Processing Food

My roommate gave me a link to this food processing video. The footage was taken from a chicken processing plant in Germany. It's nearly a 10-minute long video, and parts of it are graphic, but I'd encourage you to watch it, just so that you may see how mechanized our food processing has become. It becomes apparent in the video that raising chickens for food markets has become a mostly-automated process, with little direct human contact involved.


On a related note, I hope you have been following the local news story involving Quality Pork Processors in Austin, MN. Here's a link to a New York Times piece discussing the neurological disease 12 employees at the meat processing plant contracted after inhaling or ingesting aerosolized pig brains. Apparently, the QPP uses compressed air hoses to liquefy pigs' brains in the plant, and workers operating those hoses (or near the equipment) suffered from an "immunologic reaction" caused by the inhalation or ingestion of brain matter.

Final Reflections

I’d like to begin my final reflection by writing about my personal experience in the past month, from beginning to end, with my blog. I find the concept of a ‘blog’ to be fascinating. Online, each individual blog is intensely personal—overwhelmingly they represent the viewpoints of a single author. Some are compiled by groups of writers, some are maintained by organizations, but even in these circumstances the blog is often a conglomeration of relatively homogenous perspectives. Yet, unlike its predecessors, private journals, letters, and daily logs, blogging is a public exercise in introspection. A person’s blog posts are available for access by the largest readership that has ever existed.

When I began writing on my interim blog, Green Con, I expressed my wonder at the sheer quantity of information that was passing through the millions blog sites on the Internet every day. In my month of blogging, that amazement has not diminished. The knowledge that there are thousands of writers posting at every hour of the day—well, let’s just say that trying to visualize the enormity of the blogosphere is a stretch for anyone’s imagination. The end result of the compilation of these thousands of personal accounts in the realm of blogging is a vast electronic discussion that intersects and diverges on a number of topics.

To be frank, the vastness of the blogosphere intimidated me at first. I was a newcomer to the realm of blogging; I had read a few LiveJournal blogs that my friends kept while they were on studies abroad, but that was about it. Will I be saying anything new? How do I draw readers in? What happens if I get noticed? What if someone holds me accountable for an opinion I give on my blog?

Suffice it to say that I had a lot of concerns. Yet, each one of those concerns was outweighed by the excitement that I had when I began blogging. Looking back on it, with 18 posts behind me, I can say that Green Con was a fascinating first experience. Setting up my blog template was terrifically entertaining. It’s like designing your own home. Metaphorically speaking, of course. I had a great time calling all the shots with the template of the blog, and I’m proud of how the aesthetics turned out. Even so, I’m always looking for ways to improve it.

The content was a little trickier to master than the template, and I’d like to turn now to a discussion of my posting process, and some problems that I encountered with it.

So, how did I go about choosing a small selection of environmental blogs to monitor out of the online miasma of personal diaries, news blogs, photo blogs, video blogs, and professional blogs? Choosing which blogs to review was actually the hardest and most crucial stage in the development of my blog. Prior to choosing my “research blogs,” I had very little familiarity with any environmental blogs. I didn’t know what to expect, nor did I know what I was looking for.

In this part of my blog planning, the tracking website Technorati was of great help. Technorati’s “Blog Authority” measuring tool allowed me to select blogs based on how many sites have referenced that specific blog by posting links to it. For example, TreeHugger currently has an authority of 7,787, which means that nearly 7,787 other blogs have referenced TreeHugger in articles on their websites. My blog, on the other hand, has an authority of 0.

Technorati merely helped me narrow the field with my choices, however. It was by no means the only criteria I took into account when I picked my blogs. I also looked at the credentials of the writers/creators of each blog, the content of each blog, the awards that blog has received, and the mission statement of each blog (if they had one). Many blogs included an “About” page that was very helpful in determining the quality of the website. Finally, I hoped to include a variety of perspectives in my research list, so I purposefully sought out blogs that I felt represented different facets of the “green” conversation.

My selection process seemed sound enough on paper, but it led to a few unforeseen complications. Over the course of the past month, I've come to realize that, though choosing blogs that have disparate areas of coverage may provide me with a variety of perspectives, I can't expect each individual blog to always have relevant articles concerning the research topics I've chosen. The variety that I tried to cultivate in my research selection meant that I was stymied 11 different occasions when I was attempting to run an issue analysis on a specific blog. On those occasions, I was forced to turn to another source, hazard a guess at the blog’s stance, or (even worse) write nothing at all. My “Presidential Hopefuls: the Sequel” entry was particularly disastrous for its lack of conclusive results. I was even forced to drop one of my original selections because I decided it didn’t have the sort of coverage I was looking for in a research blog.

