The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is only a month away, and soon all the world -- particularly the embattled developing world and low-lying countries -- will be focused on the specter of global warming. Massive challenges remain when it comes to building consensus on action, and there is a great deal of work to be done.

Yet in order to build a way toward a cleaner future we also need a good handle on the present. One place to start is with this handy new chart at The New Ecologist, mapping out the world's biggest polluters based on carbon dioxide emissions.

Note how coal-heavy China surpassed the U.S. in total emissions, yet lags far behind in per capita releases. Personally I was surprised to see Saudi Arabia and Iran as such big emitters, and it baffles me why Australia has higher per capita emissions than the U.S. or Canada, which are so much colder (a friend of mine who lived Down Under said she rarely even saw furnaces in homes, at least as far north as Sydney and beyond).

It's good to get a sense of the relative emissions we have now, and to look at which economies are booming and are likely to emit more carbon in the coming years. Still, it's frustrating that many Americans have been so resistant to any attempts to reduce emissions, when it's clear that we are responsible for a disproportionate part of the problem. I always thought it was a silly argument to complain that the U.S. shouldn't cut back if developing countries didn't automatically promise to do so. It made me think of the rich man who says he won't give a dollar to charity until every poor man on his block does so first. Had we taken an early lead, businesses would recognize the competitive advantage of doing the right thing (and reducing their exposure to future risk), technologies would be further developed, and we would have served as a good example to the rest of the world, instead of coming across like a greedy braggart (even if we were only acting in the name of preserving jobs, it didn't come across that way to many of our global citizens).

Maybe Copenhagen offers a chance to set things in a more sustainable direction.

See the article and graphics at The New Ecologist.

With a name like Pop-Up House, we were envisioning some kind of 3D greeting card. But it turns out that House Port's design for an affordable home is a "cost–effective, energy-efficient package that can be finished and upgraded to one’s personal taste, on any budget, large or small."

The Pop-Up House ships flat–packed, ready–to–assemble, which means substantial savings on labor, shipping costs and waste. It comes with parts and written and DVD instructions, and is user-friendly enough so anyone with building experience should be able to put it together. Naturally, the owner is responsible for preparing the site and the foundation, and finishing fixtures are also not included (plumbing, lighting, etc).

The core of the Pop–Up House consists of prefabricated SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels), which are designed to deflect heat. The space between the roofs of the Cubes and the House Port allows for air circulation for natural cooling. The price for a Double Cube Pop-Up House and port is $160,000, not including any labor, fixtures and sliding doors.

Get a visual tour of the Pop-Up House in a new eight-part web series, following Hally Thacher’s five-week adventure in developing the first Pop-Up House in Northern California. She creates a beautiful home in the desert for a budget of $250,000 from start to finish.

Here's the first webisode (I don't care for the term "webisode" btw):

We've seen knit toys, sculptures and graffiti, and even an abandoned gas station covered in stitching. But an actual house made out of yarn? Isn't that inviting trouble from the Big Bad Wolf?

Kate Pokorny doesn't think so. The youthful crafter, who blogs at Yurt Alert, said she was living in NYC in 2006 when she started experimenting with crochet (in part because she was inspired by Margaret Wertheim's TED Talk on how the technique "can be used to represent hyperbolic space and coral reefs"). Further inspired by knit and crochet work by artists like Kwangho Lee, Claudy Jongstra and Christien Meindertsma, Pokorny developed an affinity for the shape of yurts, and discovered that Mongolian nomads had made felt for their homes "via a labor intensive process that still required an internal structure at the end of the day."

And so her project began. The goal is a self-supporting crocheted yurt, made out of hand-felted cording approximately 1.5 to 2 inches thick. The material will be sourced from wool produced locally in New Hampshire. It will be hand cleaned and prepped with aid from a local mill. It will take about 500 pounds of wool, and Pokorny is fundraising to purchase the stuff, as well as cleaning and processing supplies. "I already have 200 pounds of the wool and I've made the prototype, which came out terrific by hand-felting 40 feet of cording and crocheting it with my arm as the 'hook,'" she told me. "Visualize a woolly igloo."

Pokorny is raising money through Kickstarter, a crowdsourced funding platform for creative projects. Donate now or learn more about it. She currently has $1,767 pledged, out of a goal of $5,500, with 65 days left to go on the campaign. Some 31 people have chipped in. There are different levels of sponsorship, starting at $1, with higher amounts scoring you some crocheted scale models, photos and even the chance to spend a couple of nights in the finished dwelling. Donors can also help crochet part of the structure.

