How to Be Black, Famous and Green

Why Jada cages her pets, Common doesn't eat pork, what Carmelo is doing about the extinction of tigers and more.

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  Jada Pinkett Smith on Caging Pets

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  "I think I'll never get an animal like a snake again where I have to keep her in an aquarium," Pinkett Smith told OneIndia. "We have this whole thing for Beauty outside for her, to be in a natural habitat. But at the end of the day, she knows she's caged into her aquarium. We can't set her into the wild now, but I told [our daughter] Willow we won't do this again and won't have any animals that need to stay like that."

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  Halle Berry on Going Green While Pregnant

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  "They even have organic disposable diapers now that you can use," Berry told People magazine when she was four months pregnant.  "I'm working on the nursery, but it's all going to be organic and eco-friendly. There are so many things out now that you can use. I'm going to really try hard to make it all organic!"

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  Common on Maintaining a Sustainable Diet

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  "I just decided to be more aware of my health and well-being. I felt that beef and pork wasn't good. I did my own tests and found that beef and pork weren't really good for my system," Common told Just Jared. So I've been a lot clearer by not eating those meats and also chicken. Turkey was good; I like turkey, bacon and all that, but I just went vegan at one point. So when I decided to go back the other way, I just needed fish, and I feel balanced with that. You've got to eat the right things. It's not just about not eating meat. You've got to find out what your body needs, what's healthy for you. What's good for life."

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  Morgan Freeman on the Need for Alternative Fuels

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  "I think we should be developing every kind of alternative fuel that is available to us. That includes hydrogen to soybeans, from solar to wind," Freeman told Grist magazine. "Whatever we can find that is going to help us clean up the environment, we should be working really hard on developing. That's my feeling on all of it .... Environmental causes is one place where you can get me to open my mouth. And put my foot in it if necessary. I think the only thing I do that gives me any bragging rights in terms of energy conservation is sailing. Just using wind power."

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  Wycleaf Jean on Haiti's Potential for Sustainable Agriculture

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  "We have come together to launch this new initiative because I believe we can do more and better for Haiti when we act together. We are not only interested in feeding people in response to the current crisis, but we want to offer them an alternative that can help them in a sustainable way," he said. "We want to give them the opportunity to set up a small business which they can live on instead of assisting them every time there is a crisis," Jean told Reuters.

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  Mario Van Peebles on Why Undeserved Communities Must Go Green

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  "The people who tend to get hit first and worst are often African-American, Hispanic and lower-income white folks. They're in the areas where the cell phone towers are, where the toxic dumps are, where the levees tend to break, where there are low tax bases and a disproportionate amount of per capita pollution," Van Peebles told the Washington Post. So those people tend to think, ‘I'm just trying to get my kid to school; I can't think about being green.'" Unfortunately, that's not still an option. We're all in it together."

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  Desmond Tutu on Carbon Emissions

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  Many top scientists agree that there's a number the world needs to know. It's 350-as in 350 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The growing consensus is that it's the most carbon we can have in the atmosphere without causing terrible climate havoc, Tutu wrote in USA Today. "Since we're already past that level, at 390 parts per million, it also implies that we need much swifter political action than governments have supported in the past to reverse this trend. It also means, among other things, that we need a rapid effort to replace the burning of polluting coal with cleaner energy sources everywhere."

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  Kerry Washington on Going Green in Moderation

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  "I won't tolerate extremists. I don't want to be a hypocrite, but I'm not giving up my hair dryer," Washington told Ebony magazine. "Do whatever is doable for you. Whether it's buying recycled toothbrushes or shopping at a local organic fruit market or changing the light bulbs. Taking tiny steps can help in a huge way."

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  Carmelo Anthony on the Illegal Wildlife Trade

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  "I was shocked to learn that my favorite animal, the tiger, may be down to less than 5,000 in the wild, and they are still being poached for their skins and bones, Anthony told the nonprofit WildAid. I felt I had to do something. When WildAid asked me to participate, I jumped at the opportunity."

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  Will.I.Am on Environmental Consciousness

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  From his song "Take Our Planet Back":

  Calling all the leaders to lead us out the hole/ Asking all deceivers the things I want to know/ If we're so technological, why're we still burning oil/ ‘Cause I got a car you plug into the wall that's faster than a GTO/ We shot for the stars, put rovers on Mars, make planes like UFOs/ So why are we borrowin' money from China to buy oil from the Gulf and destroyin' the world ... Now that's got to change.

 

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