The films include: Earthworm, Dragonfly, Bee, Firefly, Snail, Spider, Fly and Praying Mantis. And you can watch them all online for free starting today at the Sundance Channel.

Green Porno adopts a childlike approach and is educational, but isn’t called porno for nothing. Watch the films yourself before deciding to let children preview. I’m not a parent, but I’m guessing Green Porno is more appropriate for age 13 or over. You’ll see thrusting imitations and hear some words like penis, vagina and ass.

A neat thing about the films is that they were made for the small screen — cell phones or computers and other devices. Sundance calls them an “experiment in storytelling for digital platforms.”

If these are the only videos you watch online this week, you won’t regret it. They made me laugh, and I learned a few things about our insect friends.

I knew that some insect sex could be deadly, but I didn’t realize the sneaky way that spiders mate! The Snail film is certainly very memorable as well.

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

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

It wasn’t a long conversation but Shai; one of the b5media team members got me thinking about how no one can be green all the time. Frankly, you’d have to a hermit in a cave to achieve perfect eco-sensibility and as I’ve mentioned before simply by being born you’ve used too much energy and you can’t take that back.

I’ve gotten emails from people asking me how I find all this green stuff so easy. I don’t; green is hard. We all get frustrated when trying to go green and we all have things we could do better. There are a lot of die-hard green resources out there and when everyone looks so nice and green (Tree Hugger comes to mind) it’s easy to say that green has too many expectations. I hate when people give up trying to go green because they can never live up to someone else’s standards. Don’t be the person who gives up.

I’ve been told that I have crazy green standards. Not true.

Honestly, I think I have reasonable green standards. In case you think my standards are impossibly high I thought I’d share some of the ways I am currently evil to the well-being of the planet.

1. I forget to recycle toilet paper rolls. My recycling is not in the bathroom and I just forget. I try not to but I have thrown some toilet paper rolls away this year. They add up.
2. I LOVE coffee. My local grocery store does not sell Fair Trade so I have to drive a bit to get some. If I happen to run out of Fair Trade coffee and I’m on a writing deadline then I will run quickly to the store and grab some plain old coffee. I always feel bad, yet I do drink it.
3. I like cherry Pepsi. Do you know how toxic this junk is? Seriously. It takes all this energy and chemicals to make this crap and I will drink it sometimes.
4. I own both an obscene amount of books and art supplies. We unschool so we do use the art supplies and books but we could cut down.
5. Twice I got really frustrated with all the junky little toys that people give Cedar — like happy meal toys, cereal toys, and so fourth. He didn’t want them so I gathered them all in a bag and threw them out. I didn’t try to recycle them, give them away, or anything I just threw them out. Twice.
6. I don’t always use recycled ink cartridges because I don’t think they work as well — I did a test and it’s true but still what’s more important the planet or me being picky about ink.
7. This is really bad and almost too embarrassing to admit but for the sake of this post I’ll say it… I own a can of… Raid. Yes. Raid. Do you know why. I am deathly afraid of spiders.

So deathly afraid that once when I was 12 years old my mom and siblings went to the beach but for some reason I stayed home. While they were gone I saw a spider in my bedroom — a big hairy brown Oregon spider. I ran down the hall and to the living room and basically curled up waiting for someone to come home and save me. The whole time I thought the spider was coming for me. It’s irrational but that’s how I am. I’m still like this.

When I had roommates or lived with my ex I had back-up. Now I live alone with just my son. He’s no help so if I see a spider I have no choice but to stand really far away and spray it dead. Truth is, even getting close enough to spray them gives me an almost heart attack. I’ve tried to use a vaccum cleaner with a long hose but I always think the spider is still in there and will climb out. Nothing works.

Raid is my biggest green sin. I’m completely against it and what’s in it. It’s evil — like me when I use it.

Now, am I really evil. I doubt it. Can people help the planet even if they fail to be perfect? Yes, absolutely. Even though I may do some things that are less green I will still talk all day long about living more eco-sensibly because I do know about green issues and I do care about them. Do you think that makes me a hypocrite? Maybe you do.

My point is, that in today’s world, with all that we have, all the temptations, even the greenest green eco-talking people have a few sins up their sleeve.

What’s one of your eco-sins? How bad do you feel about it and does it make you think twice about supporting green living efforts?

Post from: Tree Hugging Family