Halloween is just a day away and while there are bound to be plenty of spooky ghosts and goblins roaming the streets and searching out candy, some seriously scary real-life “monsters” are among us and they’ve been created (or encouraged) by global warming and pollution. Here are five reminders that things could get really scary (peak oil scary even!) if we don’t make an effort to improve things for the environment.

1. Giant Jellyfish

Seas full of enormous toxic jellyfish sound like something out of a bad scary movie, but due to overfishing the scary swarms are a reality in several parts of the world. With their natural predators fished out of commission and global warming linked to increasing jellyfish populations, these giant jellyfish (some of which can be deadly to both fish and humans) are a very valid threat and one that’s worth switching to sustainable seafood to avoid.

2. Two Headed Fish

They’re not quite the deadly sea creatures that were chasing down human meals in the movie Piranha, but two-headed fish and fish larvae are becoming more common and while there are a few things linked to the problem (including genetic mutation) many scientists feel pollution plays a huge role, with now-famous two-headed fish showing up in an Alberta lake near an oil sands operation and schools of two-headed fish larvae appearing in Australian waters near a pesticide-heavy macadamia plant. Click here to read more

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Whether you’re setting off for Bangladesh or headed for a weekend camping trip by the lake, you’re probably planning to rehydrate with bottled water because of questionable drinking water or convenience, but just as you’ve cut the plastic bottle-habit out of your daily life (we hope), there are better alternative than buying a bottle every time thirst strikes.

The hand-held SteriPEN Adventurer is small enough to fit inside even the most overstuffed luggage and enables you to purify the water wherever you’re headed with UV light instead of chemicals, so you can skip the bottled water without picking up any funky digestive problems.

Ideal for use on water from clear running streams and questionable municipal facilities, the SteriPEN will rid your water of lurking bacteria and other bad news (although it won’t remove debris or improve taste, so avoid sediment-containing water). All you have to do is hold the SteriPEN in the water you want to purify, press the button and wait while the pen agitates and purifies the water with its UV light. Click here to read more

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Hollywood parties tend to run completely counter to the ideas of the environmental movement. Where going green is about using only what’s necessary and cutting back on the consumerism, most L.A. fetes are all about excess and laden swag bags. Fortunately, as more and more Americans have made the decision to go green, Hollywood has started to follow suit. Eco-friendly gifts are showing up in goodie bags at award shows and red carpets are starting to get green thanks to hybrid arrivals and more thorough recycling programs.

For their fall lineup party, Fox stayed with the environmental theme and held their fifth annual Eco-Casino Party, where the channel’s stars came out to promote their shows and do a little green gambling thanks to recycled poker chips and faux casino tables.

From start to finish, every detail of the affair was considered for it’s impact and on the earth and Fox took steps to make it as carbon-friendly as possible (with carbon offsets helping where planning couldn’t). Guests—like Glee’s Lea Michele and Dollhouse’s Eliza Dushku (pictured above)—learned of the event through e-invites instead of traditional paper printed invitations and those without hybrid rides of their own were offered eco-friendly transportation to the event (instead of the usual fuel-guzzling limos). Inside the Eco-Casino, LED lighting shed a green glow on things, local and organic food fed party goers, and rented reusable decor ensured that nothing was wasted for the sake of ambiance. Click here to read more

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Finding the balance between a toy being educational and a toy being fun can be difficult. You’d love your kids to learn about the environment and what they can do to save it, but they’ll quickly lose interest if there isn’t an strong element of enjoyment. Most girls , however, will get plenty of play out of the Planet Pixies, and these dolls will help them get started on greener habits.

There are three “pixies” in the Planet Pixie line from I Love My Planet Toys and each is designed to teach kids about a specific region (as well as provide ideas on how to improve things for both that region and the rest of the world). Kayla, the Marsh Pixie, teaches about the Florida Everglades and the effects that pollution and over building have had in the area. Maia, the Tree Pixie, educates about the Amazon Rain Forest and helps young minds understand deforestation. Anyu, the Ice Pixie, highlights the North Pole and ensures that little ones learn about global warming and even the polar ice cap. Click here to read more

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Lipton has been making green tea for a long time, but the tea coming out of their Suffolk, Virgina plant takes the term to another level. The Suffolk plant recently became a “zero waste” or “zero landfill” facility, meaning that everything created or used in their tea production is reused, recycled, reinvented or burned for energy.

Suffolk’s zero waste plant is the latest step in Lipton’s serious efforts to improve the environmental aspects of the tea they create (and there’s a lot of it—about 1 million tea bags an hour at the Suffolk plant alone). In 2007 they began operating a sustainable tea cultivation estate in Kenya, and the same year they began using tea leaves from Rainforest Alliance certified farms in their PureLeaf tea blends. Since then they’ve made a commitment to using only tea from Rainforest Alliance certified farms by 2015 (although the brand is still very lacking when it comes to organic tea offerings).

The zero waste action in Suffolk started small, with employees wanting to step up their environmental efforts in light of the overseas endeavors. Workers started sharing ideas for waste reduction with higher ups and eventually they were tailing Lipton’s garbage to landfills to what was being thrown out (and how they could avoid it). Click here to read more

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