At the end of the month, I tried to rectify this problem by choosing an issue, and then only writing summaries for the blogs that I believed would have pertinent information for me, but that’s not really a solution at all. I think the only way I could’ve corrected this issue would be to change the way I selected my research blogs in the first place. Rather than picking them on merit, I should’ve selected a set of blogs that demonstrated a degree of topical similarity (i.e. had similar areas of coverage).

This is, at best, a catch-22; choosing blogs that were homogenous in their coverage would not have adequately represented the different facets of the environmental blogosphere, but only one segment of it. Maybe a segmented approach is the best I can hope for when attempting an issues analysis.

Before I move on to the next part of my essay, I should also address the issue of accountability with regard to blogging. Since the project began I have, to the best of my ability, made my methodology transparent for readers. I felt that this was important for my blogging, since blogs often are criticized for being inaccurate or opinionated. I felt that it was important for my readers to know how I came to my conclusions, every step of the way. It was also imperative that I include links to each of the articles I used when running an issue analysis on the research blogs. I feel that this was one area where Green Con was tremendously successful. Even this self-evaluation is a component in the accountability and transparency of my project.

Most of my conclusions for the project were ongoing during January, and were posted in my blog, so to close my essay I want to talk a bit about my aspirations for Green Con. Establishing a network and building a readership base has been very rewarding for me. I also think the research that I conducted through Green Con has broadened my understanding of the issues underlying environmentalism. For example, I knew nothing about cellulosic ethanol, nor the problems that ethanol production was causing for food prices worldwide.

For the aforementioned reasons, I’ve decided to continue Green Con, albeit in a different format. Two weeks ago, I realized that what I was writing about on my blog would also make a great introduction to the realm of environmental blogging, for those who were unfamiliar with it.

I now want to take part in the same conversation that I attempted to summarize on this blog; I want to serve as a gateway, because I think it takes very little effort on the part of the individual to reduce energy consumption and make green lifestyle changes, and maybe knowing where to look will make all the difference.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone that has helped me with this project, especially my advisor, Brett Werner. I’d also like to thank the Will Steger Foundation for giving me an opportunity to write an action story for them, Focus the Nation and Northfield.org for linking me to their websites, and everyone who took a bit of time to visit my site!

Green Living

I'm doing things a little differently with this issues analysis. At the beginning of this term when I chose my 11 research blogs, I tried to compile a list of blogs that represented different facets of the environmental conversation. I imagined that the various areas of coverage each blog maintained would give me a well-rounded research group, and provide me with plenty to discuss in my posts.
Over the course of the past month, I've come to realize that, though choosing blogs that have disparate areas of coverage may provide me with a variety of perspectives, I can't expect each individual blog to always have relevant articles concerning the research topics I've chosen.

Perhaps the most dramatic example of this occurred during my "Presidential Candidates" analysis, when I discovered that not one, but several blogs did not have any pertinent articles that I could cite in my write-up. This left me with a couple of gaping holes in my analysis. Here I was, trying to present a complete summary of my research blogs' discussions concerning the 2008 election, and a number of my chosen blogs weren't even hosting discussions regarding that topic. True, a lack of specific coverage can be significant in its own way (more on that later), but it hindered my ability to provide a full overview of each blog's stance.

This last topic is an attempt to fill those gaping holes. This time, instead of choosing an "across-the-board" issue that will get me the best results on the most blogs, I've selected several blogs that I feel were underutilized in my previous analyses, and chosen an issue that corresponds best with their areas of coverage. As a result, I will not be running an issues analysis on all of my 11 research blogs. Instead, I'll only be doing a write-up on five selected blogs.

The issue I've chosen is a specific aspect of green consumerism. Many environmentalists advocate reduced consumption, but some bloggers believe that global warming can be defeated (at least in part) by consumerism and market-driven forces. The mass appeal of green products is growing every day. This drive has given rise to a phenomenon known as 'green chic'--environmental high style, which is intent on increasing market demand for green products. From my understanding, it's a bit like the chicken and egg scenario.

