One Tree Hill stars Sophia Bush and Austin Nichols recently travelled to Louisiana for a first-hand look at the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill.

The duo both work with Global Green and claim their trip down south made lasting impressions on both their professional and personal lives. In an interview with Planet Green, Bush and Nichols detail their experience.

“We’re standing there as he’s telling us this looking at all these guys that they’ve hired for these cleanup crews who are not wearing any protective gear,� says Bush. We asked them, ‘You’ve been told that if you are wearing a respirator on this beach while you clean up you’ll get fired?’ And they said yes.�

“It was all very moving to experience that firsthand,� said Nichols. “I wish everyone could go down there for a day or two and just walk around and talk to people, because if more people could do that, then we would be able to change things much quicker.�

During the interview, both the stars share some pretty moving and incredible stuff. Want to read more? Stop by PlanetGreen.com and check it out!

Source: Ecorazzi

Over the weekend, TV Squad caught up with Sophia Bush of ‘One Tree Hill’ and ‘Supernatural’ star Misha Collins to discuss their latest charitable projects and give advice to anyone who wants to help change the world, one random act of kindness at a time.

Having been environmentally conscious for a number of years, Bush and her on/off-screen boyfriend Austin Nichols are helping to raise awareness of the shocking situation that has decimated an entire ecosystem on the Gulf coast — a situation that Bush insists has shown little sign of improvement, despite BP’s reassurances that the water is safe to swim and fish in.

“In order to be non-harmful, when you test water at a beach it should test less than five parts per million for oil,” Bush told us when we caught up with her via phone last week. “There are beaches in the Gulf right now that are testing as high as 229 parts per million. This is water that children are playing in, that families are swimming in. Young kids are building sandcastles on the beach, and they are sitting in water that is soaked not only with oil particles, but also with Corexit, a dispersant known to cause neurological damage and cancer — we watched them pour it into the Gulf for over a hundred days, and nobody did anything about it.”

Horrified by the morally and legally dubious activities they witnessed on their trip to the Gulf, Bush and Nichols began devoting their passion and time to raise money for Global Green, an organization that not only gives advice on how to make your life greener and cleaner, but also raises funds for humanitarian efforts such as the Gulf Coast clean-up, and the rebuilding of New Orleans post-Katrina.

Click here to read the complete article & Interview with Misha and Sophia

“One Tree Hill” stars Sophia Bush and Austin Nichols talked to Planet Green about their recent trip to the Gulf Coast, where they tried to help with clean-up efforts on the oil-soaked beaches, and about the ways they try to keep the Earth healthy in their daily lives, from composting and installing energy-efficient appliances at home to encouraging recycling and saving energy on their show’s set. And they agreed that going green isn’t just for the rich.

“People who I know who compost are farmers and ranchers,” says Bush. “I saw firsthand in Grand Isle people who have no wealth whatsoever, people who work with their hands every day, who bring home food on their table because they caught it in the sea — these are not people who drive Bentleys or fly on private planes. They are not wealthy people who are clamoring for a green future for their Gulf Coast.”

Read part one and part two of the interview on Planet Green.