I’m a net-activism fiend. Check out my “action” for renewable energy at Change.org, as well as this week’s Media Mayhem column on the Mother Nature Network:
One afternoon last week, I joined seven different environmental communities, signed four petitions, sent letters to both my senators, let hundreds of friends in on a new way to fight climate change, agreed to reduce my family’s carbon output by .94 tons a year, and founded a campaign calling for all electric utilities to get at least 20 percent of their power from renewable sources.
Oh, yeah. I learned a little later that I’d raised a whole penny on behalf of the cause “Stop Global Warming.”
John Muir, eat your heart out.
Muir spent most of his life (which lasted from 1838 to 1914) crusading for wilderness conservation. He climbed peaks above the Yosemite Valley, camped out with Teddy Roosevelt and founded the Sierra Club.
Nowadays, anybody can go to sierraclub.org and, in about minute, fire off a personalized letter on one of about 30 environmental issues to his or her congressperson.
My own orgy of activism was prompted by a decision to figure out how to effectively use 50 or so interactive communities and social media websites that focus either exclusively or to a great extent on the environment. I found that the sites can be fun and feel empowering — in the same way, say, that blazing through an easy crossword puzzle might be exhilarating.
Read on at Mother Nature Network …
On hiatus
Cult of Green’s on a hiatus right now as I work on some new projects.
7 green stories that ought to cheer you up
Last week’s Media Mayhem column from the Mother Nature Network:
Climate change looks as if it’s coming quicker than previously imagined. The strongest response that our politicians can manage may actually be worse than taking no action. And a huge chunk of one state is expected simply to disappear — even if we do manage to take effective action against global warming.
Here are seven developments that may play a role in solving climate change and other burning problems of the future — and that may never get the headlines they deserve.
For the rest of Media Mayhem, go to the Mother Nature Network.
Fox and foreign press find fault but climate bill is progress
This week’s Media Mayhem column from the Mother Nature network.
I was so proud of the House of Representatives for its recent passage of legislation to tackle climate change. Finally.
Oh, by the way: Louisiana’s about to disappear!
Amid the myriad environmental issues that taking up headline space around the country, you may not have noticed this one, which I’ll try to state as calmly as possible:
10 PERCENT OF LOUISIANA’S GONNA BE GONE BY THE END OF THE CENTURY AND THERE’S NOT A HELL OF A LOT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT!!! Read more
Wait a sec’ … who’s biasing science around here?
The climate-change denial camp argues that “alarmist” scientists, industrialists and politicians are grotesquely biasing the debate because they stand to make so much money from legislation to limit greenhouse gases.
Well, if you stand to make money on something, and if you have the means to influence the debate, it stands to reason that you’d spend a lot to make a lot more on down the road. How else could you bias things?
Surprise. Surprise. The interests that stand to gain from doing nothing about climate change (or close to nothing) are spending five to 10 times as much as the interests that want the country to take aggressive action. At least, that’s the case when it comes to lobbying expenditures. Read more
I am ‘an *** for defending’ Al Gore
With the help of Al Gore, I finally made the big time!
Not just one asterisk, not just two — I’m a three asterisk kinda guy.
This is because I wrote a column for the Mother Nature network in which Gore responded to questions about his finances (the transcript of his responses is here).
The first commenter wrote this: “al gore is a crook. and you are an *** for defending him.” An ***! Maybe, this is just MNN’s way of cleaning up the language.
Oh, please, please, please. Puhrty please. Go to this week’s Media Mayhem column and comment there. Maybe if you do, I will earn my fourth asterisk. Read more
OK. This is my last ‘Apocalypse Now’ headline
Britain’s Independent newspaper grabbed the phrase a few years back soon after we entered the new millennium. Just last week, Toronto’s Globe and Mail picked the two words to top a thoughtful piece on proper responses to the climate crisis.
An award for green junk mail?
How popular is the color green? Well, it’s so popular nowadays that the folks who brought you junk mail have created a new award for “green” direct marketing.
OK, OK. In fairness, direct marketing isn’t limited to junk mail. Telemarketing, e-mail marketing and other methods of inundating you with advertising that you never asked for fall under the definition of direct marketing. The defining factor is that the message skirts other media to get straight to the consumer. Read more