Long been a fan of Yosemite Sam? Well you too can have his look, without his trigger-edgy personality and obsession with hunting varmints. In fact, you can feel good about emulating the larger-than-life short guy by joining the Movemeber campaign "Mustaches vs. Cancer, because kids can't grow mustaches, and they shouldn't have cancer either." That's definitely a slogan we like here at The Daily Green, what with trying to keep the world safe from toxic chemicals, poisoned toys and other scary stuff.

Remember that time your coworker asked you to sponsor her 5k walk for osteoporosis? Well you can get back at her with something much more manly! Grow a mustache, get suckers friends and family to sponsor you, and donate to fighting cancer. I heard about the worthy challenge from friends over at the manly site Asylum. Sign up for the hairy cause and let Asylum know you did to enter to win t-shirts and other cool stuff.

Other sites participating include AskMen, Men's Fitness, Maxim, The Chive, Guyism, The Bachelor Guy, Switched, Fanhouse, Noise Creep, Asylum UK (duh), Urlesque, Moondog Sports, Chris Illuminati, SEC Rivals, Midwest Sports Fan, Cool Material, Dave and Thomas, Burbia, Stephen Bailey, Gear Patrol, Yep Yep, Next Round, UGO, Mediaite and The American Mustache Institute. Yep, the Art of Manliness is in the game too. Oh, and wondering what Movember is? AOM sums it up: "Started in 2003, Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the mustache, highlighting men’s health issues -- specifically prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and male depression. During the month of November, men grow a mustache and raise funds for charities like the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LIVESTRONG)."

Hey, as TDG editors already know, facial hair can be green as well as hot!

Speaking of manliness, what's more macho than running a marathon....barefoot? We've written before about the scientific debate over whether it's better to go barefoot, or at least where very thin shoes, but Green Guide Network CEO Casey Cochran takes it a (lot of) steps further. According to a recent release, Cochran has already logged more than 75 miles in three states in three months. "He has been hit by a Hummer, gotten stares from people, and his feet hurt but nothing is deterring him from running a marathon barefoot for a good cause," claims the Green Guide Network.

During the rationing days of WWII, my grandma once had shoes with paper soles, since rubber was in such short supply. Those were probably biodegradable, but the average pair of shoes made today is estimated to last around 1,000 years before it breaks down in a landfill. Not so the new BIO-D line from Simple Shoes.

To learn more I was invited back to the Simple Shoes NYC showroom, for a look at their latest kicks. As before the place had a mellow California vibe, not surprising given the company's hq in Santa Barbara. So I sampled some small cups of Brooklyn Brewery's local craft beers (yum!) and munched on some City Bakery appetizers (French toast corners amazing, Japanese hummus a bit odd). Oh, and I looked at some shoes.

We've written before about Simple Shoes, which has always been a green-leaning brand, and which is a boutique player next to the giant global brands. As my friend Emma Grady writes over on Treehugger, Simple uses hemp uppers, recycled car tire bottoms, organic cotton linings, recycled plastic bottle shoe laces and foot beds, and water-based glues. For Spring 2010, the BIO-D collection is also supposed to break down -- in the low-air environment of a typical landfill -- in 20 years.

How does that happen? According to the company, the midsoles and outsoles of the shoes (as well as shoe bags) are impregnated with EcoPure, a pellet containing millions of tiny microbes. When in contact with the moisture and warmth of a landfill or compost bin (but not during daily use or storage) the microbes break down the shoes. The process takes about 20 years, and works in both anaerobic and aerobic conditions.

Perhaps this technology could be added to many more products!

Last night I went to the Aspen Social Club, a fairly swank watering hole below the ultra-contemporary Stay Hotel in NYC. Free drinks were on Merrell Apparel (hey it rhymes), the performance outdoor clothing maker. It's perhaps not surprising that I appreciate outdoor apparel, so it was fun to meet and greet some real gear geeks.

I talked extensively with a Merrell shoe designer, in from the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. He was critical of companies that try to reposition themselves as green by launching one or two green products, then marketing those heavily. "At Merrell we've never been comfortable with creating, say, one super green shoe and then saying, 'Look how green we are now,'" he said. "We've always tried to do things as green as we can along every step of the way. I mean we're an outdoor products company, so the environment is obviously really important to us."

