Blogs, sites help spread Green message

Now more than ever before, the green movement is online and plugged into everything from the country’s largest news outlets to localized bloggers poking into community endeavors to clean up a city’s river. There’s a vast spectrum of environmental coverage out there, but there’s no shortage of credible web addresses to stop off at along the way, provided you have some directions. The New York Times erected a green flag on what used to be polar opposites of online news not so long ago with Dot Earth (http://www.dotearth.com/), a world-class environmental blog nearly hidden under the Science section of the New York Times’ online home. There you’ll find next generation reporter Andrew C. Revkin, meets the lofty task of covering the environmental beat in blog form while maintaining the caliber of reporting published by The Times. Dot Earth expands the scope of conservation to encompass the global dilemma of preserving human life as we know it in the short years to come. As described on the site: “By 2050 or so, the world population is expected to reach 9 billion, essentially adding two Chinas to the number of people alive today. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where, scientists say, humans are already shaping climate and the web of life.” Making a quick right turn, a good sign that environmental consciousness is making its way across widespread news channels is that now, even FoxNews online has dedicated a small portion of its site to green study. Well, it’s called “How Green,” underneath their SciTech tab that questions ‘liberal applications’ of the ‘green media spin.’ Navigating through the column archives uncovers dirty secrets about the environmental merits of our new President and the common Vespa with entries such as, “How Green Is the inauguration of Barack Obama,” “How Green Are Motor Scooters,” and “How Green Is The Toyota Prius.” The Jan. 15, 2009, entry, “How Green Are Motor Scooters,” proclaims, “According to current EPA standards, cars are allowed to emit 0.16 grams of HC and NOx per mile. Scooters can get away with emitting 1.3 grams per mile — more than eight times the amount of cars.” Despite the unique offerings of both Dot Earth and How Green, neither are especially prominent on The Times or Fox main web pages; if surfers weren’t looking for them they may never be noticed. The same dilemma plagues the torrents of green news yet to capture the filter of a major news outlet for sorting by quality and relevance. That’s where middle-man news sites like Sightline Daily (http://daily.sightline.org/) and Crosscut, (www.crosscut.com) come into play. Sightline plucks daily environmental, social, and economic headlines from more than 40 media outlets in the Cascadia (generally Northwest/Mountain West) region and beyond, boasting, “We say that Sightline Daily enables you to read 40 newspapers in 2 minutes—and we mean it.” Seattle based Crosscut operates under the same creed, but from the Western side of the state. For lovers of all things blog, WattHead (http://watthead.blogspot.com/) could be the Mecca of green. Site Founder and blogmaster Jesse Jenkins is combination analyst and activist, and is the director of energy and climate policy at the Breakthrough Institute (www.breakthrough.org), a think tank committed to creating new progressive politics. Jenkins has the unique disposition of reporting from the trenches of professional environmental reform, allowing him the credentialed background to objectively criticize or support most green news rolling down the pike. In response to President Obama’s plans to spend $15 billion yearly for a new energy economy, Jenkins writes, “Once you start looking at the critical areas where public investment in a clean energy economy is necessary - research, development and demonstration; critical infrastructure, like a modernized electrical grid; deployment incentives to spur emerging technologies; and efficiency incentives, financing and other investments to retrofit American homes, businesses and factories - it’s not hard to see why the $15 billion per year Obama has pledged is simply not up to the task.” Injecting a much-needed comedic slant to the all but humorous online environmental coverage, grist (www.grist.org) shores up the journalistic void previously left by the hip younger generation of green persons. The site is chock-full of sarcasm, wit and even a music video on the toxicity of sex toys entitled, “Breaking Up With My Blow-Up Doll.” (According to Grist, a major percentage of sex dolls and toys are sold for novelty use only, meaning they are not regulated and should not be trusted.) grist makes little attempt to hide its opinions or humor when reporting on anything green or loosely relatable with “Top Topic” posts such as dumbassery, sex, polar bears, greenwashing and Barack Obama just to name a few. Despite the shenanigans and bid to attract younger generations of visitors, grist is actually a respectable source of environmental news and commentary for the web surfer who doesn’t mind a healthy dose of cheeky humor and lifestyle-themed content. The green movement is definitely evolving under the topical grow lamp of the media with the Internet supplying a near endless array of sites to educate, inform and entertain. As economies shrink and climates change, keeping up to date on the environment with a mind angled at conservation is gaining in popularity through incentive — what’s good for Mother Earth is good for our future.