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!

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.

The Rainforest Foundation was started in the late 80’s by Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler as an environmental crusade to protect the rainforest. However, like all longstanding organizations the foundation has grown and now Sting considers it, “a human rights organization more than anything else.”

In the last two decades the annual Rainforest Foundation benefits have raised 25.8 million dollars and this year they’re goal is to make at least 2 million dollars more. After the performance The Plaza Hotel will host a local and organic dinner along with a live auction to help take in even more dough.

The concert takes place on May 8th at 7pm and feature performances by Sting (duh), James Taylor, Billy Joel, Brian Wilson, and many other legendary musicians. Tickets are $175 to $400 and you can purchase them at CarnegieHall.org. So get your seat and help save the rainforest yo!!

thanks: bloomberg.com

We’ve written several articles detailing Sting and his wife Trudie Styler’s less than stellar environmental record — even while they speak out over the dangers of climate change and CO2 emissions. This past week, the UK Daily Mail received some refreshing honesty on the issue from Trudi during a interview at the Earls Court Real Food Festival. From the article,

“Miss Styler tried to shift a little of the blame on to her musician husband, who is 56. ‘When it comes to the carbon footprint, Sting puts his hand up immediately and says ‘I’m a musician and I have a huge carbon-footprint’, she said. She then asked: ‘Are we being hypocritical?’ before seeming to answer the question herself. ‘He has a 750-person crew to bring around the world and it is a difficult challenge. I would like to think that we both work pretty hard for the rights of indigenous people and for the rights of conservation of the Amazon rainforest, but we do need to get around. It’s a difficult one.’”

Environmental experts recently rated Sting’s band, The Police, one of the dirtiest in the world as a result of the crazy amounts of pollution generated by the group on their latest world tour. Styler herself has also been criticized for her copious private jet and helicopter flights — as well as ridiculous antics like having her personal chef travel 100 miles to simply prepare a bowl of pasta.

This is one of those issues that George Clooney always avoids — saying one thing, but doing another. Clooney has time and time again admitted that he does not preach green as much as others, simply because he knows he isn’t the most environmentally responsible person out there. Sting and Trudi certainly do a good amount for certain charities and initiatives, but when it comes to talking sustainability, they really should jump down from the soapbox.

via dailymail

via autobloggreen