Yesterday morning Jessica Biel, Pete Wentz and Alexandra Cousteau announced  that they would be participating in Live Earth’s Run for Water – a global solutions-based initiative that will feature a series of 6km runs/walks (the average distance children and women walk to access water) to shed light on the global water crisis.

The Run For Water “will bring people together around the world, raising awareness about the sources and consequences of the water crisis, locally and globally,” said Alexandra Cousteau.

The event will kick off Earth Week on April 18, 2010 and will include six kilometer races, concerts, and water-saving related activities to be held in cities around the world, including Buenos Aires, Singapore, Cape Town, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Mexico City, New York, and Rio de Janeiro.

Oddly, the event is being sponsored by Dow Chemical Company — the company responsible for the 1984 Bhopal, India disaster where some 15,000 people died when a company pesticide tank leaked. In June, 27 members of Congress wrote Dow, requesting they clean up the Bhopal water and soil, and to “immediately” meet survivors’ demands for medical and economic rehabilitation. Is this just a clever PR move or is Dow trying to take steps in the right direction? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Check out the video below to learn more about the campaign.

Jessica Biel has announced that she will be joining Isabel Lucas and Lupe Fiasco in scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro this January to help raise awareness for clean water. The expedition is the brainchild of singer and producer Kenna; whose own father suffered from waterborne diseases as a child in Ethiopia.

Back in April, it was Biel’s boyfriend, singer Justin Timberlake, who first announced the project in an interview with GQ. “I’ve been training four times a week to get my VO2 [oxygen consumption] levels up to expand my lungs,” Timberlake said. “We’ll climb for a week straight, carrying 30 pounds on our backs. It’s going to be intense.” Unless something has changed, we assume he’s still connected with the effort — but representatives for the campaign are reportedly not confirming anything one way or another.

Said Biel in a statement announcing her participation, “This is a basic human necessity that needs to be addressed now. I’m proud to help any way I can in order to raise awareness toward the life-threatening clean water crisis happening not only in Africa but around the world.”

Apparently, more celebrities are set to be announced in the coming weeks. You can check out the slick official site for the “Summit on the Summit” campaign — and get involved –  by clicking here.

This coming October in Los Angeles, the first-annual Noble Awards will take place honoring charities and the celebrities that support them. Ten non-profit charity organizations will be honored during the Noble Awards ceremony; including The Art of Elysium, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, DoSomething.org and The Epilepsy Foundation.

According to the official (and lite-on-details) website, the show will blend live musical entertainment with celebrity appearances; providing “an international platform to bring awareness of non-profits and their causes to the greater public.” Looktothestars.org drops some tidbits that Alicia Keys and Heroes’ Greg Grunberg will be involved — as well as the interesting note that Antonia Banderas designed the NOBLE award.

We have no official list as of yet which celebrities will be honored, but the website appears to hint at Jessica Biel and Jamie Lee Curtis getting some love. The show will run October 18th, so look for more right here as we get it.

In the video PSA, the celebrities share their thoughts on charity, activism and inspiration. Biel says:

“With all the challenges we’re facing today, it’s more important than ever to get involved, to be an active participant in your life and your world. It all happens with little pieces. Little pieces coming together really creates big change.”

While we love our celebs here at Ecorazzi, we’re also huge fans of everyday folks putting on those work boots and getting involved!

If you’d like to share your talents with the community, visit VolunteerMatch.com and find a project that feels groovy in your soul!

Check out the PSA below!

A source said: “Jessica made Justin this really disgusting meal. He didn’t like it, so when she went out to run some errands he tried to slip the remaining food to Jessica’s Pit Bull Terrier Tina. But as soon as Tina had eaten it, she threw up! When Jessica got back, she asked Justin what he thought of the food and he told her it was delicious. But he finally confessed and she found the congealed food in a pile by Tina’s water bowl.” Oh sick!!

Rumor has it that Justin is planning to ask Jessica for her hand in marriage sometime in the near future. Dude, a little advice: either build up that digestive system or get ready for a lifetime of cooking. Then again they’re both loaded. 20 dollars says they have a live in personal chef by the end of week one. At least I hope they do for the sake of their pets.

The film, for those who missed it the first go around, is about a man’s experience after meeting a dog that changes his life. After seeing the trailer, the short seems to show a man’s first hand encounter with animal testing. It looks exactly as Miss Biel has described it; evocative. It also seems a pretty powerful film, especially for only being thirty minutes in length.

And now she’s announced to MySpace that it will be coming to a few festivals this August!

Where?