There's no question as to whether "style" influences green products. So I've decided to take a look at what products EcoGeek, The Lazy Environmentalist, TreeHugger, Grist, and EcoStreet are showcasing. I think a discussion of these products will necessarily reflect on some of the market trends behind the concept of 'green chic'.

• EcoGeek: It turns out that the EcoGeek really loves his cars, which is great, because I think a discussion of motor vehicles is a perfect place to start my analysis of green style. Americans love their performance automobiles--a car, after all, is more than a car, it's a status symbol. So its pretty obvious that alternative fuel automobile-makers have been trying to break into the high-end automobile market. For the past few years, it seems that any successes have been on a (very) limited scale. For example, GM recalled their EV1 battery-operated vehicle in 2003, after the company determined the car was no longer financially viable. Enter EcoGeek, which has been reporting on the industry's attempt to rejuvenate the high-end green car market recently with these articles.
  
• The Lazy Environmentalist: TLE is a literally a goldmine for green chic, which makes perfect sense, given that part of Mr. Dorfman's modus operandi is to introduce readers and listeners to "cutting-edge, eco-friendly products and services" Since Dorfman is the owner of a green furniture company, I started my investigation there. Yeah, yeah, I know that Vivavi's website hardly qualifies as Dorfman's 'blog', but since he linked the two websites so intricately, I decided that in this case my infractions could be forgiven. Anyway, check out some of this really pricey, but green, furniture. Dorfman is really banking on the idea that green-minded consumers will shell out some extra cash for eco-friendly furniture. Dorfman's company also donates 1% of their profits to environmental NGOs, which is a little extra enticement for green shoppers.
• TreeHugger: The venerable blog Treehugger has a number of different links for fashionably-inclined environmentalist. They have helpful tips for shoppers to take into consideration, and link green retailers to their website. Their "How to go Green" section is particularly well-done; it's a whole series of articles featuring practical green consumer alternatives. As far as 'green chic' goes, Treehugger has more or less dedicated another whole section to it. The Fashion and Beauty section even has short interviews with "eco-models." How's that for green chic?
• Grist: Like Treehugger, Grist has a lot of relevant articles on green clothing fashions. If you want a little sample of some of their discussion points, check out the article on Natalie Portman's vegan shoe line, or (my personal favorite) this short write-up on the impending doom of the fashion industry. This article on 'Fashion with a conscience' is also interesting.
• EcoStreet: EcoStreet has some really great articles on green gadgetry, but they also have their fair share of fashion-related posts on their blog, as well. Check out this post on "2008's Most Desirable Eco-Gadgets"--I think the speakers that are made out of 100% recyclable material are my personal favorite. Here's another cool article on some artsy low-energy light bulbs, and if you want more, this article on eco-Wi-fi might work. I think EcoStreet and EcoGeek prove that green consumerism has even permeated the tech industry.
  

Toyota vs. Fresno

Some of you may have heard about this already, since it happened back in November, but I thought it was worth posting about. Toyota Motor Corporation called Fresno, California, a "low-budget tourist stop" in one of its recent Prius commercials. Well, apparently Fresno residents--and California Senator Dianne Feinstein--objected to the derogatory treatment of the city (surprise, surprise) got Toyota to pull the ad and edit any mention of Fresno out of it. Even that move wasn't enough for some, however. A member of the Fresno City Council, Harry Perea, said he'd only forgive Toyota if the company built a Prius factory in Fresno.

Stealing Food

I know, I know, you're probably sick and tired of hearing about biofuel, but here's a little more food for thought. The rising price of food as a result of the biofuel market has concerned a number of humanitarians and environmentalists, but who thought those problems would manifest themselves so quickly in the heart of the U.S.? Check out this MSNBC news report about corn and grain thefts in western Kansas from January 14th.

