Fan Fare

from Environment Forum:

Brad Pitt, Matt Damon give krill a star turn

There are no small parts, only small actors, or so the old show-biz saying goes. Now there are big stars -- Matt Damon and Brad Pitt -- playing two of the smallest parts ever. In a far cry from "Ocean's Eleven" (and 12 and 13) they're lending their voices to a pair of krill, small shrimp-like creatures that form the base of the Antarctic food web.

Pitt and Damon play Will and Bill, the krill, in "Happy Feet Two," the sequel to the 2006 dancing-penguins animated feature. Both films have conservation themes. The latest movie  opens  in mid-November.

These Hollywood names might help shine a spotlight on krill at a time when the species is under pressure, according to the Pew Environment Group. An international meeting under way now in Hobart, Tasmania, is expected to consider more protection for these tiny animals, which penguins, seals and whales depend on to survive.

Increasing demand for krill as feed for industrially farmed fish and for nutritional supplements has pushed the krill fishery beyond a sustainable level, the conservation group said in a statement. Krill fishing in some areas could outpace efforts to protect the well-known animals that rely on it.

“Existing efforts to regulate krill catch must be sustained and enforced, so that animals such as penguins and seals are not competing against industrial fishing vessels just to survive,” said Gerry Leape, a senior officer at the Pew group.

New fishing technologies enable fleets from multiple countries process krill continuously, bringing in much higher catches than a decade ago. An accelerating loss of sea ice that provides essential habitat for krill adds to the problem and threatens to deplete stocks in key feeding areas for penguins, seals and whales.

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources is meeting in Tasmania from October 24 through November 4, and the Pew Environment Group is asking delegates to the commission to require observers on all krill-fishing vessels, set up a dedicated fund to monitor krill predators, and maintain smaller divisions of the ocean to manage krill to prevent local depletion that will harm penguins and other animals.

Berlinale goes green…sort of

The Berlin Film Festival used to distribute tonnes of press releases, media kits, brochures and other information from filmmakers trying to get the attention of thousands of journalists every day, filling some 1,500 cubby-hole media mailboxes with piles of paper that few ever needed or read.

That all changed this year when Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick decided to abolish the paper practice and take a few other fledgling steps to protect the environment – such as switching lighting systems on the red carpet to use more energy efficient lights and using hydrogen-powered cars to shuttle celebrities to and fro.

“I’m a practising greenie,” Kosslick told a group of foreign journalists recently. “We decided to do away with the press mailboxes because they’re outdated and waste a lot of paper. Every day it seemed like paper the equivalent of 5 hectares of Brazilian rain forest was being distributed and most of it just thrown away. We had to dispose of all that paper in the evening. It just wasn’t right.”

Kosslick, who lives in a country where fears of climate change run high and protecting the environment is a mainstream political issue, admits the festival has a long way to go still and tried to downplay any notion that the festival was putting a big emphasis on going green.

“We need a lot of electricity on the red carpet, for instance, because it has to be well-lit,” he said. “This year we’re using some low-voltage lamps to try to save some energy.” Kosslick, who has been running the festival for the last decade,  said the pro-environment changes at the festival were the result of the work of many of the filmmakers themselves.

“We couldn’t go on showing films that involve making the world a better place and then not do anything in that regard ourself,” he said.

Now if he could only get some of the celebrities and movie moguls to fly on commercial flights – or take the train — rather than arrive in private jets.

from Environment Forum:

Hollywood’s greenest stars honor U.S. environmental group

Dozens of the world's top movie, television and music stars showed off their green cred on Saturday night at a Hollywood-style fundraiser honoring the Natural Resource Defense Council's 20 years in Southern California.

The event at Beverly Hills' Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel was a who's who of Hollywood environmentalists, including actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Redford, and Laurie David, a global warming activist and producer of the Al Gore movie "An Inconvenient Truth." All three are trustees of the NRDC's Southern California office. In 2003, the group even dedicated its new building to Redford.

It's no secret that the environment and climate change is a hot cause in Hollywood, and it's hard to imagine another social issue drawing as much star power to one event. The party also raised a hefty $2 million.

"Mad Men" star Jon Hamm and designer Tom Ford also attended the party, which was hosted by "Seinfeld" star Julia Louis-Dreyfus and included a musical performance by Grammy-winning rockers Maroon 5. Actress Rosanna Arquette deejayed the after party.

On stage, Redford recalled why he joined the NRDC in the 1970's, saying it was "because they had the power to sue."

Many attendees echoed that refrain throughout the night, with Louis-Dreyfus bluntly stating: "I love lawsuits."

The evening also included a list of the group's legal victories in the region, including helping to stop inadequately treated sewage from being dumped into the Santa Monica Bay and testing children for lead poisoning in the 1990s. More recently, NRDC and other environmental groups last year reached a deal with land holder Tejon Ranch to permanently protect 240,000 acres of California land from development.