Sundance Channel launched THE GREEN this week. To help you find more information on the issues, ideas and personalities highlighted in THE GREEN we will be posting an entry every week that will point you to places on our site where you will find deleted and expanded scenes, additional commentary from experts and activists, as well as interactive forums where you can debate, discuss and ad your own GREEN ideas, big and small.

We encourage you to make a practical difference in the world by improving the quality of your lifestyle through adopting any number of ‘green habits’. Since this week’s theme is fuel, you can find a compilation of fuel advice in “Your Guide to Greener Living” [www.sundancechannel.com]. We recommend you bookmark “Your Guide to Greener Living” because it will be updated continually.

This week the topic on THE GREEN is FUEL.

President Bush famously declared in his State of the Union address that America is “addicted” to oil, but that addiction isn’t just to gas-guzzling cars. As Simran, the host of THE GREEN and THE GREEN Online, says, “Petroleum is in everthing from plastic packaging to sex lube. We drink water from bottles made with oil, we pave our roads with it, and we wage wars for it.” In this week’s Webisode [www.sundancechannel.com]Simran discusses the implications of this addiction and ways to kick it.

BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET

BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET [www.sundancechannel.com] takes a deeper look at the oil we pour down the drain of our gas tanks. Is there a better way? BIG IDEAS takes a look at biofuels from bio-diesel to ethenol and takes you on a test drive at Daytona.

Joel Woolf, alternative-fuel enthusiast and inventor of Veg Powered Systems, drag races his truck fueled by the vegetable oil from a fried-chicken tailgate party; Colette Brooks, a fanatic for muscle cars and Prada shoes, leads a bio-diesel PR campaign that hooks up clients with diesel cars around the country; and Indy Racing League’s Jeff Simmons prepares for the 2007 season by suiting up for a test drive in a car that runs on 100% ethanol.

Eco-Documentary: A CRUDE AWAKENGING

The documentary A CRUDE AWAKENING [www.sundancechannel.com] takes us into the bowels of the earth and explores the future of a world quickly running out of oil.

Sundance Channel’s Treehugger Blog

And the Treehugger blog shows us that it is not only the inevitable disappearance of oil that is a problem but the carbon emissions [www.sundancechannel.com]created when that oil is burned. Colin also provides a helpful introduction [www.sundancechannel.com]to the various kinds of biofuel and their benefits

Ideas and Debates

Join our discussions [www.sundancechannel.com] to share your BIG IDEAS, or submit your BIG IDEA [www.sundancechannel.com] to our What’s the Big Idea? Contest.

Explore Further

Joel Woolf’s Veg Powered Systems [www.vegpoweredsystems.com]

Colette Brooks’ BioBling Website [www.biobling.com]

Sustainable South Bronx (Majora Carter, Founder & Executive Director) [www.ssbx.org]

Sundance Channel and THE GREEN Online are focused on promoting the development of ecologically sustainable lifestyles by highlighting people and companies at the forefront of the “green” movement. We have a lot planned for you over the next several months including exclusive video clips, webisodes, the launch of our new eco-mmunity, a brand new blog from Treehugger, Second Life visits by our host, Simran Sethi, and an area for you to learn more about how you can take action and make a difference in your community.

Be sure to add THE GREEN blog RSS feed to your feed manager or simply check back here often for a quick and simple way to find out what’s happening on Sundance Channel or in the green world.

By now you probably know THE GREEN launches on April 17 at 9pm with “Big Ideas for a Small Planet”. The first episode is FUEL. This episode investigates the future of automotive fuel with segments on a truck that runs on vegetable oil (from a fried chicken party!); one-woman’s bio-diesel promotion called Bio-Bling; and the test of an ethanol racing car at Daytona. If you can’t wait until April 17 you can go to iTunes for a FREE sneak peek through the 17th. Click here if you want to download the first episode:

Download Video From iTunes [phobos.apple.com]

We are also going to have exclusive webisodes each week that go into further detail on what’s happening each week on THE GREEN. We’re excited to have Simran Sethi host our online segments. This week join Simran as she talks about ways to cut your carbs – carbon emissions that is.

Let’s make it simple, when carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere it creates a “blanket” of greenhouse gasses around the planet that traps the suns rays and heats the planet up.

This week the New York Times noted: “In almost every instance, the people most at risk from climate change live in countries that have contributed least to the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses linked to the recent warming of the planet. Those most vulnerable countries also tend to be the poorest. And the countries that face the least harm – and that are best equipped to deal with the harm they do face- tend to be the richest.” (New York Times, Report from the Four Fronts in the War on Warming, April 3, 2007)

Americans and other large industrial countries add thousands of tons of carbon emissions to the atmosphere every day… by driving our cars, making electricity, and living our modern industrialized lives. Nobody wants you to give up your modern lifestyle, we just want to show you all the ways you can do your part to undo the damage we have done to the planet. We are building an interactive eco-conscious online community and we want to explore with you how “greener” lifestyles can become a part of our everyday lives. We hope you join us. Everybody can do it and every little bit helps!

“The Green” in Second Life

What: Join Simran Sethi, host of THE GREEN on Sundance Channel, in Second Life for weekly discussion forums on environmental issues and solutions.
Date: April 17th
Time: 10pm EST / 7pm SLT (Second Life Time)
This Week’s Topic: FUEL – How can we cut back on carbs (carbon emissions)?
Where: THE GREEN forum will take place in the Main Screening Room on Sundance Channel Island.

If you no clue what Second Life is, check our Second Life Blog [www.sundancechannel.com].

Join the Sundance Channel Group in Second Life to stay up-to-date on upcoming THE GREEN events in Second Life. Simran will be hosting weekly discussions in-world with eco-experts and eco-celebrities like herself.

Sundance Channel Island SLURL [slurl.com]