Hollyshorts Film Festival – August 7th in LA
Rhode Island International Film Festival – August 8th
Palm Springs International Film Festival – August 23rd

Follow the above links to go to the festival’s website for more information and to order tickets.

Has the greening influence of his ex-girlfriend uber-eco Cameron Diaz faded for Justin Timberlake? He and Jessica Biel were seen leaving a nightclub in L.A. driving off in this handsome Jeep Rubicon which gets an ugly 15 miles per gallon! I know they’re both big time jocks, and this a tough looking 4×4, but how often is he needing to scramble over a boulder?

Justin is ranked #10 in a list of celebrities owning the least eco-friendly fleet of cars in the world! I guess the Jeep is a step up from the 10mpg Bentley he usually rolls in.

When we know better, we do better…right? You’d think…Here’s a few 2007 quotes from the fleet-footed dancer excerpted from The Green Book:

“And it all goes back to the environment, and our relationship to it, and what we can do to help ourselves.”

“I hadn’t really thought about how much you emit on tour, how much all those trucks emit. In your mind, you simply don”t think about all that pollution.”

“Like I said, there’s so much. I wanted to save the world in the palm of my hand.”

It’s time to bring sexy back…in a hybrid.

When I first heard that model Gisele Bündchen was getting behind a campaign to donate money to help protect the Amazon river system, I thought ‘Ok, there’s a nice one-time gesture.’ I’m so happy to be proven wrong.

Turns out, Gisele is more than just giving away a portion of sales from her new line of shoes to the cause — she’s also blogging about it! According to Treehugger, “she and a group of correspondents in Brazil inform about environmental maters and share pictures and videos.” Much like Jessica Biel, Gisele is jumping into the digital realm to educate and inspire people to take action.

Jump on over to her site, and you’ll first be greeted by the model dressed in a skimpy dress and sitting in the trees. Fine by me. You can then choose to read the articles either in Portuguese and English — though it appears not everything translates.

When the site launched, Gisele sent this message out to readers:

“For some time I’ve been trying to find a way to talk about issues that are of interest to me and that I think of interest for you too, such as out planet and what we can do to take care of it. There are many people who are going to join us and post their ideas to this blog and I would like you to participate as well, to hear your ideas and what you think it’s important for us to post on it.”

Groovy, we’ll add her to our sidebar.

Gisele’s site via Huffington Post

From her first entry,

“Anyway, not only do I feel cooler being an official blogger, but I’m also realizing that this is a perfect place to share some projects that I’m working on that I’m really excited about. I’m trying on the producer cap with my friend, Michelle, with our production company Iron Ocean Films. We made a thirty minute short last year, called Hole in the Paper Sky about a man’s experience after meeting a dog that changes his life. I think it’s a really evocative, beautiful film, and it has won an award at all four festivals where it has screened. I’ll put up a trailer as soon as I can figure out how to do that:) I hope that animal lovers will be moved by this film as well because it has an animal rights element to it, which I’m a huge advocate for. I’m actually sitting here with my dog, Tina. She’s not really into blogging.”

Back in May, Jessica started an online social network for good with her father called “Make The Difference“. Their goal is to increase the “visibility of nonprofit organizations by empowering potential donors to search, select and fund these organizations”. In her profile on MySpace, Jessica also champions her environmental passions and hopes to “make a positive impact on the planet.”

Has anyone seen Hole in the Paper Sky? If the soundtrack preview is any indication, I’m going to be bawling my eyes out after this one.

[Update] Yup, get the tissues ready. Here’s a link to the trailer.

“MTDN increases the visibility of nonprofit organizations by empowering potential donors to search, select and fund these organizations’ specific “Wishes” and then see the results of their giving. Nonprofits can join MTDN for free and they get to keep 100 percent of all donations collected through MTDN.”

Each registered organization receives a “powerful, eye-catching multi-media profile including pictures, videos and blogs.” Jessica Biel is thrilled that the site is finally ready, citing inspiration for the idea from a fan that suffered from muscular dystrophy. In her own words,

“I co-founded Make the Difference with my father after an experience I had meeting a 23- year-old fan who spent over 15 years in a wheelchair due to the devastating effects of muscular dystrophy. Timmy and his family never ceased to amaze me with their courage and fortitude in the face of this fatal condition. As a way to help, I highlighted this family on my professional website, provided a little support for them, and encouraged others to help, if they could. Timmy has since passed away, but knowing him and his family had a profound effect on me and helped me realize I really could make a difference in the world. I will be forever grateful that I knew Timmy – he is the inspiration behind Make the Difference Network!”

You can read Jessica’s profile here. Ready to get involved? Jump here!

via Max Gladwell