A few serious Hollywood A-listers are helping to honor Deepak Chopra and Arianna Huffington at Oceana’s 2009 Partners Awards Gala on November 20th.

The 2009 Oceana Partners Award Gala honors those individuals who have made outstanding contributions through their personal commitment to the cause of protecting and conserving the environment. We likey!

Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart will host the special evening with stars like Morgan Freeman, Jeff Goldblum, Trudie Styler, Sting, Robert Redford, Ron Howard, Ted Danson and Sam Waterson slated to attend.

The event will take place at the private residence of Keri Selig and Keith Addis in Los Angeles, CA. To find out more, visit PartnersAward.org!

Today is Blog Action Day 2009 — and the topic that has more than 9,000 blogs in 150 countries with more than 12 million readers buzzing is climate change. The goal is to help facilitate discussion on the issue and get the world ready for the incredibly important Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December. It is there that world leaders hope to come to an agreement on a new climate treaty as a successor to the Kyoto protocol.

Obviously, our focus is on those in the entertainment industry helping to draw attention to this historic event. With that in mind, we’ve put together those individuals or groups recently involved in pushing for tough greenhouse gas emissions limits — and for a successful outcome in Copenhagen. Check it out below the fold:

1. Cate Blanchett

Blanchett has been involved in promoting tough environmental policies down under in Australia for many years now. Most recently, she appeared in Copenhagen in May of this year at the World Business Summit on Climate Change. The actress addressed business leaders, urging them to decrease their carbon emissions and increase sustainable practices. “Political failure at Copenhagen in December is quite simply unacceptable and this powerful room must play a major role in preventing this failure,” she said. “Australia’s best climate scientists have been warning us that we’ll face many more catastrophic fire days in south-east Australia unless the world acts to dramatically cut greenhouse pollution.” [Read more...]

2. Sting

Though Sting’s personal carbon footprint regularly comes under scrutiny, the famous singer is backing Prince Charles’ Rainforests Project — which seeks to limit deforestation and buy the world time to move to a low-carbon economy. Ahead of the Copenhagen Talks, Sting has lent his iconic “Message in a Bottle” song to the campaign — sending a different kind of SOS to the world. [Watch/Read more...]

3. Hugh Jackman

We knew Hugh Jackman was into green filmmaking, but 2008’s World’s Sexiest Man Alive, surprised even us by opening up NYC Climate Week and urging support for a strong treaty in Copenhagen. “I hope to be a voice for the billion people in developing countries who will be the hardest hit by changing weather patterns, by the droughts and floods that destroy their crops and threaten their food security,” Jackman said in a statement. “Climate Week NYC provides an ideal forum to help underscore the urgency for world leaders to secure and fund an ambitious global climate change deal in Copenhagen that is effective, fair and binding.” [Watch/Read more...]

4. Duran Duran, Milla Jovovich, Melanie Laurent, Others | “Beds Are Burning” Remake Climate Song

As part of the International “TckTckTck” Climate Change Campaign, many celebrities, politicians, and old-school bands came together to record a cover of the classic ’80s hit “Bed are Burning”. The effort, which now includes a petition with over 2 million signatures, is a direct challenge to the nations involved in the Copenhagen talks to come to a fair and binding deal.

5. Don Cheadle

As part of the UN-led 2009 Seal The Deal! campaign, Don Cheadle appears in a series of PSAs urging action this December in Copenhagen. The effort, like those above, is meant to galvanize and rally support for strong action. The official website also includes a petition to sign to present to leaders. [Watch...]

Rock legend Sting has become the latest celebrity to sign on to Prince Charles’ Rainforests Project — and in celebration of its 30th Anniversary, he’s lending his iconic “Message in a Bottle” tune to the cause. “Thirty years ago, I wrote ‘Message in a Bottle,’” he says. “Today, I’m joining forces with His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and many others supporting The Prince’s Rainforests Project to send an SOS to the world. Sending your SOS is easy, and can help create the climate for change. If there is one thing you do today, make it this.”

To coincide, Prince Charles has also released a new video urging support for the campaign ahead of the Copenhagen climate talks in December. “Rainforests are utterly essential in our fight against climate change,” he says. “They absorb nearly a fifth of all our carbon emissions and yet they are being destroyed at the rate of a football pitch every four seconds. To solve the problem, we have to find ways to ensure the trees become more valuable alive than dead so there is no incentive to cut them down.”

