Who Should Blog? Assembling the Most Important Voices in Environmentalism Today

As Huffington Post's environmental columnist, I work closely with Arianna's Green Team--Willow Bay and Green/Business Editor Dave Burdick. Together, it is our mission to bring you the most pressing global matters affecting our planet's health and sustainability: up-to-the-minute news, exclusive green living features, health, consumer safety warnings and--if we're in the mood--photos of Al Sharpton riding a bicycle.

But that's the easy part! In addition to scouring the ticker for critical environmental news content, we must also assemble the most significant environmental voices for the Huffington Post's Green Blogroll.

So far, Huffington Post Green readers have heard from such noted environmental pundits as Laurie David, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and straight-shooting environmental economist Andrew Winston. Veteran environmentalists Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Simran Sethi, and Carl Pope also blog regularly.

But who else? We want more.

As the search for the movement's voice continues, the Green Team would greatly appreciate your help. We want to know: who do you want to see write for HuffPo Green? And why? Who gets your vote? Who gets your veto? Big names? Little names? We want them all.

Then there's the issue of "diversity". . . should HuffPo Green be a collection of those men and women fighting for renewable energy, conservation, carbon-free fuel and plastic bag bans? Or, shall we feature the full monty--a range of contradictory crusaders--including climate change skeptics, oil-industry lobbyists, even eco-terrorism groups.

Leave your answers in the comments section below. But don't stop there . . .

In addition to telling us who you care to read, tell us what is important to you. Is it rising gas prices, off-shore drilling or concern over suburban sprawl? Do you care to know which candidate is "greener?" Hottest eco-hotels or vegetarian living? Or is it electric cars and clean tech scooters?

Let us know your thoughts.

Together--with your help--we can assemble a leading cast of environmental experts, green living personalities, even global warming naysayers. It could be glorious! Truly, we have the opportunity to create something profoundly important--a depository of ideas and inspiration, a virtual boxing ring (where only egos are bruised), a forum for discussion, a heated debate. So don't delay. Please leave your suggestions below. We look forward to taking your requests seriously.

Sincerely,

Olivia Zaleski

PS. Be sure to sign up for Huffington Post Green alerts at the top of the page.

Follow Olivia Zaleski on Twitter: www.twitter.com/oliviazaleski

Comments

[Wilburrr]

I sometimes get a bit perturbed reading articles by younger people who, as journalists, live in apartments writing stories about how to make my house greener. There is a disconnect with people who mean well but don't have the experience of dealing with HOA's, old construction, or any of the other millions of issues that come up during remodeling projects. You should have someone who is familiar with construction, building energy efficient/green homes, and can write.

You also need someone who is familiar with science. Someone who is maybe a science coordinator for a school district and has spent 30 years in education. Someone who is familiar with the big issues. Articles about which brand of baby clothes is greener and which box store you should buy them at is ... .well..... you know.

You should also have someone who is experienced with the environmental movement. A nature person who has spent a good portion of life fighting for wilderness, backpacking, kayaking, white water boating and just being out in nature. Someone who has changed the way these activities are done today.

hmmmm.... I wonder who that person could be? (Give me a call....)

[eco-rabbi]

As someone who has been involved with the religious environmental movement for almost 20 years I think that you should add stories about how religious congregations are creating sustainable communities (for 8 great examples see the new film Renewal). My own organization GreenFaith www.greenfaith.orgg) has been doing this since 1992 and there are many others.

I also think that you should add the voices of the many eco-theologians who have written many important works on how to change our relationship with the earth.

[Earth keeper]

A second call for diversity … the more voices, the better. We don’t all have to share a point of view and in fact, by challenging each other’s ideas and positions we’re likely working toward stronger solutions.

Diversity of topics is as important as diversity of voices … whether we’re talking about light bulbs or legislation, what one reader finds irrelevant another might find inspiring. If the goal is to engage as many as possible in the green movement, we’ve got to broaden the conversation so that it appeals to a wider audience (something we’re also trying to do over at www.earthkeeper.com/blog) … some might consider that “watered-down” environmentalism, but what harm can come from making the issue more approachable and relevant to a greater number of potential advocates?

A few suggestions for your blogroll:
Joel Makower http://makower.typepad.com/joel_makower//)
Marc Gunther http://www.marcgunther.com//)
Lori Bongoirno http://www.amazon.com/dp/0399534032/?tag=yahhyd-20&hvadid=37657705011&ref=pd_sl_3zx68oncd0_bb)

Thanks, Olivia, for stirring discussion about the “best” green voices and how to make the conversation richer and deeper.

[sheila]

We need someone to counteract the propagandists for Big Energy and Big Enviros. Someone who understands that the debate is

not Big Fossils v. Big Renewables,

but that the debate is between

Big Energy and Ratepayers/the Planet

Unless this entire nation suffers from Stockholm Syndrome, there is NO reason to use all our resources to re-entrench Big Energy monopolies in a renewable energy era... We need Feed-in Tariffs and grid parity for individual renewable generators, we need REAL costs assessed for destroying our wilderness with massive wind and solar plants/tra­nsmission, and we need Conservation and energy storage solutions.

