When it comes to pandas, Jack Black doesn’t mess around.  He’s taken his role in Kung Fu Panda to a whole new level by joining Conservation International fight to protect pandas and their habitat. Allow Jack to explain:

Mr. Black and Conservation International have garnered some heavyweight support for the Panda Survival Plan, but they still need help.  So, as long as you’re not one of those people who says “Pandas…just don’t like ‘em”, then takepart by joining Team Earth and their efforts to protect these adorable bear-cats, I mean, pandas.

Concerned that further environmental degradation would render the Great Outdoors not so great anymore, the creators of Wend Magazine sought to combine adventure with activism.  Printed on FSC-certified paper and now available in virtual form, the magazine seeks to inspire outdoor enthusiasts to help protect the environment that they passionately explore.  Imagine, if you will, that treehugger and National Geographic went on a totally awesome camping trip and came back to share with you all of their slick photos and crunchy stories, and said, “next time you’re coming along!”  Well, then you start to get a feeling for Wend.  Even after my first perusal, I want to pack my bags and go exploring (in a sustainable fashion, of course).  Wend also offers a blog with frequent green updates, tips on eco-friendly outdoor gear,  recommended reading/viewing, and a cool trip planner.

So, takepart and make your next trip to the Great Outdoors an earth-friendly one.

So, now that your coffee, chocolate, and bananas are all Fair Trade certified (they are, right?), you’ll be excited to know you can now play socially responsible ball with Fair Trade Sports.   Fair Trade Sports offers a wide variety of athletic equipment, including soccer balls, rugby balls, basketballs, and clothing, (the list goes on) produced in a safe and healthy work environment by adults who receive livable wages.   They even have a frisbee for all of us hippies hanging out on the grass.   While buying local and organic products is important for the health of humans and the environment, if the workers are not treated fairly and adequately compensated, those efforts are in vain.   Just listen to Eric Schlosser’s thoughts on the issue of worker’s rights:

Fall is a perfect time to get outside, make some new friends and kick, throw, or gently toss in the crisp, cool weather, and now you can enjoy the great outdoors with a clear conscience.   And it gets better.   Inspired by Paul Newman’s business philosophy, Scott James, the founder of Fair Trade Sports, donates all profits after taxes to children’s charities worldwide.   At a time when tumbling towers of greed are threatening to crush our financial system, it’s refreshing to know there are companies comitted to economic, environmental and social justice.

takepart by ordering your sporting goods from Fair Trade Sports and find other Fair Trade goods at worldofgood.com.

Golf on TV has always bored me…. I’ve tried to watch, tried hard, but no matter what, my mind wanders or I fall asleep. The British Open starts today and while many folks are excited, I’d rather do almost anything than turn my TV on to watch.

So for those folks like me, here are some clips from a film that makes golf fun - Caddyshack!

More after the jump

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Last night’s annual MLB All Star Game took 15 innings to settle and those 15 innings took 4 hours and 50 minutes to play. Now, I enjoy a good game of baseball every now and then, especially when I get to see the best of the entire league, but 5 hours seems a bit long to watch men hit balls with sticks. If you’re on that same page, you might want to check out one of the 9 baseball movies below (in honor of the appropriate amount of innings). If you’re a baseball fan you’ve probably seen them all, but perhaps it’s time to try them out again, they never really go out of style. Also they’re all under 2 hours long, leaving you time to do something crazy like actually play baseball instead of watching it on TV.

takepart to learn about Major League Baseballs relationship with the Boys and Girld Club of America and be sure to let us know if we missed your favorite baseball film!

1) Eight Men Out (pictured above) - John Sayles portrait of the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox and the controversey surrounding the possibility that they lost on purpose is a quiet gem of a film. It could easily be alarmist and focus only on the scandal, instead Sayles explores the people and the game they loved.

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I don’t know about the rest of the country, but summer sit NYC like a ton of bricks this past weekend. With temperatures in the mid 90’s many of us were thrown off guard. But that’s OK, it just means time for new activities - like going to the beach and riding bikes. Here’s a video I made about a year ago in Mentor OH in and around Lake Erie (to one of my favorite songs, Antony and the Johnsons Bird Gerhl) that deals with both and is I think, a good welcome mat for summer:

On a serious note though, bikes are a great travel alternative that help the environment and also yourself (get in shape!)

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Soccer/Football! I grew up playing it and love it to this day. I’ve always found it to be a sport that unites people, from the folks working together on the field, to the fans in the stands. Susan Koch takes that idea to the next level in her new documentary Kicking It. The film follows the lives of seven people that decide to represent their country at the Cape Town 2006 Homeless World Cup.

Plus, how can you go wrong with Colin Farrell?!

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Professional race car driver Danica Patrick, 29, became the first female IndyCar winner in history on Sunday.

Danica Patrick was always sure a woman could win a race. And now the questions about her will surely stop.

Patrick made it to the place she wanted to be for so long ” Victory Lane. She became the first female winner in IndyCar history Sunday, capturing the Indy Japan 300 in her 50th career start.

“I’m glad it finally happened,” the 26-year-old driver said. “But I would be lying if I told you I didn’t think it would be me.” [Associated Press]

Help more females make sports history and by getting involved with http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/. The Women’s Sports Foundation aims to advance the lives of girls and women through sport and physical activity.

Cleaning out your closet? If you’ve got shoes you don’t use, send them to people who will via the Shoe 4 Africa program. The organization takes your shoes over to Africa to create opportunity and promote empowerment, health, and AIDS Awareness. Watch this video to learn how it began with a single pair of shoes being given away…

Most needed are running shoes, but leisure shoes are welcome as well and any used sports/active wear. To donate and get involved visit shoe4africa.org

Contrary to popular belief, I do not follow sports. But every now and then, sports, by virtue of its popularity, accessibility, and (I’ve heard, though not experienced) entertainability highlights a social, cultural or political problem, bringing it to a broad, far-reaching audience in a way few other media could.

Such is the case of the cricket scandal, which I saw first hand (through TV) while I was in India last month. First,  India’s cricket player Harbhajan Singh was accused of calling Andrew Symonds, a Jamaican player (the only Jamaican player) on Australia’s team a “monkey.”

Then cricket fanatics blame the umpire, who sided with Symonds, and happened to be Jamaican too, and burn him in efegy.

Yesterday, a Cricket judge cleared Singh of the “racial abuse charge” and said Symonds had provoked his opponent (into being a racist?). And the case seemed closed. Until the same judge said that he shouldn’t have cleared Singh. But he did because of human error. Sound complicated? It is. Read more here.

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