Articles by Katharine Wroth

Lights, camera, activism

Here's some greenish "news" filtering through all the Million-Dollar Oscar hype: buncha stars are going to show up in Priuses instead of limos. And since they'll be using chauffeurs, it probably even counts as carpooling!

For the third year running, hybrid-minded actors -- including Charlize Theron, Leonardo DiCaprio, and, of course, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins -- are taking part in "Red Carpet, Green Cars" to raise funds for Global Green U.S.A. As a token of thanks, Greenfeet will provide them with eco-goodies including hemp napkins, organic wine, and ... disposable bamboo plates. Which sound super sustainable.

Anyway. The whole event, says Greenfeet founder and president Valerie Reddemann, will "show that leaving softer, greener footprints on the earth is hip and downright cool." O, how I wish she were downright right.

Alive and not-so-well in the Andes

This weekend, news outlets reported that an American hiker in the Andes had discovered items belonging to a survivor of the plane crash made famous in the movie "Alive." (You know, the one where the protagonists discovered that their less-fortunate seatmates made for a tasty nibble?) The wire story said the loot -- including a wallet, jacket, and roll of film -- had been buried in the snow for the last 32 years.

Gee, wonder how they surfaced?

That’s just crazy talk

On the CNN home page this morning, a headline quietly announced what scientists and environmentalists have been shrieking about for a while now: Experts: Earth getting warmer, people to blame. The article, reporting on the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting, quotes Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography: "The debate over whether or not there is a global warming signal is now over, at least for rational people."

Rational, you say? I popped on over to Fox News to see how they were handling the story. Hmm, no mention of global warming amidst the Jacko reports on the home page. Let's see what a search on the term brings up. Ah, yes: there's the chilling report of "Manufacturers Stymied by Air Pollution Controls." And then, in "Kyoto Count-Up," we learn that Wednesday was the day the Kyoto Protocol -- aka the "global economic suicide pact" -- went into effect around the world, "but, fortunately, not in the U.S. and Australia."

It's good to find some level heads in these crazy times.

Uprisings down under

Who says there are no good protests anymore? Australian environmentalists used ice sculptures yesterday to protest their country's refusal to jump on the Kyoto wagon. Maybe frozen icons are just what the U.S. needs! (Insert hackneyed Al Gore joke here.)