He talked about all the thought that goes into every aspect of each shoe. For example, he pointed to what looked like a relatively simple item, a woman's flip flop, and said they had engineered it to reduce stress on a woman's tarsals, which he said can be a trouble spot because of women's wider hips. He said he was constantly trying to fine tune which Vibram soles to order from Italy for each line, finely balancing the carbon content, durability, stickiness and flexibility. He showed me the siphon lines on the bottom of water shoes, designed to push liquid out of the way and maintain traction, or the raised heel of a hiking boot to reduce impact stress when loaded with a pack.

He told me Merrell has switched to water-based glues and has always tried to reduce waste. The company uses EVA (a less-toxic alternative than many other plastics), but the designer said he was opposed to using vegetable-tanned leather because it simply didn't last as long, and that their primary goal was making products that lasted. (Others have complained that vegetable-tanned leather doesn't last long enough for shoes, and that it also isn't that much less toxic than chrome-tanned leather.)

The big environmental story this year for Merrell, at least according to their PR team, is their relatively new NADA line (Not Any Dye Applied). They showed me some jackets in the style. They looked about as white as white gets, which is a cool look, yet they said competitors would have used harsh chemical dyes in order to get to the same place (or even "whiter," though it was hard to see how that would be possible).

According to the company, producing a single size small women’s NADA jacket saves 1.6 kilograms (kg) of carbon dioxide, 115.2 liters of water, 0.18 kg of chemicals and 2.47 kilowatt-hours of energy compared to the same jacket made with dyed fabrics. They're available in men's and women's styles, and should retail around $229.

Tall, lanky and a bit geeky, it's hard to imagine Harvard Nieman Fellow Jeff Howe banging elbows with punks half his age in the moshpits of the Warped Tour. But that's exactly what the Wired journalist and author of the recent book Crowdsourcing did in 2005. He wanted to see what the kids are like these days.

Howe discovered a culture of "promiscuous creativity," according to his talk today at a Mediabistro conference on user-generated content. He said that young people are less apt to describe themselves by a narrow vocation (think "the" filmmaker, artist or teacher of past generations), and are more likely to be engaged in a fluid and ever-growing array of creative pursuits, from video making to designing websites, inking tattoos, blogging and much more. "Even those playing in front of 2,000 people don't think of themselves as musicians, they're 'playing music,'" said Howe.

Unlike his generation, Howe added, technology itself isn't interesting to most of these kids. "What they care about is what they can do with it," he said. Howe extends this to web 2.0. Don't think of your base as "users," or that they're "making content," he cautioned. "The cardinal rule of crowdsourcing is ask not what your community can do for you, but what you can do for your community."

Answering an audience question on how websites or other organizations can first start a functioning community, Howe said the secret is to offer them something they value, not to just assume that people will want to work for free. For example, he pointed to what he called "essentially a failure" in crowdsourced journalism, Assignment Zero, which he had worked on with Jay Rosen of NYU and my friend Dave Cohn, who also helped with research on Howe's book. "The mistake is asking people to write stories. No one wants to do that, that's like asking them to redo term papers," Howe told a small group of listeners. Instead, Howe's message is to keep it simple when you're asking for community involvement.

That's the same message Ben Huh, CEO of the insanely popular I Can Has Cheezburger?, gave the Mediabistro conference the day before. Huh describes himself as fundamentally lazy, and argues that most everyone else is too. Starting with the goal of "making people happy for five minutes a day," the network of 25 sites about goofy cat photos, weird accidents and Excel-style charts riffing on pop culture has built a business to the tune of 1 billion pageviews every four months, and 12 million monthly unique visitors. "Ask yourself what would I want to do if I came to your website for only 40 seconds, which is being generous," said Huh.

The secret of all those goofy LOL cats (see some green LOL cats I rounded up here) is that Huh and the original founders of the site (who sold it to him) have always kept the upload/creation process extremely simple, so anyone can do it.

To Huh, the goal of a business should be to "eliminate distractions and let the users dictate your goals. Think, 'If I could work for only four hours a week, what would I do?'" It's the same idea as Jeff Jarvis's rule of "do what you do best and link to the rest."

Howe coined the term crowdsourcing (he first thought it a "silly hipsterism," but it caught on after his Wired editors liked the word better than his story pitch), and he gave several examples of it at work, the first being major changes in the stock photo business. After a Canadian designer decided to upload his none-to-impressive photos to a new site he created, iStockphoto, and trade rights to them with other users for their images, something profound happened. A community developed, started talking to each other, and soon the founder had to charge a quarter for each image download to defray his considerable server expenses. Now iStockphoto is a profitable, and rapidly growing, arm of Getty Images, and the price of stock photos has plummeted from $300 an image to $1, while thousands of amateur and pro shutterbugs from around the world are constantly uploading fresh work. A few have even made serious money.

