2012 Earth Hour starts at 8.30pm, Saturday 31 March. Celebrate your action for the planet with the people of world by switching off your lights for an hour, then go beyond the hour.

Earth Hour from its inception as a single-city initiative in Sydney, Australia – in 2007, has grown into a global symbol of hope and movement for change. Earth Hour 2011 created history as the world’s largest ever voluntary action with people, businesses and governments in 135 countries across every continent coming together to celebrate an unambiguous commitment to the one thing that unites us all — the planet.

In the deepest, darkest parts of the oceans are ecosystems with more diversity than a tropical rainforest. Taking us on a voyage into the ocean — from the deepest trenches to the remains of Titanic — marine biologist David Gallo explores the wonder and beauty of marine life.

Mark Healey is a thrill seeker. He paddles into and gets barreled on gigantic waves. He skydives. He has voluntarily, on an island off the coast of Mexico, ridden great white sharks — just grabbed onto their dorsal fins and got towed. So with all of these erratic behaviors, it’s easy for us to label Mark as foolish. Dangerous. That guy’s got a screw loose. But when you hear him talk about diving and sharks in this three-minute clip, you hear someone who is thoughtful, calculated and self-aware.

“I have a super busy mind,” says Mark, “and the only way for me to really have a moment where I’m just being — I’m not thinking, I’m not turning my wheels — is holding my breath, surrounded by water.”

Still, it’s a bit unnerving watching Mark swim with and pet bull sharks at the bottom of the ocean. Then again, he’s spent enough time with sharks to know them, to get past those sinister faces. “What I learn from sharks is don’t judge a book by its cover,” explains Mark. “Sharks can’t change their facial expression. They tell you what they want you to know with their bodies. They always look mean to most people.”

So maybe the same way we were wrong about Mark being foolish, we were wrong about sharks being mean? Maybe. Why don’t you go jump in and find out?

Underwater filmmaker Mike deGruy has spent decades looking intimately at the ocean. A consummate storyteller, he takes the stage at Mission Blue to share his awe and excitement — and his fears — about the blue heart of our planet. A truely inspiring talk by TED.

On Friday, February 3rd, at approximately 4pm, Mike and his good friend, Andrew Wight, were killed in a helicopter crash while working on a production together in Australia. Details about the crash are incomplete at this point, but news reports suggest some kind of malfunction in the helicopter at take-off.

Billabong have recently released the second episode of a series following Dave Rastovich’s TransparentSea kayak expedition.

The video looks at the second part of this 260-mile paddle down the coast of California, which began in Santa Barbara on September 29.

The aim is to highlight the annual migration path of the endangered grey whale population, as well as wider marine conservation issues.

He will be joined by surf artist and activist Chris Del Moro, photographer Hilton Dawe and professional women’s longboard champion Lauren Hill.

Recently TED released video of a talk by a pro surfer Kyle Thiermann who talks about his innitative called Surfing for Change that encourage people to make positive change in their communities through everyday actions.

He inspired his viewers to move 340million of lending power out of banks that funded the coal industry into local banks. Check out the video to know how it’s done.

Find out more via TEDxSanta Cruz website.

To celebrate 50 years of existance World Wildlife Fund launched a stirring campaign called “The World is where we live”. It was created by Ogilvy marketing and publicity agency.

The idea is pretty simple, to make comparisons between activities performed by a human in it’s environment and behaviour of certain animals in their natural habitat. In real life we ​​are all connected our actions affect all inhabitants of planet earth, whether human, animal or plant.

See it yourself, it’s pretty stunning. After that visit the website myworld.panda.org to see in what way your day to day choices affect the environment and what we can do to avoid or minimize the damage. Hopefully the campaign generates more awareness.

For the second consecutive year, Quiksilver and Roxy are running their Green Campaign, aimed at raising awareness about the importance of preserving our water resources.

Under a wonderful slogan “Don’t Destroy What You Came To Enjoy “ a host of initiatives ranging from eco-design and environmental management, to awareness-raising events and partnerships with various associations are being held by the brand.

June is set to be the “Green month” at all the Quiksilver’s stores so around a hundred of eco-friendly products will take centre stage. Quiksilver and Roxy are also launching a new pen, the “B2P” (Bottle to Pen), made from recycled PET and sold with a message bracelet as a sign of its commitment. Its rounded and striated design resembles a bottle of mineral water. It’s available for 4€ each at all stores.

For every eco-friendly product sold, 1€ will go towards developing projects run by Quiksilver partner eco- associations. last years campaign raised over €80,000 to support organisations such as CŒUR DE FORET and Surfrider Foundation.

There is also a competition held by Quiksilver and Roxy in which you post videos, drawings and photos illustrating your vision of the theme “Don’t Destroy What You Came To Enjoy” and the concept of the solid green line. Winning entries must show creativity and imagination! The winning photo will be the one that garners most votes from Internet-users in a one-click voting system.

The winner will receive a fantastic longboard eco-designed by Notox in France, along with a cheque of 1,000€ made out to one of the three associations partnering the Green Campaign.

Get green.

Dogwoof Film will soon release a new environmental documentary called “Gasland”, a movie that exposes the corruption and toxic waste of the natural gas industry.

Written and directed by Josh Fox, it follows him as he takes a road trip across the America. The project began when he was asked to lease his land in the Delaware Basin for natural gas exploration for $100,000.

Instead of taking up the offer, he decided to make this film to expose the corruption, toxic waste and water supply contamination that this industry is producing.