ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

June 20th 2009

Gore And Friends Make Their Case For Dot Eco Domain

Filed under: green and famous, web — Michael Andre d'Estries @ 8:17 pm

Al Gore and a group of other environmental notables are making a hard push to see the creation of a “.eco” top-level domain added to those already present like .com, .net, org, and .edu. Down in Syndey, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is having their annual conference, and the Dot Eco LLC group has brought a short film with them promoting the creation of the new domain.

Granted, calling this a “film” might be a little generous. It’s more a collection of talking heads saying why the domain would be great for the world. Gore makes the first appearance in the short (watch it here) which also includes Jim Moriarty, CEO of Surfrider Foundation, director Davis Guggenheim, Sierra Club’s Carl Pope, Physics Professor Richard Muller, and Oceanic Engineer Jim Dufour.

Read the rest of this entry »

June 17th 2009

Al Gore Passes One Million Twitter Followers, Says “Wow”

Filed under: web — Michael Andre d'Estries @ 3:13 pm

Al Gore has done it.

The former Vice-President passed the one million mark in Twitter followers earlier this morning; placing him in such fine company as Ashton Kutcher, Oprah, John Mayer, and Britney Spears.

Gore was in a sprint to the finish against none other than gossip blogger Perez Hilton — who, as of this writing, was about 11,000 away from a million. The regularly reserved tweeter, Gore broke out with “So close to 1,000,000 followers. Help put me over the top.” last night and then gushed “Wow 1,000,000 followers, thank you.” after reaching the milestone. We’re expecting the next tweet to be something like “@PerezHilton, how do u like them apples beyotch?”

Congrats to @algore! If you would like to help propel us to .010% of Gore’s following, please jump here to drfit with Ecorazzi through the Twitterverse.

June 15th 2009

It’s Al Gore VS Perez Hilton In Race To One Million Twitter Followers

Filed under: web — Michael Andre d'Estries @ 2:24 pm

Ever since Oprah and Ashton Kutcher turned the media spotlight on Twitter, a Precambrian explosion of sorts has occurred on the social media site, drastically increasing the number of followers for some notable names. Al Gore’s dramatic rise in peeps probably shows off this trend better than most. Back in November, the former VP had just 22,000 followers. Today, Gore is standing at around 982,000 — and growing. In the last week alone, he’s added over 30,000 followers.

Hot on his heels, however, is none other than Perez Hilton. The celebrity blogger has just over 972,000 followers. But that’s just about where the similarities end. Gore uses Twitter sparingly — having updated his tweets a measly 38 times over the last seven months. True to form, Hilton has updated more than 4,500 times in the last five months.

Who will make it to one million followers first? Sure, this contest lacks the amusing bite that Kutcher and CNN injected with their earlier competition, but we’ll be watching regardless. Look for TheOnion — with 959,000 followers — to play spolier.

April 21st 2009

Prince Charles Pulls An Al Gore: Set To Release Book And Movie On Environment

Filed under: books, film-tv, movies — Michael Andre d'Estries @ 12:50 pm

Prince Charles is tearing a page out of Al Gore’s green book with a one-two punch book and documentary warning of the negative impact big businesses are having on the environment. The 60-year-old royal is calling the project “Harmony” and has waived his usual author’s fee in favor of royalties going towards his charity.

The prince said: “I believe that true sustainability depends fundamentally upon us shifting our perception and widening our focus, so that we understand, again, that we have a sacred duty of stewardship of the natural order of things. In some of our actions we now behave as if we were masters of nature and, in others, as mere bystanders. If we could rediscover that sense of harmony - that sense of being a part of, rather than apart from nature, we would perhaps be less likely to see the world as some sort of gigantic production system, capable of ever-increasing outputs for our benefit - at no cost.”

Charles will team up with former director of green charity Friends of the Earth Tony Juniper to help create the book and film. Publisher HarperCollins says the prince’s book will argue humans have become dangerously disconnected from nature through their relentless pursuit of economic growth and technological progress. It’s expected to draw on Charles’ experience as an organic farmer, with scenes in the documentary to be filmed on his Highgrove estate.

