USA: Comic actor Ed Begley Jr. star of new reality show 'Living With Ed' gives a tour of his "green" house, complete with solar power, compost heap and electric car

Actor Ed Begley Jr. is known for his work in the Christopher Guest films "Best in Show" and "For Your Consideration," but his environmental activism is taking centre stage in his new reality show on the Home and Garden Network. "Living With Ed" is a modern-day take on "Green Acres," documenting the unique marriage between Begley and his wife Rachelle Carson, who wouldn't mind trading in their modest, solar-powered house in Studio City for a mansion in Beverly Hills. Begley, the son of Oscar-winning actor Ed Begley, has been living green for quite some time now, staying true to a change of heart he had in his early twenties. "You know, it started for me in 1970, I was growing up in smoggy LA, and I just got fed up one day and I wanted to do something differently," said Begley Jr. "The first Earth Day had happened and I had been a Boy Scout, so there were those positives, and the negative thing of the smog made me say, 'I want to do something that is not contributing so much to smog, I want to get an electric car, I want to start recycling and composting,' I started doing all that in 1970 and I found that it was not only good for the environment, it was good for my pocketbook -- I could live very cheaply." Begley's enthusiasm for green living is evident everywhere in his house -- solar panels atop the roof, an organic compost bin, a solar-powered oven. In his garage is one of the few remaining electric vehicles in California, along with a large supply of "Begley's Best," his not-for-profit line of non-toxic cleaning solutions, inspired by the charitable Paul Newman of "Newman's Own." His energy is hard to contain, as he bounces off the walls in his signature outfit -- khaki shorts, an old t-shirt, and, of course, Birkenstock sandals for his feet. It is an energy that his wife is still attempting to acclimate herself to in living with him. "Well it isn't dull, that's for sure" said Rachelle Carson. "People say, you know, didn't you know he was an environmentalist when you married him? Of course, I was with him for seven years prior to that. It's just, you're sort of like 'love is blind, you're in denial' -- no. He's very committed -- he walks the walk, and sometimes it's inconvenient for me." What is an 'inconvenient' for Rachelle are outdoor activities that Ed loves -- hiking, biking, even making potting soil, right in their own backyard... "There's two things you do when you're making compost. One, you're keeping a lot of material out of the waste stream, and two, you're making this wonderful, rich soil. Let me get down to the good stuff down here. You want to make this stuff here. It's teeming with life, there's worms in it, it's rich forest floor kind of, you know organic matter," he said. Begley was also a steadfast champion of the electric vehicle, and still has an original Toyota EV, a car that was originally designed for the 1990 Zero Emissions Mandate (ZEV) in California. Requiring 10% of all new vehicles sold in that state to be emission-free by 2003, the ZEV Mandate was the most radical smog-fighting initiative since the catalytic converter. However, the electric vehicle's life was short as the focus of the mandate shifted to hybrid and fuel cell vehicles, a move which baffles Begley since his EV is still efficient and cost-effective since he charges it with power from the sun. "You don't have to go to a gas station, you just pull this little paddle out here, and you plug it in here, and this is like your gas tank, it goes into that receptacle, and in a moment you'll hear it start to charge, you'll hear the cooling fan come on, you'll know that it's now charging, and the lights will indicate as much," he explained. "Right now it's charging, and it's charging not on grid power, it's charging on the sun, since this whole house runs by the sun." Begley isn't a radical who wants to change everyone's mind when it comes to making eco-friendly lifestyle choices, but he hopes the one thing "Living With Ed" will prove is that it isn't difficult for one to change small aspects of their lives in order to do their part for the environment. "What most people think is that it's going to cost them a lot of money, and there are certainly some big ticket items like solar electric that do cost a lot of money, most people could not fit that into their budget, I understand that, so now there's other things -- you can first of all, pick the low-hanging fruit first, get a compact fluorescent bulb, get an energy saving thermostat, start riding your bike a bit, all of that is very cheap. Get a bus pass, that's very cheap. Home gardening, very cheap -- 'I don't have a backyard Ed, I can't do that,' well then get part of a community garden if one exists in your community. There's lots of things we can do," says Begley. "Living With Ed," starring Ed Begley Jr. and Rachelle Carson, airs on the Home and Garden network. A quirky story.

ITN Source | February 23, 2007

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