Considering all the frustration people have been having trying to open communications with the producers of the Planet Green channel, despite the few green lucky ones with cushy jobs there, paid to ignore their old buddies, it’s nice to see Discovery now has a website where you can register and pitch show ideas without intermediaries.

Perhaps if someone at Discovery had told that poor bastard who got shot a few days ago, that such an option was available to him, he wouldn’t have taken such drastic action. His own video actually showed promise.

Interesting to note also, that nowhere in his manifesto or in the press coverage was Planet Green mentioned, when it’s the channel at Discovery that addresses all the concerns this man had.

This is about a massive communications breakdown between Discovery and its environmentally minded audience, which I suspect, was expecting a lot more from Planet Green than we have been provided. It started out relatively nice, but the failure of Discovery to post its early content online, shows like Alter Eco or Battleground Earth, which should have developed cult followings with young people, who let’s face it, don’t watch TV.

Discovery missed the market and its demographic, in essence wasting a lot of amazing talent. I would like to see Planet Green not only survive, given another chance, and strive to become a seriously effective 24/7 green information and entertainment network. But there’s a lot of work to do, going back to basics, create interactivity like early MTV or today’s G4 with engaging personalities.

I went on their producers website and pitched 3 shows, that was a week ago, I still have not heard back. I’m too lazy to go down to Maryland and get myself shot. I’ll just wait for the phone to ring, if that’s OK with the more radical fringe element which I’m sure will brand me a sellout.

Black & Green

A show produced by the Military Channel for Planet Green chronicling the greening of the military.

This show would feature the world of military technology offices opening around the country which have already been responsible for the introduction of improved lighting and battery technologies such as lithium-ion and light emitting diodes into the commercial sector.

The work of DARPA was recently featured in the book The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs written by Michael Belfiore, a featured speaker of the upcoming Next Gen Expo at G-Star Studios in West Palm Beach.

Our own magazine Electrifying Times has written at length about the development of the hybrid Hummer, and other hybrid and pure electric vehicles for the military.

The Pentagon has initiated a massive PV and Geothermal retrofit of US bases all over the world. The Defense Department back in the early 90’s was the first to instigate a green procurement program while every one of its branches, Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines attended the Eco Expo organized by movie producer Marc Merson.

Recently the George Clooney movie The Men Who Stared At Goats revealed the existence of the First Earth Battalion, a semi-secret group of eco-warriors within our defense department which has been working towards environmental change since the mid-70s.

There is enough amazing material and interesting subjects to interview to produce 6 to 12 half hour shows that will bring a whole new type of audience to Planet Green, young people, soldiers, mixing environmental concerns with good ol’Americana.

Green Beauty

A show chronicling the daily professional lives of green makeup artists, the trials and tribulations of trying to keep the integrity of their ingredients without succumbing to the temptation of companies like Procter & Gamble.

Our website GreenMUA.com has assembled the best and the brightest the green makeup community has to offer, from professional makeup artists working in fashion and film dedicated to only using non-toxic and safe cosmetics in their kits.

These men and women get hired by photographers, stylists, editors and ad account managers where the integrity of green production values need to be preserved to satisfy the requirements of the clients.

Many also now do green weddings, a rapidly growing popular trend… these green weddings alone, and the makeover the brides experience, will make for fantastic television.

Green actors encouraged by Global Green USA and our own organization GreenMUA are starting to demand green makeup artists on set, opening the door for a rapid expansion of the green makeup artist profession.

Such a show will also explore the production of green cosmetics, visits to companies where natural and organic beauty products are made, the care taken to create green chemistry to replace ingredients used since the 50’s we now know may have contributed to the epidemic of soft tissue cancers in women.

We already have the commitment of the Yale Green Chemistry department who has offered to give professional green makeup artists green chemistry courses at Yale, this could become a part of the production.

We already have sponsorship commitments from Hearst and dozens of other companies, green fashion blogs and magazines, including the participation of some of the most beautiful green super models, many of them who have introduced their own green cosmetics line into the market place.

Save The Corporations*

A show revolving around the events produced by Lohas, Gaiam, B-Corporation, Sustainable Brands, Social Venture Network, Balle, Go Green Expo, Green Festivals and other umbrella trade organizations now representing our Trillion dollar green economy.

Follow a group of four young people attending the hundreds of green trade shows produced in this country every year.

Ecotourism, eco-spas, electric vehicles, solar installers, organic farmers, LEED architecture…

Meeting with the thousands of green professionals transforming our economy, dedicated to providing green products and services.

Interaction with political groups like Buy Nothing Day, Reverend Billy, Earth First! who advocate an end to consumer society and modernism, while demonstrating that a green economy is a viable alternative to radical extremism.

Showing that cradle to cradle manufacturing, distribution and recycling is a reality within the closed loop of the emerging green economy, characterized by all the professionals who participate in the hundreds of expos, fairs, and other events, including music festivals who have incorporated green booths and activist organizations as a part of their traveling road show.

(*Save The Corporations is the name of a green store in Brattleboro, VT. In the event Planet Green likes the title, they will have to involve them in the production.)

Remy Chevalier founded Rock The Reactors in 2006 to shut down the Indian Point nuclear power plant with LEDs. He grew up in the editorial offices of ELLE magazine where his father, Jean Chevalier, was the founding photographer. In 1989 he created the Eco-Saloon at Wetlands Preserve, the environmental nightclub in Manhattan. He edits the website for Electrifying Times magazine and writes for many blogs. But he prefers pure investigative research and shares his discoveries with other journalists. He runs a think tank in Norwalk, Connecticut, called The Aquarium named after the book Inside The Aquarium, a classic cold war KGB title.