People have long evacuated the planet before the movie begins in 2700. This incarnation of apocalyptic Earth was revealed to us while waiting for the adventues of Indy and the naughty new guy to begin. Similar summer flicks usually star aliens and natural disasters that place the human race in precarious circumstances. This time, it’s a playful Pixar creation named Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifters - Earth class) who is left on earth in huge piles of human trash.Pixar Studios promises exemplar animation and an uplifting ending (they made Cars lovable!), and the pinch of controversy and social relevance makes for a good message. While the humans at Pixar contemplate what will happen when the technology we invent survives us, and possibly saves us,(in theatres June 27) we wonder what the creative geniuses at Pixar are doing in the meantime.Pixar’s headquarters in Emeryville, CA have an exeptionally green office (among many other colors and creations). They dim their lights by day, compost and recycle, encourage bay area residents to bike or commute, provide sustainable Sigg water bottles to cut down on trash, serve organic foods at their restaurant, participate in electronic recycling by citizengreen, and their printers default to double sided. It seems Wall-E and Pixar have a lesson we all should learn.Sharon

Bagging that “I’m not a plastic bag” purse for $150 is so last summer, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reuse it or any of its toteworthy counterparts. Besides the fact that you should get your money’s worth (the retail price is actually 10 percent of what you paid), there’s also the fact that 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used a year. Most of these end up as litter and are mistaken for food by marine animals like dolphins, or photodegrade, meaning that they break down into toxic bits that contaminate the environment. If we’re not going to go green like the Irish, who have a plastic bag consumption tax, we should go green by switching to reusable bags and save oil that would be used on recycling or producing the plastic. But don’t be fooled by the original designer bag: they don’t actually have to talk about themselves in first-person.

IK