blogs
HopenSource by Grist
Now for a little environmental optimism. I’ve stumbled across Grist‘s clever side project, HopenSource a few times and would highly recommend swinging by next time you’ve got the chance. It’s a joint blog and twitter account (including its very own hashtag to allow everyone to join in the conversation) dedicated to the discussion of the good news in the environmental arena.
That’s right, you didn’t read that wrong. I said good news. In a field almost completely dedicated to approaching issues from an “Oh Lord, what have we done?” angle, I find the optimism to be refreshing. I’ve said it many times, one of the most basic obstacles to environmental progress is the ease with which everyday people get bogged down in the despair and general permeation of bad news, particularly in the media. This idea that because we’ve gone so far at this point, in terms of habitat destruction, climate change, toxic distribution, etc., there’s really nothing we can do on an individual level that would make a dent, and therefore no point in trying.
In fact, this perspective couldn’t be farther from the truth. › Continue reading
Green Blogs and the Nature of Blogging
image: flickr user HeavenlyCabins
So I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately, partly in research for these posts, and partly out of interest of what people have to say about the green movement and living sustainably. It got me thinking about some things. First being how overwhelming the amount of information that is at the tips of our fingers is. Second being the question of the worth of that overabundance of information.
In reference to my first thought, if you can- try to think back to a time before the internet. A time before everyone’s opinions, however valid they might be, were being shouted from forums and blogs. A time when the information people received was either from word of mouth and therefore obviously based in opinion, or the newspaper, TV, and radio, all very controlled and filtered mediums usually firmly rooted in the journalistic ideal of neutrality and objectivity. Now think about the wealth of information readily available to anyone with access to the internet. It really is overwhelming. The news media have scrambled to up their output in order to remain competitive, thus the 24 hour news cycle was born. And since anyone who has access to the internet has a platform from which to inform others, we have the blogosphere. Anyone with an opinion (including this particular blogger) has access to more or less an instant audience. As most people are opinionated about something or other, you can understand why so much information is thrown around. Also worth considering is how the anonymity of the internet provides protection for those who might not otherwise speak up. Opinion, rather than objectivity, has become the norm of today’s communication stream, particularly in the realm of environmental issues (think about the ridiculous, continued debate over climate change). › Continue reading