It's approaching holiday season. And we know what that means: catalogs. Each year, North American companies produce 17 billion catalogs (59 for every man, woman and child in the U.S.). They hawk every category of gift or good, from the ridiculous (redneck pacifiers and big foot garden sets) to the most mainstream. Yet we know that junk mail produces as much CO2 as seven states combined.

We were inspired by this great graphic over at TheCoolPrint.com. According to the site, the there are more than 100,000,000,000 pieces of junk mail sent in the U.S. every year (huge number!) -- about 30% of all mail delivered in the world. Despite the Internet, the amount of junk mail has been snowballing, even though 44% is trashed without ever being opened (just ask this junk mail jihadist).

Want to see how much junk mail costs us in dollars, emissions, trees and time? Head over to TheCoolPrint.com.

Want to reduce your influx of junk mail? Register for the Mail Preference Service on the Direct Marketing Association Website. They will help remove your name and address from prospective mailing lists. Be patient, as it may take up to 90 days for most mail to stop.

"Trying to suppress information in the age of social media is like trying to put out a forest fire with a garden hose," Catherine Mayer writes in Time. That seems to be more true than ever, if this latest bizarre case to hit the UK is any indication.

In an aggressive power play, representatives of the oil trader Trafigura, the London-based law firm Carter-Ruck, had obtained a secret injunction in September to prevent the country's Guardian newspaper from revealing the existence of a report commissioned by Trafigura on an alleged dumping of toxic waste off the Ivory Coast in 2006. The corporate lawyers also tried to block the Guardian from covering a written question about the case that was submitted to Parliament this week by MP Paul Farrelly.

Twitter users began a heated debate about the actions of Trafigura, pushing the company name high into trending topics. Big-time Twitterer Stephen Fry posted there: "Outrageous gagging order. It's in reference to the Trafigura oil dumping scandal. Grotesque and squalid." While the buzz built, the Guardian met with Carter-Ruck. Soon the name of the MP and his question were out on Twitter, and Carter-Ruck responded by backing off the injunction.

Stephen Shotnes, a media-law specialist with the London law firm Simons Muirhead & Burton, then told Time, "It's been enshrined in our law for 300 years that there's freedom of reporting of parliamentary proceedings. I would like to think that what would have happened is that the Guardian would have trotted off to court today and the injunction would have been lifted anyway. The likely impact of Twitter was to speed up that process."

This case of mobilizing social media to exert pressure on companies and get the truth out, despite opposition, is one more example of the power of the people, amplified by technology. From Jeff Jarvis' Dell Hell to outrage over Facebook Beacon, it's clear that everyone is increasingly under scrutiny, especially big companies and institutions. It's getting harder and harder to stop news from spreading around the globe -- which will hopefully help bring about more transparency and responsibility, and freedom for all.

The entry period for Project Green Search has closed, but now the really exciting part begins. Log onto the competition website now, and vote for your favorite contestant! Some 125 beautiful women have entered, with a very impressive and diverse array of green chops.

There's the mother of two who works to spread environmental awareness at her kids' school (pictured), a professional green life coach and an avid bike rider and green knowledge junkie. Contestants hail from both coasts and the heartland, and everywhere in between.

The finals for Project Green Search have been relocated to Los Angeles, California, and will take place Nov. 4th-6th, 2009. The 10 finalists will be chose by the expert panel of judges, who will take into consideration community voting.

From the latest press release:

The finalists have a fun and challenging adventure ahead of them. They will travel to Los Angeles, CA, arriving Nov. 4th, where they will stay at the beautiful Standard Hollywood hotel on Sunset Boulevard. On November 5th, each of the finalists will participate in an eco-fashion photo shoot at Courtney Dailey Photography, in the fashion district of downtown Los Angeles. They will model looks from apparel and accessories designers including Deborah Lindquist, Peligrosa, Mountains of the Moon by Melissa Baswell, Stewart+Brown, Spun, Rain Tees, California Rising, Charmone Shoes, Lavuk, Jonano, Smart Glass, EcoSkin, Emily Katz, Hess Natur, McFlashPants, among others. Make-up for both the eco-photo-shoot and the "Green Carpet" wrap party, will be done using Josie Maran cosmetics, along with a few other complimentary, eco and health sensitive beauty lines, and hair color and styling will be done by Beverly Hills salon, Shades Natural Color, using their very own natural, non-toxic hair color and product.