Biofuel: Part 2

• Dot Earth: Although the New York Times has plenty to say about various biofuels, the jury seems to be out for Andrew Revkin, who did not comment on it personally. He linked a number of interesting articles to his blog, and while many of these articles do not pass a verdict on ethanol or other biofuels, they're worth reading. Here's one on the development of Hawaiian ethanol, another on cellulosic ethanol (which brief addresses some of the drawbacks of ethanol, but passes no opinions on the subject), and one last article on some of the lasting difficulties of introducing ethanol into the market.
• New Scientist: New Scientist's Environmental blog had little to say about biofuel, but their online magazine certainly hasn't been silent on the topic. It turns out that New Scientist has a lot of hope for switch grass. The perennial plant, which can live on marginal lands and needs very little fertilizer to survive, has been championed as the cleaner, less-intensive alternative to corn-based ethanol, is capable of producing 5.4 times as much energy when turned into cellulosic ethanol (which has been mentioned previously, but never fully explained in my blog). Anyway, take a look at this recent article. You have to subscribe to the magazine to get the full version, but I think those first couple of paragraphs get the point across quite nicely.
• Real Climate: Ok, so I was really hoping to find something in Real Climate that was ethanol related, because my last topic wasn't in their area of coverage. When I chose biofuel as my second analysis topic, I though Real Climate would have something on the blog about it, since deforestation for biofuel production is contributing to carbon emissions, which are definitely a climatic issue. Alas! Again, I wasn't able to find anything pertinent on their website, even though there's some great environmental coverage there!
• Eco-Street: Eco-Street, like The Lazy Environmentalist, is primarily consumerist in its orientation. As a result, most of their articles on biofuels, like this one on chocolate, tout the novelty of environmentally-related market innovations, rather than passing judgments on said innovations.
• De Smog Blog: The guys over at the De Smog Blog aren't big fans of ethanol, though they are willing to debate the efficacy of it. As for other biofuels? Well, they're pretty excited about switchgrass.
  

Biofuel

When I was planning my next issues analysis, I thought I might write about alternative energy. It’s one of the most talked-about environmental topics, and with good reason. Replacing fossil fuels with clean energy technologies in the U.S. will be, quite logically, very expensive. At the same time, there’s a lot of potential in solar, wind, and biofuel sources. For example, Dr. David Mills, the Founder, Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer of Ausra, a solar power manufacturer, estimates that all the energy needs of the U.S. can be met by a 92x92 sq. mile solar generator strategically placed in the southwest.

The more I looked at the topic, though, the more I became interested in one aspect of alternative energy. Namely, biofuel.

Using biofuel as a replacement/supplement for gasoline in the U.S. automotive fleet could be a near-term solution to global warming. By near-term, I mean that it could feasibly be implemented in the next few years on a widespread scale. Yet, ethanol, one type of biofuel, has come under increasing fire by environmentalists and other groups, who fear that the corn-based energy source suffers from an energy input-yield problem, and may endanger food supplies. David Pimental even went as far as to call the production of ethanol “unsustainable subsidized food burning."

So what does the realm of environmental blogging have to say about ethanol and other biofuels?

• Treehugger: Treehugger acknowledges that biofuels may have a role to play in battle royale against global warming, but has any number of reservations about it. According to their research in this article U.S. ethanol production accounted for 4% of the global increase in corn production in 2007. In 2004, ethanol production only accounted for roughly .33% of that increase. The writers at Treehugger question the economic rationality of that growth, and voiced concerns that biofuels were being poorly implemented. Treehugger is particularly concerned about the effects of biofuels in developing nations; here they argue that developing nations are well-suited to the production of corn or cellulosic biofuels, but that the deforestation stemming from the increasing biofuel production would offset the carbon emissions reduction caused by the widespread implementation of biofuel. Treehugger cited statistic in this article demonstrating that the production of palm oil for biofuel may currently "account for up to 8% of worldwide carbon emissions." Still, Treehugger remains cautiously optimistic about biofuel, and believes that if the alternative energy source were cut free from special interests, and developed on a limited and efficient scale, it could provide one source of fuel.
• EcoGeek: EcoGeek made a very interesting point in this article; we have been concentrating on producing a biofuel to power a vehicle, but what about using other green materials in the construction of said vehicle. For example, the article cites a car built by University of Warwick students that uses plant-based oil for a lubricant, and has "cashew nut shell brakepads." That is quite cool, if I don't say so myself. Novelty aside, EcoGeek is very negative about ethanol, but favors the production of cellulosic ethanol--a biofuel that is created from lignocellulose, which comprises the mass of plants. Using cellulosic ethanol could more than double yields, since most of the plant is converted into fuel, rather than just the starches or gluten. Currently, cellulosic ethanol is produced primarily through non-edible switchgrass. Another biofuel EcoGeek is putting stock in is butanol, a more energy dense, gasoline-like cousin to ethanol. Finally, EcoGeek had a really interesting report about the oil-giant, Shell, producing biofuel from algae, which would apparently clear up a lot of the land-use issues ethanol is being criticize for, since it would (logically) be produced in bodies of water.
• Worldchanging: My search for "biofuel" returned 256 related items on Worldchanging's blog. So, evidently they've put a lot of time and thought into this particular subject. Worldchanging shares a lot of the same concerns that TreeHugger expressed. From this article, it's clear that the blog doesn't support converting undisturbed land into cropland to support biofuel, but favors using 2nd-generation biofuel (which is effectively lignocelloluse). For a decent explanation of 2nd generation biofuels, check out this BBC article. Like TreeHugger, Worldchanging didn't toss ethanol and other energy-intensive biofuels out the window completely. Instead, Worldchanging's writers believe that ethanol, etc. needs on a sustainable scale in conjunction with other diversified energy sources. Also, thanks to Worldchanging, I discovered that people are apparently able to make a fish-oil based biofuel. This article on Worldchanging explains it all, but I guess more than 8 million gallons a year are produced in Alaska as a byproduct of fish processing plants, and the state uses it to power vehicles and generators in Denali National Park. Kudos to you, Alaska...

