Lindsay Patterson

In the wake of An Inconvenient Truth, the “green” TV concept is beginning to take off into the mainstream. I enjoy imagining the development of a “green” reality show - couples would race against each other towards carbon-neutrality. The tag line: Will low-impact living have a high impact on their love? The show would be hosted by Robert Redford, and at the end of each show, one couple would get their compost pile ceremoniously dumped out.

But that’s just my imagination. What’s out there now is much better. It’s called Big Picture TV, but you don’t have to TiVo it. And unlike my green reality show, it actually makes sense. Big Picture TV is, as advisory member Mathis Wackernagel puts it, “a social benefit organization that tries to bring ideas about sustainable living, and sustainable concepts, to people through Internet. And what they have done is provide short interviews with key thinkers around the world about the issue of how we could transform the future into a sustainable one.”

He encourages anyone to go there and check out the two to four minute clips of what the website calls, “talking heads, talking sense.” Browse around for a while and you’ll hear people like the environmental feminist and scientist Vandana Shiva, talking about Earth Democracy, and journalist Bill McKibben explaining his concept of sufficiency. Even Prince Charles has something to say.

It’s kind of like the greatest conference on sustainability you’ll never attend from the comfort of your own home.

(Suggestion: Make sure to be patient as the video loads, or else you’ll get a lot of unpleasant stuttering and wild gesturing. And sustainability shouldn’t be unpleasant.)