I let Cedar watch whatever, because we don’t have big rules around television and censoring at my house. However, for the sake of other families I tried to split this list into kid movies vs. adult movies. But of course, use your own judgment.

For adults and older kids:

The Gods Must Be Crazy

An Inconvenient Truth

Into the Wild – some people hated this book and movie. I loved both. I think people may be concentrating too much on the one major mistake that Christopher McCandless made at the end of his life, and aren’t looking at the bigger picture. That said, the movie has absolutely stunning nature scenes, and if you haven’t already, it makes you reconsider this whole material life nonsense that most of the world is stuck in.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

The Bear: could be good for kids, but a little scary so I have it up here.

Last Call for Planet Earth – 12 architects and their views on sustainability – not sure if you can rent it, but you can buy it.

Garbage Warrior: A Film by Oliver Hodge – not sure if you can rent this yet? But it rocks.

Earthlings: NOT for kids at all. This is an in-depth study into pet stores, puppy mills and animals shelters, as well as factory farms, the leather and fur trades, sports and entertainment industries, and the medical and scientific profession’s relationship to animals.

Bad Seed: The Truth About Our Food

For the kids:

Totoro – not a green movie exactly, but it’s one of my son’s favorites, and has a large love-the-environmental slant. Kids being kids, kids playing outside, tree planting, munching veggies straight from the garden, family time, co-sleeping, big trees, magic, and surprisingly beautiful scenery for an animated film – you don’t get much more happy than this. One of the best movies for kids and adults ever in my opinion. Some scenes may scare very small children.

[photo via Totoro.org]

Hoot: Haven’t seen it, but heard that it’s a good kid’s flick. It covers kids trying to save endangered owls.

The Lorax of course.

Brother Bear: The kid’s answer to the real life movie The Bear. I have some super issues with Disney in general, however, I think this is a good movie, and Cedar loves it. I like the whole walk in animals shoes deal. It drives some points about respecting nature home.

You pretty much can’t go wrong by checking out National Geographics DVD for kids page. Many earth-friendly – animal loving movies.

There are tons and tons of documentaries out there. One pretty good list is at Grinning Planet – I don’t agree that all the movies on their list are exactly eco-friendly, but most are.

Do you know any good Earth Day movies?  

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

My ideal answer to the question above would be, “Easy, I could just go.”

My main goal for New Years was to get rid of more stuff. Right now, I have more stuff still than I’d like. I’m not a pack rat or anything, I just do have stuff. Over 30 odd years it builds up. In my case a lot of my stuff consists of books, paper items like notes, saved articles and such, and art supplies. If Cedar and I were to pack it up and travel, we’d need a medium sized storage space (for both furniture and boxes). To me that’s too much. Lately I just want to simplify as much as possible.

I have been working on my goals though. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Went through my files and recycled about half of my paperwork. I saved obvious stuff like tax and medical files and got rid of most of the rest.

Over the last few days I’ve been going through books. I have about 300 or so. Now I’ve set maybe 100 aside to sell at Powells Book’s. This has been really hard. I love my books, or did, I’m starting to feel confined by them though. It’s time to let go. I’m also going to give some away – the ones that are more used looking. In all I should end up about 200 books lighter.

I think I’m going to try and get my art supplies organized too – but I’m still working on a good solution. Because we homeschool, we do use them all, but I think I want less.

Lastly, soon, Cedar and I are going to go through his toys. While I’m not a pack rat, this kid sure is. He has tons of stuff.

If I bought an RV and Cedar and I took off, or wanted to backpack for a while, it would be easier with less stuff. Since that is in our future plans, it makes my goal easier to work on.

Here are some more resources about having too much stuff:

The hidden costs of too much stuff - MSN Money

Stuff Owns You

The awesome Story of Stuff video.

Two of the most influential books to me about stuff have been Your Money or Your Life and Into the Wild. I highly suggest both – although, I don’t necessarily suggest you take off for the wilds of Alaska quite like the kid in Into the Wild did, it’s still a good example of being less confined. They recently made a movie of Into the Wild – no where near as good as the book, but beautiful, here’s some musical inspiration from that flick.

So, how are your green New Year’s goals going?

Post from: Tree Hugging Family