• Grist: Grist has a wonderfully convenient feature series on "biofuel" that has articles on everything; from the chemical construction of different biofuels to a list of prominent biofuel proponents they've got it all. Seriously, if you're interested at all in the biofuel debate, visit the above link; it explains so much. Anyway, endorsements aside, the writers at Grist have a number of reservations about biofuels. "But plant-derived fuel doesn't emerge from a vacuum. Crops must be cultivated, harvested, moved, and transformed -- processes that are hardly carbon neutral. And here is where the vast discrepancies cloaked by the term "biofuels" emerge," they stated in one of their articles. Also, Grist is the first website I've found that specifically mentioned the 51-cent-a-gallon tax credit on ethanol production in the U.S. For a full explanation of what a tax credit is, click on this Energy Star link--it's basically a direct tax reduction. Juxtapose that against the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff the U.S. tacks on to sugar cane ethanol from Brazil--which is a very efficient biofuel producer, nationally. Clearly there are quite a few special interest concerns wrapped up in this debate.
• The Lazy Environmentalist: The blogs I've reviewed so far appear to have reached somewhat of a consensus of biofuels, so I was hoping that, sooner or later, I'd run into someone with a different take on the matter. Enter Josh Dorfman, the author of Lazy Environmentalist. Though his blog doesn't feature any discussions on biofuel--at least not that I could find--his nationally-syndicated radio talk show has hosted a bevy of decidedly pro-ethanol speakers. In one day, on March 27, 2007, Dorfman spoke with Derrick Earles, the then-candidate for the a Louisiana state representative position. Take a look at his Earles' endorsement of ethanol here (scroll halfway down on that page to see it). Dorfman also spoke with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (their "Facts" page on ethanol is rather positive about widespread ethanol production). In this case, Dorfman's support seems unconditional; where many of my previous case studies expressed reservations about ethanol, he has not (to my knowledge) brought any ethanol critics on his radio show yet, nor expressed any reservations about the fuel source on his website.
• Green Options: GO also voiced concerns about ethanol and biofuel. For reference, take a look at this article on their website, which discusses some of the negative impacts the heavy fertilization of ethanol-producing corn growers could have on groundwater (not to mention the "Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico). Though GO is definitely on the negative end of the spectrum when it comes to ethanol, they're a little more warm-hearted in their cellulosic ethanol discussion, and even labeled it a "promising technology."
  

Reflections on Focus the Nation

Given that my last few days have consisted of a hectic scramble to attend presentations, post photos and audio/video content, and write brief updates, I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and reflect on what Focus the Nation meant for me.

For several years I've been following the debates, research, and conversations surrounding global warming. During this time, I've felt a vague but growing unease as the research on environmental degradation has continued to pile up. It astounds me that certain members of our society can continue to ignore the increasingly bleak forecasts for our future. Whenever I stop to think about the implications of our continued reliance on fossil fuels, I can't help but feel a bit of the "doom-and-gloom" sentiment that is so common among environmentalists. When I heard David Orr recite statistics saying that we, as a race, are already committed to a 1.4 to 1.8 degrees Celsius rise in temperature across the board...well, let's just say that I wasn't filled with optimism.

Yet, it's heartening to know that there are concerted nationwide environmental efforts happening as we speak. Listening to Orr explain the Presidential Climate Action Plan demonstrated that individuals and communities have felt the urgency of climate change and are committed to immediate, drastic response. That's why programs like Focus the Nation are so important. If you'll pardon my french, they're a collective kick in the ass. They're encouragement. They're a sign that, as a society, we are beginning to turn our focus towards mitigating climate change.