Check out Sting’s video below — which also includes a recap of the major players involved, and a thumping re-mixed live version of “Message in a Bottle”. All in all, not a bad way to start the morning.

In an attempt to create a little dialog from within, Trudie Styler has reached out to the more than 6,000 employees of Chevron living in the San Francisco Bay area and personally invited them to see the new documentary CRUDE for free. The movie, was the highest grossing film per-screen in the US last week, tells the story of the 30,000 Amazon rainforest dwellers facing down the 5th largest corporation in the world for the dumping of 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater and abandoning over 900 unlined crude oil pits in the midst of rainforest communities.

In her invitation, Ms. Styler explained the impact of her experiences visiting Ecuadorian rainforest communities living with oil pollution and contaminated drinking water. “You may know me as Sting’s wife, and you may know of my work for the environment and human rights. You may also have heard my name mentioned as one of the celebrities speaking out in support of the 30,000 Ecuadorean citizens who are pursuing Chevron to clean up the pollution the company left behind in their homeland,” wrote Ms. Styler in her letter to the Chevron employees. “Many people will assume that you and I must be on different sides of the fence on this issue. But I don’t believe that. I’m willing to bet that you and I, and all of your colleagues, agree that everyone has the fundamental right to the life-supporting elements of clean air and clean water…I’d like to give you the opportunity to make up your own mind about what has been going on in Ecuador, and to consider how justice can be achieved for the people suffering there. I’d like to invite you to the movies.”

Should be interesting to see if any employees actually take Styler up on the offer. Granted, we’re not sure many would admit to it anyways. To find out more about the film and where it might be playing near you, jump here.

But alas, it’s true. The environmental activist, who is regularly criticized for her lavish use of private jets, helicopters, and just about anything else barring mass transportation, hopes each DVD will reflect her and Sting’s “philosophy on eco-friendly living”. It’s currently being filmed on location at the couple’s Tuscan Villa and will combine elements of yoga, Pilates and ballet with traditional exercises by celebrity fitness trainer James D’Silva. From the release,

“Bonus material will include a tour of Il Palagio’s kitchen and gardens. More than 70% of the food at Il Palagio comes from the estate itself, including products that are sold to the public such as honey, olive oil, fruit, vegetables, Tuscan salami and, coming in 2010, wine. Additionally, there is a behind-the-scenes look at how Il Palagio uses the surrounding land to create a self-sustaining and eco-friendly house that runs on bio fuels. And lastly, a lifestyle piece about organic wine production, the conversion of estate lands into biodynamic vineyards, and the story behind Sister Moon, the couple’s organic wine label.”

Obviously, these will probably sell like crazy — which is a good thing at least for charity. A percentage of profits will go towards the Unicef Ecuador Water Project, which provides rainwater collection and filtration tanks to communities in the Ecuador rainforest.

Photo credit: PR Photos

In a new interview with the UK Guardian

On seeing the destruction of communities and nature at the hands of oil company Chevron:

“What you see in this area is mile upon mile of oil pipes and very broken-down buildings. The light has gone out of the people’s eyes. What I saw on the faces of the mothers is that they’re terrified that the water they give their children, day in, day out, is going to poison them and they’ve got good reason. There’s a lot of kids who’ve got leukaemia, lot of kids with cancer. It’s nothing for mothers to bring in their eight week babies just covered from head to foot in really livid rashes from the contaminants in the water … These are people who, for 35 years, have watched so many of their people die that they’re broken. Their day-to-day living is disastrous. They’ve seen a lot of death.”

On using carbon offsets:

“I don’t believe in carbon offsetting. Planting 60 trees so you don’t have to say your Hail Marys that night? It’s a crock. We should be looking at the bigger picture. It’s all very well going around driving our Priuses but we have to look to our governments to make us less reliant on oil.”

On the cost of organic food and the current economic downturn’s impact on consumer spending:

“I think organics will get hit a bit, particularly this year where we seem to be gripped by fear … We say organic food is not cost-effective because we haven’t created a mode for it to be cost-effective. For years there was an incentive for setting aside. Why didn’t they give money two decades ago instead of to set-aside, to conversion? We would have much of England now as organic soil and we’d be doing a whole lot better.

“But that hasn’t been done, largely because I don’t think we had in Tony Blair a man who really gave a shit about the environment.”

To read the rest of the in-depth interview, jump here.

Rock legend Sting has opened up for the first time about life on his massive Tuscany farm — a place where he’s resided for most of the last 15 years. The 57-year-old spoke at a Tuscany town theatre last night and described why his farm is 100% organic. ”I am a farmer who looks after the land to nourish it and not to plunder it,” he told the audience.

