JUST ADDED: LEADING DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL, NORTH CAROLINA SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS WILL BE SPEAKING AT 2:15PM, Tuesday, April 22 at the UCLA Earth Day Event.

The Los Angeles Film School Challenges Big 3 Automakers to Clean Up Their Acts

For immediate release:
REVISED 4/19/03:
JUST ADDED: LEADING DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL, NORTH CAROLINA SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS WILL BE SPEAKING AT 2:15PM, Tuesday, April 22 at the UCLA Earth Day Event.

Contact:    
Andy Shrader
ashrader@lafilm.com

The Los Angeles Film School Challenges Big 3 Automakers to Clean Up Their Acts

2003 EARTH DAY CHALLENGE: Cleaner Cars, Cleaner Skies" 100,000 postcards in 100 days

Los Angeles, CA (PR WEB) April 16, 2003 -- On April 22, 2003 (Earth Day), the Los Angeles Film School will launch its second annual Earth Day Challenge: a 100-day postcard initiative aimed at encouraging U.S. automakers to make better, cheaper, and more accessible electric, hybrid, and alternative fuel cars and SUVs. The goal: gather 100,000 signed postcards by July 30th. Additionally, the people signing the postcards pledge to purchase one of those cars themselves within the next ten years. Its all part of the L.A. Film Schools mission to promote what the latest technology has to offer, whether in art, or in life.

The challenge will be launched at the UCLAs Earth Day Event, Tuesday, April 22, 2003, from 9am to 3pm in Bruin Plaza on the UCLA campus, sponsored by UCLA CALPIRG (California Public Interest Resource Group), the Institute for the Environment, Reef Check, the Environmental Coalition, and the Sustainability Coalition, among others. Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom and Leonardo DiCaprio's mother, Irmeline DiCaprio, will be among the dignitaries speaking. A Greenpeace-sponsored, solar-powered truck will provide all the electricity for the bands that will be playing and a hybrid Toyota Prius and an electric GEM car will be on display at the event.

Acclaimed actor and long-time environmental activist Ed Begley, Jr. vigorously endorses this initiative, saying in a statement: "I can't think of anything more patriotic than reducing our dependence on foreign oil. We can clean up the air and save money with the hybrid and electric-power cars already on the market. Let's make sure we have American-made vehicles which incorporate these cleaner technologies now!"

Public Interest Resource Groups across the country pledging to help gather postcards include: SUNY Cortland, UCONN, Old Westbury College, Syracuse University, Oberlin College, Trinity College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Northern Colorado-Greeley, University of Washington, and Portland State University. Additional CALPIRG College groups helping out include: UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and UC Irvine.

LAFS Earth Day Challenge originator and director Andy Shrader, says, Were not asking people to give up their SUVs; were saying to the automakers, make electric and hybrid SUVs; make hydrogen SUVs. The technology is there. Use it. And were providing proof of the demand."

The Los Angeles Film School was designed with the overriding goal of changing the face of Hollywood. The school strives to bring new thoughts, ideas, and ways of looking at the world to its students in order to push the art of filmmaking forward into the 21st Century. Says LAFS Director of Education Amedeo DAdamo, This challenge fits that mission: were simultaneously promoting cutting-edge technology while asking folks to take a more forward-thinking, conservation-minded approach to their car-purchasing habits: your purchasing decision affects everyone."