However, I recently saw something at their website that sort of irks me. This isn’t the first time either. They do this quite a lot on their TV shows. I suppose tonight was the last straw.

I was at their Green Home blog, and I was reading this post, Green Decorating and Storage, and here’s what they say, “10 Beautiful Rooms (You Won’t Believe They’re Green!)”

Let’s take a look at that statement: The rooms are beautiful; so beautiful in fact, that I simply won’t believe they’re green! Well, thank goodness, because I was really worried that my beauty statements might be affected by the darn tree huggers. I’m ok now though.

Seriously HGTV – what’s up with that? I watch all the HGTV green shows, when I manage to catch them, because green home shows are lacking on television, and I enjoy this kind of stuff. But really, I’m so sick to death of being told that in spite of the green, just look at this house! Look how we made green pretty. Look at how green is not so green; as if green is a bad thing to begin with.

Is HGTV the only media outlet to do this – focus on the how green doesn’t have to be green aspect? NO. Plenty of the media outlets I frequent do this. Am I saying to ban your HGTV habit? Um, no. I’m only picking on them because I happened to see this tonight, but they’re oh so not alone.

What I am saying is it sets a precedence; green is normally icky, but you can make it better. You can make it beautiful if you try. I actually like green already; I see reclaimed homes, recycled materials used to build furniture, with no cosmetic additions, and I like it, adore it even. I don’t need green to look just like what I’m used to seeing in home magazines. It doesn’t always have to be something it’s not. It sometimes is what it is, and that’s perfectly fine.

I think, that when green newbies see such excitement over how beautiful green can be it makes it hard to imagine that green is beautiful enough, good enough, when left alone. Maybe I’m just being picky – but words are powerful. Words can make or break a situation. If we’re going to attach words to green items, or green issues, let’s not attach words that make green seem so outside the norm. That’s a problem.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in June 2008

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That said, I’m under impressed with most green celebrities. For example, you often hear of the good green celebs are doing, but what about when those same people have two and three huge homes? Does it offset their green good deeds? I can’t imagine needing that much space. Even if that space is green, you’re still creating such a large footprint, by building large.

Another example is gas use – TMZ had a killer article a while back that highlighted the bad and good among celebrity gas users. Sadly there was more bad.

Examples from TMZ:

The bad – Jennifer Lopez

“On the ground: J-Lo tools around in her 60 miles-per-gallon Prius.
In the air: LA /New York, 2,475 miles in a private jet.
Gas guzzled: 2,750 gallons of jet fuel.
Prius penance: She’d have to drive 45,000 miles, and that’s a lot longer for Jenny than just going down the block. It’s actually more like twice around the earth.”

The good – Leo DiCaprio

“On the ground: Leo drives a Toyota Prius
In the air: Leo flies just like us folk — commercial, unless he positively must fly private because of scheduling.
Prius penance: None.”

See the rest of the bad at TMZ.

Still, one thing to consider is that like everyone, celebrities are human, they don’t have to be perfect. Small steps are a-ok. On the other hand, their extra big leaps across the planet, do create a need (I think) for them to act more responsibly. But, I’d say that about big time business folk, or a McMansion owner, or a travel writer too. If you make an big impact on the earth with your lifestyle, then it’s important to give back. And I mean give back in a real sort of way. Don’t build a “green house” that’s solar heated but takes up miles of land. Don’t give money to help social causes in third world countries and then wear a diamond wedding ring.

I guess I’m saying we all should try our best to live in a non-contradictory manner. We all make mistakes with green living, it’s just that some of those mistakes create a bigger impact. What do you think?

Learn more about green celebrities:

If you really want all the juicy gossip on green celebs – well, you’re not really in the right place.

I don’t know about co-blogger Peggy, but I’m not the biggest celebrity gusher. I’m usually only interested in famous people who are architects. So unless you’re an architect or you happened to be on a show that starts with “X” and ends with “Files” I’m just not interested.

Where you can find all the latest green celebrity gossip is ecorazzi. They post pretty cool stuff and note when celebs do good and when they act, well, green questionable. Plus their site is oh, so mod pretty.

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