McConaughey Moos, Elton Needles, And Charlize Tears
Celebs find many ways to be green, good and giving
By Tim Gaskin
July 21 | archive | subscribe
InStyle Magazine lists their 12 Greenest Hollywood Couples online, which include Adrian Grenier and Isabel Lucas; Hayden Christensen, and Rachel Bilson; Toby Maguire and jewelry designer wife Jennifer Meyer who have a no-meat home; laid-back couple Keira Knightley and Rupert Friend who shop with reusable bags at their local farmer's market; funnycouple Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy who rally behind autistic causes; Jessica Alba and Cash Warren who plan to raise their newborn daughter in a green household; and staunch vegetarians Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia.
Elton John’s AIDS Foundation Supports Needle Exchange. Volunteers from the organization set up shop all over NYC with a massive supply of clean needles to offer hepatitis-screening, vaccines, HIV testing and treatment programs. Elton John says, “I have lost many dear friends to this terrible disease. In the mid-1980s, I began channeling my grief into efforts to help raise money for the pioneering charitable organizations that formed during those dark, grim years to fund AIDS research and provide vital services to people with HIV/AIDS.”
The green pope says world's resources are being squandered in the pursuit of "insatiable consumption," Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday in a speech urging followers to care more for the environment and reconnect with the principle of peace.
KFC Canada goes vegan by offering “unchicken” as a menu item at its Canadian chains. PETA will now call off its Kentucky Fried Cruelty barrage in Canada, which had enjoyed the boost of celebrity endorsements from native Canadians Pamela Anderson and Ryan Gosling. Now the chain is pledging to buy chickens only from suppliers who use the least cruel form of poultry slaughter ever developed, gas.
“Beef. It’s what’s for dinner,” says Matthew McConaughey who has taken a gig promoting beef for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA); a move likely to aggravate animal rights group PETA.
“Growing up in South Africa you learn at an early age that you should have respect for wildlife. I cried the first time I went to a zoo, because I grew up with wildlife in their natural habitat,” said Charlize Theron.
Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years. He likened his challenge to Kennedy's pledge in May 1961 to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
To meet his 10-year goal, Gore said nuclear energy output would continue at current levels while the nation dramatically increases its use of solar, wind, geothermal and so-called clean coal energy.
"I have never seen an opportunity for the country like the one that's emerging now," Gore said and later added, “Sustained addiction to oil also will place the nation at the mercy of oil-producing regimes.”
Democratic candidate Barack Obama agrees with the former Vice President. “For decades, Al Gore has challenged the skeptics in Washington on climate change and awakened the conscience of a nation to the urgency of this threat. I strongly agree with Vice President Gore that we cannot drill our way to energy independence, but must fast-track investments in renewable sources of energy like solar power, wind power and advanced biofuels, and those are the investments I will make as President. It’s a strategy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and cannot be outsourced, and one that will leave our children a world that is cleaner and safer.”