Following the shoot, our finalists will have one-on-one interviews with each of the judges, so they can get the knitty gritty on the ladies, ask the tough questions, get an up close and personal measure of their character & dedication. Our panel of celebrity, green living and entertainment industry judges includes Anna Griffin, founder and Editor In Chief of Coco Eco Magazine and former Hollywood red carpet correspondent on environmental and animal rights issues; Darren Moore, TV personality, “Eco-MacGyver”, founder of Ecovations, and co-star with Adrian Grenier on the Planet Green (Discovery Channel) series, Alter Eco; Deborah Lindquist, trail blazing, A-list, eco-designer with a cult like Los Angeles following; Josie Maran, supermodel and founder of her namesake natural beauty line, Josie Maran Cosmetics; and Michael Kaliski, founder and CEO of Omniquest Media, specializing in environmental and socially driven media; Starre Vartan, author of the book Eco-Chick, publisher of Eco-chick.com and eco-fashion writer extraordinaire; and honorary judge Summer Rayne Oakes, whose modeling career coined the term “green model”, and who is environmental activist, spokesperson and author of Style Naturally.

We're big fans of Star Wars jokes and parodies in the office, from Eddie Izzard's hysterical Death Star Cafeteria bit to the epic Family Guy and Robot Chicken treatments. So we were excited to check out this green Star Wars video over at Ecorazzi. According to the site, it's by environmental activist and author Derrick Jensen, mixing video of a talk he gave in 2006 with animation.

Jensen is the author of several books, including most recently Songs of the Dead. He was named one of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" and won the Eric Hoffer Award in 2008. He writes for a number of publications, including Orion, Audubon and The Sun Magazine.

Through the language of one of the most popular stories in our culture, Jensen probes the meaning and effectiveness of the environmental movement. He brings up big questions, such as how do we affect the most change while staying true to our roots, and how do we work with polluters without becoming co-opted by them?

As the environmental movement has grown and matured, it has also diversified and splintered. There are many perspectives and many folks with different viewpoints. Is that a strength or a weakness?

This time, some of the folks on camera make Miss South Carolina look smart. "Plant the seeds and more wooder," from a woman who doesn't seem all that drunk. "By eating it!" shouts one woman. Another asks for "more beer."

One gentlemen suggests more Heineken, which at least makes some sense, since the bottles are green (just ask the monks who made a temple out of the containers). Yet another girl says "more Corona." Yeah I really don't get that either.

There's the woman who seriously, intently says, "grow weed," and the surprising thing about that is she looks like someone's mother. Another says "we've got to get rid of those homeless people."

There are a few non-redunculus suggestions, such as more recycling of paper, reducing receipts, turning off lights and biking or riding transit. But for the most part, the future of green doesn't look particularly bright. At least in New Jersey:

I haven't had a chance to meet her yet (she does live in Hawaii on the beach, lucky her), but Renee Loux was one of my coauthors for the Whole Green Catalog, which just hit stores last month. The book, published by Rodale, is a contemporary reimagining of the classic hippy Whole Earth Catalog, a periodic collection of back-to-the-land wisdom, green tips and product recommendations, on everything from composters to solar panels. The brainchild of entrepreneur Stewart Brand, the catalog was highly influential in molding a generation and launching green businesses, from Real Goods to Gaiam and E Magazine. Steve Jobs called it a conceptual forerunner to the World Wide Web.

The Whole Green Catalog has a beautiful Website, complete with a blog, green glossary and other info. The book has 20 chapters, spanning topics from cars to food, fashion, travel, pets, creativity and much more. There were nearly as many authors as there were chapters (I did the one called "Green Power" on home energy). Some of my colleagues on the project include TDG contributor Jim Motavalli, frequent E Magazine writer Marshall Glickman and the great editor Michael Robbins.

You might recognize Renee Loux from her acclaimed show It's Easy Being Green on the Fine Living Network. You may have also seen her book Easy Green Living, also published by Rodale. Loux has been a green consultant and media figure for more than a decade, so she brings a lot of polish and experience.

In this recent segment with ABC News Now's Good Morning America Health, Loux chats briefly about the book, and talks up integrative medicine. She presents some useful natural remedies for common problems, from migraines to colds and skin ailments, and introduces some great items to keep around, such as tea tree oil.

