I watch it. The line up is fairly small, so lot of re-runs. For me thats good and bad, at least I don't have to record everything. There are a few shows I could take/or leave, but even those tend to have a few bits of good information.

I watched Planet Green for a few hours last week. I'm not particularly impressed. I've been recycling since the 70's. Common sense is "where it's at", as the old saying goes. Overly zealous is too much.
Lorna

I've been watching and really like a few shows. Supper Club with Tom Bergeron and the Ed Begley show are good. The people they feature on Wasted are unbelievable....40 lashes. No common sense with these people - totally unconscious living.

Lorna - I'm with you on the over zealous - it doesn't work and just scares people off. I think adapting one eco friendly habit at a time is much more manageable. I have been recycling for 15+ years, starting changing out my light bulbs a few years ago, installed a rain barrel last year and just built my first compost bin this week. I'm looking for my next "habit".....maybe using homemade cleaners. Any other suggestions?

Maureen

I agree with Lorna also. My entire family has been recycling, reusing, gardening organically, composting, conserving water, etc. for most of my life, either out of concern for the environment or being frugal (just plain cheap;). Watching this channel made me laugh out loud. First there's the sponsors: GM , Dow et al, some of the worlds largest polluters, greenwashing their way into the hearts and pocketbooks of America. Then there's Emeril. I couldn't figure out what was green about the show accept maybe (and I'm guessing here) he uses all locally grown produce. What struck me odd was his use of steel utensils in a teflon pan (want some PFOA chunks with that alfredo?) The whole thing seemed like one big ad designed to make you want to go out and spend, spend, spend on all that eco-friendly stuff that you can add to all the stuff you already have. There were a couple of shows I liked "Wasted" and "Living With Ed". Any show that says stop buying more junk and use the stuff you have(obsolescence is a whole other thread) is what I want to see. Creative ways to reuse what we have.

The thing I find humorous about "Living with Ed" is the way the wife doesn't see eye-to-eye with Ed's take on being green. Some of it is trumped up for the camera, but I can see real life people having many of those same arguments.

vwtx, I agree there is a lot of commercialism involved with "going green" as portrayed on these shows. To me being green is about being frugal, being less of a consumer.

I was appalled at the cost of rain barrels, when I purchased a couple. Why on Earth are they so expensive?! My compost bin wasn't cheap either. I had to get an enclosed, dog proof, bin because my dogs wouldn't stay out of the wire compost bin I built. I have eight dogs, who love fruits and vegetables. I had to put a serious fence on my produce plot to keep them out of there, because they were eating the corn, beans, green chilies and melons.

msyoohoo, one of the changes I've made over the years is to cut my use of paper towels in half. I buy a pack of inexpensive wash cloths and use them for a lot of the cleaning chores. I also recycle old towels for the same purpose. Cutting up bath towels doesn't work out well, because they continually shed bits of fabric. But sometimes a big towel suits a certain clean-up purpose, like when my dogs spill their water bowl. I have a big stack of decent rags of various sizes.

I attacked grease spots behind the stove the other day. I tried using a dry rag to rub them off and found it worked much better than using a cleaning solution! The grease spots buffed right off.

Lorna

Lorna - I'll bet the washing soda (in the "Potions" post) would work well for cleaning behind the stove and the cooktop too.

The funny thing with Living with Ed, is Ed. He just seems to "march to the beat of his own drummer" and does his thing. Been doing it for a long time too.

Your idea of buying less resonates with me. Last year I was feeling that I had too many "things" and wanted to unclutter my life. I went Freecycle crazy. Whew - very liberating! I am not much of a shopper to begin with but now when I think about buying something, I actually "think" about buying it. Will I use this in the next few days? If not, it doesn't come home with me. (For anyone interested in "downsizing" there is a book by Peter Walsh - "It's All Too Much" that goes into why we clutter our lives with stuff.)

Maureen

I agree with most of you, Living with Ed is a funny show. The dynamic between Rochelle and Ed is great. I also enjoy watch G Word and World's Greenest Homes.

Wasted I enjoy, but sometimes find it pathetic how little these people know (i.e. things as simple as recycling).

The two shows I do not like are Emeril Green and Alter Eco. Emeril Green is no different from his regular cooking show, except her purchases the food and supplies from Whole Foods. And Alter Eco, wow. It is an hour of watching hipsters through very short segments about their random ideas. I have tried to watch it a couple times and end up wondering, what is the point? They pretend they are building an "eco pad," yet really they hired contractors to build it and when the contractors are present play with the equipment as children would. And Adrian Grenier comes off as narssistic and trying to promote his celebrity.

Sarah