I believe that people from the Rocky Mountain Institute could blog in support of Net Zero buildings, decentralized, clean power, and the importance of engaging individuals in this fight. Bill McKibben sometimes nails the "real" costs of permanently destroying intact ecosystems (think superfunds, not BLM lease prices).

So far, all we have heard is the Big Enviros who sold out to Big Renewables in a Faustian bargain to kill much, but not all of the environment in exchange for cheerleading ongoing monopolies. We need voices not constrained by that bargain.

[Guitarsandmore]

It would be fun to hear Naomi Klein's take on who should own the new green technologies and how they should be deployed.

[demar]

I would recommend Rory Cox from Pacific Environment. http://pacificenvironment.org/ You might take a look at a blog I posted to the Huffington Post in 2006 regarding LNG called Wait a Minute Arnold. When T Boone Pickens calls for use of natural gas to power vehicles you know its because he wants to import LNG. Al Gore is right, we need to have a transportation grid based in electricity. Not more fossil fuels. http://lngpollutes.org/

[socialscientist]

Advocacy of better cars does not make you an environmentalist. Better cars just lead to more sprawl. The electric car effectively burns coal, and promotes sprawl which burns even more coal. The solution is to reduce the auto and sprawl. Start with free public transit - google it.

[Guitarsandmore]

This really does need to be a grass roots movement else I'll end up like Arthur Edens in "Michael Clayton". He was the guy who decided to stand up to the corporation and go against the flow all by himself and for his truth telling efforts he was rewarded with an early death; murdered by the corporation.

No, if enough people stand up to be counted and insist on a move away from the constant funding of the weapons plants and the war machine and a move towards funding green activities we can change the entire direction of the planet.

[socialscientist]

The list of environmentalists should exclude those who do not have public transportation in their proposed solutions. That would exclude most of the big names. If you don't believe it, search the web sites. We need free public transit. see freepublictransit dot org.

[Guitarsandmore]

I wouldn't want to be that restrictive on our first pass and end up eliminating someone with really good ideas. An engineer who owns the entire life cycle of one very good product may be too focused on that one product to be working on mass transit or even have an opinion on mass transit. That should not prevent us from considering his/her one product as part of the over all solution.

It is too early to filter out good ideas that we have not as yet even considered and examined.

I want to hear a national debate of good ideas and see all of the very good products then cuss and discuss the relative merits of each and pick and chose from the list.

[texfly]

Here's another. Very knowledgeable on climate cahnge and also a scientist. Dr David J C MacKay, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, UK

[texfly]

How about Dr Jim Hansen? You know the father of global warming and a real scientsit who can present information with sound reasoning, logic and a lack of hyperbole. He has left NASA and is now at Columbia University and may be available for HuffPo

[morefission]

I recently read *Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy* by Gwyneth Cravens and found it to be a creditable source of information regarding the option of more nuclear power generation plants in combination with more renewable systems. She depends heavily on Dr. D. Richard ("Rip") Anderson to tell her story. He is also a creditable source of information on the subject. I recommend them both to you as very good individuals to include in your lists.

[Tpatrick]

I would like to nominate three people whose books and articles have helped me better understand the environmental choices we need to make.

1. Dr. Helen Caldicott is an Australian physician and anti-nuclear advocate.

2. Dr. Timothy Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, paleontologist, and global warming activist.

3. George Monbiot is an English journalist, author, environmental activist whose articles can be found at www.monbiot.com.

[stevesrant]

I would love to see more in depth information about the 'connectedness' of all things (living and non-living) on earth, from any blogger. I don't think the average American fully grasps even the basic principles of earth's biosphere, or the true scale of mankind's activity in it. It would also be great to see a posted Comment of particular insight or poignancy occasionally elevated to Blog status. (Huffpo's Pick was a nice step in this direction, but it requires one to read through all the comments in a particular blog to see it.) This would be a nice interactive feature on Huffpo in general, but would be especially apropos for the Green section, since the Green movement depends so much on grassroots activism. Lastly, I think it is imperative you sometimes include opposing points of view as you do in other Huffpo sections if you want to keep the section vibrant and thought provoking, instead of it becoming just another static green (literally!) site among many. Thanks for asking.

[SoapboxDave]

There are some good names on here, but I think we need some voices that can speak to the current and future generation that are also deep in the fight moving this important issue forward. I also want to say we need some folks who are vested in our goal of getting legislation passed that will protect our environment, create a green economy and account for the security implications, but also are pragmatic enough to know how the system works.

That said, I really like the wit and deepth of knowledge Miles Grant from greenmiles.net brings to the discussion. He is known on some of the well known blogs like Grist, Daily Kos, TreeHugger, etc...

I also like Kate Shepard from Grist.

Good luck!

[dadaB]

I'd like to see more news that pertains to families, ordinary people, not just the well-to-do trendsetters and jetsetters.

I like Christine Escobar,
www.greenparentchicago.com.

She's written outstanding pieces on the urban environmental scene and writes from a natural parenting perspective.

She's also one of my favorite contributors on progressive politics around the web .

[TheGreenGirls]

Would love to see more green living blogs & advice. After all, in order to trully make a difference, we have to make a lifestyle change.

A. Levy
http://www.thegreengirls.com/