April 6th 2009

Current TV’s Max And Jason To “POWER” New Green Doc

...and you can follow them every step of the way here on the razz.

Filed under: ecorazzi exclusive, film-tv, green and famous, movies — Michael Andre d'Estries @ 2:06 pm

If you’re a fan of Current TV, you probably know Max Lugavere and Jason Silva. The two of have become the public faces of the Emmy-award winning TV network since being asked to help start things up roughly four years ago. As both producers and hosts (they recently even landed their own late-night talk show on the network), they’ve explored a myriad of topics and done some pretty heavy investigative journalism. They’ve also had a hell of a lot of fun — guest-hosting E! Television specials, hitting magazine covers, and even starring in GAP’s Fall 2008 ad campaign.

Now, they’re about to launch their most ambitious project to date: a new environmental documentary called Power. The media-labeled “Gore Boys” hope to present a different type of green film — one that focuses less on the doom and gloom and instead explores the solutions currently available to make our world more energy independent and efficient. They’ve teamed up with director Hunter Richards, as well as the incredible talent over at Digital Domain, to help make the entire vision a stunning experience on screen.

The really cool thing? They’re just getting started with filming and production of this feature film and want to share the entire experience here on Ecorazzi. So if you’ve ever been curious about how a documentary of this massive scale comes together, stick around — this is going to be one hell of a ride.

We recently chatted with Max and Jason about their lives at Current, the new film, and where things currently stand with regards to production. Check it out after the jump:

Click here to read our interview with Jason and Max…

April 1st 2009

Al Gore Announces New Line Of Organic Vegan Frozen Foods

Filed under: food & drink — Michael Andre d'Estries @ 12:01 am

Al Gore’s focus on making the world aware of the climate crisis has permeated nearly every media outlet with great success. Now it appears that the Nobel Prize winner is focusing his attention on Americans’ dinner plates.

Sources close to the the former Vice-President dropped the news that Gore is set to release a new line of 100% organic vegan frozen foods. While the branding is still under development (see the artist’s mock up above), a summer release date with four initial meals is being considered. “Al has been inspired by what the Linda McCartney brand has done for the vegetarian frozen foods scene — and firmly believes that he can deliver an American-styled version,” said one source. “He’s especially eager to have his brand hit the shelves before Heather Mills’ does.”

Under consideration for early release are: “Al Gore’s Vegan Nubs”, “Al Gore’s Vegan Pizza Rolls”, “Al Gore’s Soy Poppers” and “Al Gore’s Vegan Buffalo Fingers”. All profits from the new venture will benefit the Alliance for Climate  Protection.

Still unclear is whether Gore will actually embrace the vegan lifestyle promoted on his boxes. With factory farming considered a major contributor to C02 emissions, Gore has received flak (especially from PETA) for not embracing a plant-based diet. “He’s still not even vegetarian, but figures these products might go a long way to convincing others it’s the right thing to do,” continued the source. “At the end of the day, it’s the message that matters.”

It’s worth noting that today is April 1st.

March 27th 2009

Obama Recruits Gore’s ‘Alliance’ CEO, Cathy Zoi

Filed under: politics — Michael Andre d'Estries @ 5:08 pm

We were thrilled a few weeks back when President Barack Obama tapped Van Jones to join his administration and help promote the green jobs scene. Now, another high-profile force in the green world is joining Team Obama — Cathy Zoi, CEO of Al Gore’s non-profit, the Alliance For Climate Change Protection.

Zoi has been nominated by the President to serve as Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy in the Department of Energy. Taking over for her back at ACCP will be Maggie Fox.

“I have been both honored and humbled to work with the Alliance and the many passionate people, starting with the Vice President, who continue to guide this smart, effective campaign to address global warming,” Zoi said. “This year, we have an enormous opportunity to affect change in Washington – change that will bolster the new energy economy and help us solve our economic and climate crises at the same time. While I am sad to be leaving the Alliance, I am grateful to President Obama for this opportunity to serve and continue our nation’s transition to a clean energy economy.”

