thoughtfully ecofashioned from the inside – out through the use of:  organic cotton and bamboo blend fabrics, chrome-free leather, OEKO-TEX 100 certified dyes, and chemical free embroidery.  All materials utilized are locally sourced, improving environmental practices in her China-based, factory of choice.  With weekend bags, totes, bowler bags and clutches, the collection serves any daytime outing or evening fling.

I could see doing the shuffle with the dandelion duffle, ($169).

Discarded clear walnut cut-offs form the raw materials of this cool-looking table created by the Saftiuk Conservatory.

This piece combines the best elements of sustainable construction and eye-catching design.  Featured at Voos Furniture‘s Brooklyn showroom.

• Proofreader wanted…typos, transpositions and another opportunity for global warming naysayers to have a fu#*fest. UN Climate Report Riddled With Errors on Glaciers – yahoo! news
• Bee Decline Linked to Failing Biodiversity - bbc
• What does the new truck-driving senator from Massachusetts think? U.S. Says Wind Could Power 20 Percent of Eastern Grid – reuters
• I don’t believe the vessel was an ark…Animals Populated Madagascar by Rafting There – sciendedaily
• What’s that saying about closing the barn door after the horses leave? U.S. Moves to Halt Snake ‘Invasion’ – msnbc
• A hard working thief…PA Police Puzzled After Thief Steals Bales of Hay – myway