Had I but world enough, and time, I’d have checked out Bottomfeeder and Bottlemania, both of which I saw proudly displayed in the New Books section of the LEED-certified Santa Monica Main Library yesterday. But being a time-pressed girl who perhaps already reads too many books about the dire environmental consequences of [insert any consumer product or habit] than is good for her mental well-being, I left the tomes — 336 and 256 pages long, respectively — on the shelves.

 

 

The good news: Now, anyone who’s curious or interested in these enviro woes and what can be done about them can get a 30-minute primer without picking up a book. Eco Trip: The Real Cost of Living, a new Sundance channel show, has the host David de Rothschild tracking a different consumer product in each episode — a journey that inevitably reveals devastating socio-environmental impacts of seemingly innocuous things in our daily lives, but also the more eco-friendly choices consumers can make instead.

 

The series will kick off sweetly tomorrow, April 21, at 9 pm with an episode dedicated to Chocolate — a rather sanguine episode considering the fact that cocoa and sugar’s often produced via child labor and other serious human rights abuses — not to mention the rBGH and factory farming concerns that come with milk. Luckily, David’s following eco-conscious gourmet chocolatier Vosges‘ goodies, which means he’s visiting organic chocolate farms and well-treated cows. I’m guessing the producers wanted to focus on solutions, a.k.a. not let the series get too depressing to watch.

 

Those who, like me, have felt they should pick up Bottlemania and Bottomfeeder but haven’t, you’ll be glad to know that episodes on Salmon and Bottled Water are just weeks away. Of course, after you’ve whet your appetite with the half-hour show, you may want to find out more — by picking up a 300+ page book at your nearest library –