Watch the clip from ABC News Now >>
Get the Whole Green Catalog >>

Although we get the Green Cheapskate's POV on cell phones, we also recognize that they are pretty much ubiquitous in today's world. And they are getting more so. Cell phone use is exploding across the planet, with no signs of slowing down, and the devices are becoming ever more sophisticated.

Just a couple of years ago I remember citing that cell phones were expected to last an average of 18 months. Yet it seems to me that many people are swapping up to the latest devices even more frequently than that. The jury is still out on whether cell phones are safe, but they seem to be here to stay, at least for the time being (try to minimize your exposure and use a hands-free set if possible).

Katie Fehrenbacher at earth2tech seems to doubt how many consumers care about the eco footprint of their phones, but we like to think it could become an increasingly important concern. So we checked out the Reclaim phone, made by Samsung and compatible with Sprint. The handset looks great. It's a shiny, bright green, which is an interesting way to advertise your beliefs (though it may not sit well with the most hardcore). It has a great feel in the palm, and it has a slick slide-action to display a full QWERTY keyboard for easy texting. It's also 3G, has GPS and a 2 megapixel camera/camcorder. The phone has one-click access to popular websites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, and comes preloaded with links to green tips and environmental info.

The phone has a nice color screen and definitely seems more user friendly than some other smart phones (notably Blackberries). I would definitely consider getting one, if only it were compatible with my office network (I do have Sprint, but still have an old non-smart phone, a Katana).

So what's green about the Reclaim besides the color? It's made with 80% recycled materials, with 40% of the outer casing made from corn-based bioplastics. It does have fewer toxic chemicals than many mobile phones, and comes with an energy-efficient charger. When you buy one Sprint gives $2 to The Nature Conservancy. It costs around $50 with a 2-year Sprint contract.

earth2tech points out that it's not dissimilar from the high-end Blue Earth phone from Samsung, which "has a solar panel on the back, a pedometer and software to track the carbon emissions you've saved by walking."

The Reclaim looks like a pretty cool phone, and it seems to be one of the greener options out there if you must go mobile, or need to replace your old handset. (You may even get paid to recycle that!)

I could watch Isabella Rossellini do anything. She was fantastic in Two Lovers, she starred in David Lynch's bizarre epic Blue Velvet and she even voiced a character on the Simpsons. It's hard to see how anyone else could make the secret sex lives of animals, especially creepy crawly invertebrates, as compelling.

That's right folks, the third season of the Webby-award winning Green Porno is out. There's also a companion book out too.

The latest season is just as riveting as past episodes. They are short, snappy, colorful pieces that are designed specifically with portability and shareability in mind. They are intended to play well on mobile devices (I wouldn't know, I'm still a loser without a smart phone). I do wish they were available as embeddable videos, and they certainly should be on Sundance Channel's YouTube page. You know, that's because where the kids are these days. Luckily the videos are available for free on the channel's website.

In fact, Rossellini told Reuters that she is interested in trying to make the franchise into a viable business model. As it stands, although some two to three million viewers have enjoyed Green Porno, it doesn't seem to be profitable. The groundbreaking web series has been made possible by Robert Redford and Sundance Channel, but season 3 is likely to be the last unless they figure out sponsorship or possibly a pay model. (Though Rossellini wisely told Reuters, "People expect online content to be free.")

So the future of Green Porno is uncertain, much like the futures of the wildlife the series covers. This time, the brief videos make a strong connection between the food we choose and what is happening in the oceans. The clips start with Rossellini doing a little cooking demonstration, her adorable accent and mannerisms in full force. She wonders where her ingredients come from, and is transported to a highly stylized, beautiful aquatic world. As a horny squid, "I would give the most passionate 20-arm embrace… although two are not arms, if you know what I mean," she purrs.

This time the creative prop art is supplemented with some real footage, and interviews of the elephant seal biologist Claudio Campagnal (also with soothing accent). The segments of overharvested shrimp, bycatch and other threats to marine life are hard-hitting, although the series is weak on actual suggestions. "The real solution: just be very careful when you choose what you eat," Campagnal concludes.

There isn't enough detail in the videos to instruct people exactly what to do next, although it's easy to see that the medium shouldn't get bogged down by too much information. Hopefully, viewers will be inspired to take the next step, and will seek out alternatives that are better for our oceans (the Marine Stewardship Council is one great place to start). While the immediate response of some viewers may be to eschew all seafood, it's also true that sustainable fisheries could help preserve coastal communities, as well as raise much needed money and awareness for preservation.