Ed Begley Jr joins Non-profit Start-up Green Wish for its Official Launch in Honor of Earth Day 2009

Headed by Actor Raphael Sbarge, Green Wish will Help Raise Funds for Local “Going Green” Projects in Communities across America

Los Angeles, CA. Green Wish Inc., a start-up grassroots, non-profit charity with a focus on making local green projects come true, is officially launching their organization on April 20, 2009, in honor of Earth Day. The group is proud to name actor, environmentalist, Ed Begley Jr as spokesperson and member of their board of directors.

With growing concerns about the United States consuming 25 per cent of the world’s energy and generating 25 percent of global pollution, actor and father, Raphael Sbarge, and actress and wife, Lisa Akey, wanted to make a positive impact on the environment for the future of their children; and Green Wish was created. The organization received their 501(c)3 non-profit status and pulled together a team of well-known environmentalists such as Ed Begley Jr and Rachelle Carson Begley to help them build awareness for their unique program.

Green Wish is focused on helping local communities raise funds and fulfill their “green wish” no matter how large or small. Asking for donations in “give what you can” denominations makes it easy for anyone to give. Green Wish hopes to expand its online donation program to local markets and chain retailers who want to help give back to their local communities by collecting donations. Green Wish is using social media to help get the word out online, from donation sites such as YourCause.com and GuideStar to fund-raising parties on Twitter to Facebook. Green Wish has also collaborated with MomTV and NewBaby.com to help build awareness with the Mom community through video blogs as well as the “green” blogger community.

“We are so fortunate to have Ed Begley Jr and his wife, Rachelle Carson Begley, both environmentally active actors, join us on the Board of Green Wish,” said founder, Raphael Sbarge. “It makes the countless hours that we are all putting into building this program to benefit communities across the US achievable.”

Green Wish has created an online community to serve two groups of visitors, those who have green projects they need funding for and those who have green wishes or ideas they want to share with the community. By submitting your green project online, organizations across the US can have access to building awareness for their cause as well as get funding for it. Each month, causes selected by the Green Wish team will be spotlighted on the website and receive funds for their cause. Green Wish will work with these communities to help build awareness locally for offline as well as online fund-raising programs. Updates on how the projects are going will also be shared on the community, so visitors can see the success of their support at the local community level.

Between star power and the power of social media, Green Wish hopes they can raise awareness and the funds needed to help local communities get their green projects going. “It is truly something to look forward to as a parent, knowing we are doing everything we can to help seed the future with Green Wishes,” says Sbarge.

About Green Wish
Green Wish Inc is a grassroots, non-profit charitable organization that is focused on helping local green organizations and groups fund projects for their communities through small donations at local retailers and online in "pay what you can" denominations. Green Wish grants "Green Wishes" to different groups each month from submissions to their website, which are vetted by the board of directors. Board members of Green Wish Inc also include Ed Begley Jr and his wife, Rachelle Carson Begley, well-known actors and environmentalists. The Begley’s are also the stars of the hit show Living with Ed. Green Wish is also listed as a charitable organization with GuideStar and YourCause where online donations can be made.

Earth Day 2009 marks the beginning of the Green Generation Campaign

Earth Day 2009, April 22, marks the beginning of the Green Generation CampaignTM.

This two-year initiative will culminate with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in 2010. With negotiations for a new global climate agreement coming up in December, Earth Day 2009 will be a day of action and civic participation, to defend the Green Generation’s core principles: Family with windmills: Renewable energy for future generations.

* A carbon-free future based on renewable energy that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels, including coal.

* An individual’s commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption.

* Creation of a new green economy that lifts people out of poverty by creating millions of quality green jobs and transforms the global education system into a green one.

Under the umbrella of the Green GenerationTM, thousands of events are currently being planned in schools, communities, villages, towns and cities around the world. As in 2008, on April 19th Earth Day Network will celebrate Earth Day on the

* National Mall

in Washington, DC, plus large-scale volunteer events in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Denver, Austin, Atlanta, and DC in partnership with

* Green Apple Festival

The Green Apple Network has announced free concerts in 10 cities with famous music acts. Find one near you, or just find out how you can get involved hugging and planting trees this Earth Day.

Sign up to volunteer!