”I came here and I decided to stay and be a farmer, also because I wanted to nourish my family with genuine quality products in a healthy environment. Everyone knows about my environmental commitment, especially to the rain forests in South America. With this business in Tuscany I am trying to help myself and those who are close to me to live better in a natural context,” he said.

On his 300-hectare estate near Figline Valdarno, (30 km south of Florence) Sting produces extravirgin olive oil, chestnut and acacia honey, jams, fruit, vegetables. This year, he will release his first-ever red wines – a Chianti and a Toscana. Both have been “resting” for about two years and will be available in over 30,000 bottles.

Don’t go thinking that Sting’s organic farm has made him a vegetarian. Besides producing salami, he also admitted that his favorite Tuscany dish is stewed wild boar.

To read the rest of the evening’s discussions, jump here!

[Update: After some digging, it appears that you too can stay at Sting's Tuscany villa for a yoga retreat! Hit this site for more!]

While Captain Planet still might be on hiatus from filming any NEW episodes, for the next 12 months, the Mother Nature Network will unveil more than 20 episodes of this classic cartoon as well as some pretty rad never-before-seen bonus footage. 

We mentioned earlier that stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Martin Sheen, Whoopi Goldberg, Meg Ryan, Sting, Jeff Goldblum and many more had all provided their voices for the original series — and this was waaaayyyy before saving the planet was thought of as cool. 

Check out the clip below and make sure you visit the Mother Nature Network for some upcoming Captain Planet awesomeness!

This Sunday, Sting and his wife Trudi Styler will attend the premiere of the film Crude — which portrays the epic 15-year legal battle between indigenous tribes and oil giant Chevron over massive oil contamination in Ecuador’s Amazon. Joining them will be several Ecuadorians, as well as leaders from Amazon Watch, an American environmental organization that works with the affected Amazon communities. From the release,

Selected as one of the 16 finalists at Sundance out of 879 submissions in the documentary category, Crude is described by the Sundance Committee as the “inside story of the ‘Amazon Chernobyl’ case in the rainforest of Ecuador”. The Committee says Crude “makes a concerted effort to show the case from all sides: from the scientists and lawyers employed by Chevron, to Ecuadoran judges, to celebrity activists and humanitarian organizers, to the role of the media, to the dramatic intervention of Rafael Correa himself, the first Ecuadoran president to sympathize with the indigenous perspective.”

For their part, Trudi and Sting are shown in the film helping to provide clean water to residents through their Rainforest Foundation and UNICEF. We’re not sure if she’s present in the film, but actress Daryl Hannah has also worked to draw attention the plight of Ecuador Indians. Back in June of 2007, she visited the spill sites and met with Ecuador President Rafael Correa to discuss the case.

For more information on the film, visit Sundance’s official Crude page here.

Photo: Trudie Styler and Sting at the 2nd Annual The Art of Elysium Heaven Gala on January 10, 2009. Credit: PR Photos

The 2008 Oceana Partners Award Gala was held in Los Angeles Saturday evening in honor of former President Bill Clinton, Sting, and his wife Trudi Styler. On hand to celebrate were a number of famous faces such as Ted Danson & Mary Steenburgen, Barbara Streisand and James Brolin, Dustin Hoffman, Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye Smith, Diane Keaton, Kirsten Dunst, Adrian Grenier, Katharine McPhee, Zach Braff, Melissa George, Rosanna Arquette, Kristin Chenoweth, Arriana Huffington, Laura Dern and Ben Harper, Norman Lear, Sarah Paulsen, Laird Hamilton, Sugar Ray Leonard, Karina Petroni and Lisa Anderson.

Clinton was recognized for this continuing contributions to the environment — particularly through the Clinton Climate Initiative. Trudi and Sting were given honors for their Rainforest Foundation organization and the the more than $25 million they’ve helped raise with their 15 benefit concerts since 1989.

Guests were treated to a special four song surprise performance by Sting. Dustin Hoffman joined him on-stage to play the piano for a song Dustin had written. Rosanna Arquette also served as the DJ throughout the evening.

Over $1.3 million was raised for Oceana from the evening’s festivities!

We’ve got a whole bunch of photos from the event after the jump — so have a look! And congrats to Oceana on another wonderful event and successful fundraiser!

Photo credits: Dahlhouse Productions/Oceana