Congratulations to Cathy! We’re excited to see yet another passionate and experienced “green” force join Team Obama. Best of luck in pushing us towards a more sustainable future.

March 24th 2009

Our Choice: Al Gore Set To Publish Sequel Book To An Inconvenient Truth

Filed under: books — Michael Andre d'Estries @ 4:37 pm

In April of last year, The UK Sun quoted Al Gore as saying that a sequel to his hit An Inconvenient Truth was indeed in the works. Left to the imagination was whether Gore meant a film or book was coming first. Well, his blog cleared all that up today with a press release announcing his new book Our Choice — described as “picking up where An Inconvenient Truth left off”. From the release,

Our Choice utilizes Mr. Gore’s forty years of experience as a student, policymaker, author, filmmaker, entrepreneur and activist to comprehensively describe the real solutions to global warming. A co-recipient of the Nobel Peace prize in 2007 for his environmental work, Mr. Gore continues to make sense of the pressing issues we face and Our Choice will unquestionably inspire and rally those ready to fight for solutions that were deemed impossible only a short time ago.

In terms of green cred, it comes fully loaded: 100% recycled paper, locally produced and sourced editions, low VOC inks, carbon neutral, and 100% of the proceeds will go towards the Alliance for Climate Protection. Said Vice President Gore, “An Inconvenient Truth reached millions of people with the message that the climate crisis is threatening the future of human civilization and that it must and can be solved. Now that the need for urgent action is even clearer with the alarming new findings of the last three years, it is time for a comprehensive global plan that actually solves the climate crisis. Our Choice will answer that call.”

In terms of a movie, based on the revamped and higher-quality slides we witnessed on Capital Hill in January from Gore, a new sequel doc sounds probable.

Look for Our Choice to hit bookstores on November 3, 2009.

March 5th 2009

Al Gore Wants The Web To Have .ECO Domains

Filed under: web — Michael Andre d'Estries @ 12:53 pm

Just when you think the world couldn’t possibly need another top-level domain (.tv, .biz, .travel, etc.), along come Al Gore and friends to ask for another.

A company called Dot Eco LLC is petitioning for the creation of the .eco top level domain through the ICANN gTLD application process. The advisory board for the group includes includes Davis Guggenheim (director of An Inconvenient Truth), Roger Moore (renowned actor and Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF), Richard Muller (Author of Physics for Future Presidents and contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and Jim Dufour of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Joining this effort is Al Gore and his non-profit, the Alliance for Climate Protection.

On one level, I can kind of see where having .eco domains would be beneficial to companies, individuals, etc. seeking to highlight their environmental initaitives and efforts. On the flip, however, this means that every already established green entity out there is going to want to fork out whatever costly yearly charge is assigned to this .eco domain to retain branding. I don’t neccessarily see how creating this domain is truly something we need to be focusing on. The web seems plenty healthy without it. What do you think?

[Update: Okay, here's an interesting aspect of the .eco domain. From the website, "Profits from registration fees will be used to fund scientific initiatives and research in climate change, ocean analysis, economic policy, and other environmentally related areas." Still, does this justify its creation?]

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February 26th 2009

Al Gore Twitter Update: 183,000 Followers, 12 Updates

Filed under: web — Michael Andre d'Estries @ 10:57 am

Back in late November, we bemoaned Al Gore’s lack of Twitter updates compared to the massive following he had with just over 22,000 people. Since then, his popularity has absolutely exploded — rising to over 183,000 followers with only 12 updates. That’s about 23,000 followers per update since November!

The people are flocking, but they’re obviously not along for the ride because the former Vice-President has a lot to say!

This meteoric rise in popularity places Gore in the Top Ten on Twitter — alongside such folks as Britney Spears, Barack Obama, and The NY Times.

As I said before, I really hope Gore takes advantage of this massive following to point out green ideas, products, websites, or initiatives. I’m not expecting him to Tweet everyday, but such power in the social networking world can definitely be used for good!

(You can follow Ecorazzi’s twitter page — and help us reach Gore’s number by the time we’re 90 — here.)