Earth Day network partners in Cleveland, Columbus, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Beijing, and Manila, among others, are planning large events where everyone can participate.

Find an event or activity near you!

Linda Ellerbee & Nick News Celebrate Earth Day on Sunday, April 19

Nick News with Linda Ellerbee CELEBRATES EARTH DAY BY exploring THE LIVES OF KIDS LIVING IN ENERGY-SUFFICIENT HOUSEHOLDS on a kid off the grid, premiering Sunday, April 19, on Nickelodeon

Special to Feature the Home and Lifestyle of Actor/Environmental Activist Ed Begley Jr. and His Daughter Hayden

NEW YORK, April 9, 2009 – People who don’t use energy from the electric company are said to be living “off the grid.” As many as 350,000 U.S. households now meet their own energy needs, and it’s estimated that close to four or five million homes will be going off the grid in the next 10 years. To commemorate Earth Day on April 22, the Emmy Award-winning series Nick News with Linda Ellerbee explores the lives of families who are off the grid in various ways and shows us what it is like to be a kid living in an energy self-sufficient household, on A Kid off the Grid, premiering Sunday, April 19, at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon.

“For most of us, going off the grid is more of a goal than a reality and requires sacrifices, and nobody seems to understand that quicker or better than kids,” said Linda Ellerbee. “We can’t continue living on this planet as if we had another one to go to. Anything we can do to help protect our natural resources, really helps to protect us.”

Dancing Rabbit Eco-Village is a community in Rutledge, Missouri, that is entirely off the grid. Their homes are made out of recycled materials. They get their energy from solar panels, grow their own food and filter their own water from rainfall. Rowan, a kid who lives in the community, says, “We keep track of the weather because if it’s not going to be sunny for a few days, we have to conserve it for lights so we don’t turn on any video games or radio.” The theory is: People will eventually have to learn to do with less — and it’s not as hard as it sounds. The kids at Dancing Rabbit agree.

Actor and activist Ed Begley Jr., known for riding his bike to red carpet events, who says he “wanted to be a part of the solution rather than part of the problem,” lives in an eco-friendly home in Studio City, Calif. His nine-year-old daughter Hayden explains what life is like be a movie star’s kid who lives in a house where you get your energy from solar panels, recycle, use biodegradable soaps and detergents, and grow your own vegetables. Hayden says, “It’s our responsibility to protect the environment because we are the people of the world.” When Ed drives, he uses his electric car (powered by solar energy), or his bike, or — his favorite — his feet. Ed adds, “With six billion of us on the planet, I think we need to live simply so that others can simply live.”

Some other “city” people are beginning to try to move away from the grid. Alexis, from Bronx, NY, has a rooftop garden on her building, known as a Greenroof. Greenroofs help lower overall building energy costs because of their natural thermal insulation, making structures cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. In Oakland, Calif., Isaiah helps save the environment by walking to school rather than driving, unplugging devices from the wall when he isn’t using them, and turning off the water when brushing his teeth. Isaiah, says, “One person shutting the light off would make a big difference and if that person told the next couple of people to shut their lights off that would make an even bigger difference. It’s like dropping a stone in the water; it ripples outward and the ripple gets bigger and bigger.”

Get Rid of Plastic Bags… And Plastic!

• The raw material of plastic bags is oil. Therefore, the more we use plastic bags, the more we waste oil - a non-renewable energy source.
• The petroleum-based plastic bags take decades to break down, so if they are not recycled they litter. It creates visual pollution: in the streets, on the beaches etc. Also, they can clog roadside drains, which could cause street flooding during heavy rainfall.
• Plastic bags can be recycled but it rarely happens: according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, only 1% of plastic bags were recycled in 2000, against twenty percent for paper bags.
• They endanger wildlife and particularly sea life such as sea turtles and dolphins which can die of entanglement, suffocation, and ingestion because they assume that these bags are jellyfish.

Read the rest of this story at the EarthDay website by clicking here.

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Top 10 Most Polluted Places in the World

Number of people potentially affected: 3,000,000
Type of pollutant: Coal and particulates
Source of pollution: Automobile and industrial emissions

Follow this link to see the Top 10 Most Polluted Places in the World as chronicled by Time Magazine