Green on the small screen

Most people agree that watching TV can’t be considered much of a ‘green’ activity, but it’s hard to break the habit during the winter when the days are short and the weather is bleak. We’ve scoured the channels for a few weekly shows that’ll elevate your status from regular couch potato to organic couch broccoli with a few clicks of your rechargeable-battery-powered remote control. Check your local listings for show times, grab a bowl of popcorn and put your feet up.

Eco House Challenge (HGTV Canada)
Two families, four environmental hotspots, one eco coach and a guy in charge of the challenge… Two suburban households have been wired to monitor their every eco move. Over several weeks, they must radically reduce consumption and learn to live sustainably. They have weeks to do what we all must do in a few decades. If they can pass the Eco House Challenge and help save the planet, so can we!

Cool Fuel (OLN)
Join Aussie Shaun Murphy on a 26,000 km journey across the United States in vehicles powered by eco-friendly fuels in the 13-part series Cool Fuel Roadtrip. Each week, Murphy and his crew travel from one city to another on eco-friendly fuels in an array of unusual vehicles. Along the way, the Cool Fuel crew build up such a following that actors Daryl Hannah, Ed Begley Jr. and singer Jack Johnson get in on the action.

The Nature of Things (CBC)
Award-winning environmentalist David Suzuki hosts this long-running CBC program on all thing scientific, ranging from the disappearance of old-growth forests to chaos theory to endangered species and forensic science. This week’s show explores the science of touch.

Matt James’s Eco Eden (HGTV Canada)
In this gardening series with a radically green agenda, fresh face of contemporary gardening and 21st-century tree-hugger Matt James transforms ten gardens. In each episode, Matt works on one garden in need of a helping hand, starting in the depths of winter and finishing in early summer. He visits other green heroes in search of inspiration and practical advice, gives tips on all aspects of eco-friendly gardening and exposes the truth about using chemicals.

Jamie at Home (Food Network Canada)
Jamie Oliver is back doing what he does best - cooking with simple, accessible ingredients, including fruit and veggies that he recently started to grow in his kitchen garden. Each program is themed around one primary ingredient, from a look at all the different varieties of tomatoes to what you can do with lovely home-grown potatoes or how to cook different cuts of lamb. He also looks at how easy it is to grow your own produce, sometimes in weird and wonderful ways.

Living with Ed (HGTV Canada)
TV and movie actor Ed Begley Jr., perhaps the greenest man in Tinsel town, rides his electric car to the Academy Awards and powers his home with the sun and his stationary bike. But living with Ed and his environmentalism isn’t always a walk in the park for his wife Rachelle. This first-of-its-kind green reality show chronicles life with an earth-friendly fanatic with humour and heart.

Angry Planet (OLN)
Climate change and global warming are critical issues facing our planet, resulting in increasingly bizarre and violent weather around the world. Throughout this series, witness ferocious hurricanes and tornadoes, volcanoes spitting molten lava, floods from melting glaciers and raging forest fires. Catch the behind-the-scenes adventures and misadventures of host George Kourounis and his associates as they explore the world’s wildest weather and the continuing disintegration of the environment.

No Waste Like Home (HGTV Canada)
Millions of people across the UK are wasting hundreds of pounds a year without even leaving home. Eco-expert Penney Poyzer shocks the nation into doing more for the environment, uncovering wastefulness and giving viewers the eco know-how to change their ways. She even saves them money in the process, proving that helping the environment doesn’t have to lighten your pocket. Each week Penney meets one of Britain’s most environmentally unfriendly and wasteful households and sets radical new rules and rations designed to curb their energy-guzzling ways and put money back in their pockets.