I hope that PCAP and Focus the Nation accomplish their goals; I hope that they are able to convince the next presidential administration that global warming needs to be addressed now. I tend to agree with David Orr; if each generation has some mammoth undertaking, a task they must collectively act on, then ours is almost certainly the prevention of further global climate change.

There are innumerable other things I'd like to discuss in my reaction to Focus the Nation, but I'm not sure that I could begin to address all of them, since global warming is such a big topic. To conclude, then, I'd just like to offer my very sincere thanks to everyone who has helped me out in my coverage of Focus the Nation in the past few days. Specifically, Brett Werner, for giving me some great advice and helping me whenever he could, with whatever I needed. Also, I'd like to thank John Sopiwnik for allowing me to post some of his photos to this blog; Joshua Wyatt and the St. Olaf broadcast media team, for providing me with audio clips; Will Steger, for taking the time to answer a few questions and pose for some photos; and all the faculty and speakers who participated with Focus the Nation, for giving presentations on such a vital topic.

Will Steger's Closing Presentation

All of these pictures were taken at Will Steger's VERY well-attended speech this evening. Steger, who in 1986 led the first unsupported dogsled expedition to the North Pole, and followed that up with a dogsled traverse of the continent of Antarctica, has logged (by his estimation) more than 20,000 miles in a dogsled. His position as an Arctic and Antarctic explorer has given him a great deal of first-hand knowledge concerning global warming effects in those regions. His presentation addressed some of the effects of global warming in the Arctic and Antarctic from a unique perspective. For example, He spoke at length about the disintegration of the Larsen B iceshelf, and his upcoming research expedition to Ellesmere Island.

If you'd like to learn a little more about Steger's expeditions, he has a solid website which features journal entries and photo galleries for each of his expeditions. Also, for a little extra reading, visit the Will Steger Foundation website, www.globalwarming101.com; right now the site is undergoing a little remodeling, but it should be back online soon!

All in all, I think Steger's address was a perfect capstone to a busy day of environmental learning. I'd like to thank Will, his soon-to-be expedition-mate, Toby, and his Education Program Manager, Abby Fenton, for taking the time to speak at St. Olaf's Focus the Nation program (and pose for a few photos afterwards).

Update: Click here if you want to listen to audio clips of David Orr and Will Steger's presentations. Both clips are really clear, high-quality audio, courtesy of St. Olaf's broadcast media. The clips are available in streaming or mp3 formats.

Afternoon Teach-Ins

I listened to a total of eight different speakers this afternoon--an ambitious schedule, but one that paid off in the end. In Viking Theater I heard Professor Bob Jacobel (pictured above) speak about the effects of global warming on the cryosphere (the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the Earth). Associate Professor of Sociology Bruce Nordstrom-Loeb followed Jacobel up with a presentation entitled "A Changing Climate for the World's Poor." It was an excellent speech concerning a topic that, in my opinion, doesn't get as much coverage in environmental circles. Associate Professor of Religion David Booth concluded this particular teach-in with a presentation concerning self-sacrifice (in a consumerist manner), religion, and our "sacred obligation" to care for the interdependencies of the environment. (In the photo above, Professors Booth, Jacobel, and Nordstrom-Loeb are answering questions immediately following their teach-in session.)

I split my time during the next teach-in session attending a speech given by Professor Jonathan Hill in Viking Theater and one given in the Black Ballroom by Brett Werner. Both of them were cool presentations--Hill is possibly the most articulate person ever, and listening to his presentation on literature really appealed to the English major in me. Brett gave a great presentation on environmental communication and fielded a lot of questions from the audience.

Morning Teach-Ins

This morning I attended the first of our Focus the Nation teach-ins, and snapped a few photos. I haven't quite figured out how to download the audio recordings I have, but when I do, I'll be posting them to this site. On the plus side, though, my project advisor, Brett Werner, got some video of this morning's speeches, which I'll link below.

Professor Jim Farrell kicked off this morning's teach-in in Viking Theater with a review of the college's sustainability efforts, including summarizing our progress with the wind turbine, compost, StoGrow, and the natural lands. Here's a youtube link to a segment of his speech. Sorry we couldn't get the whole speech online--we're working on it...


Afterwards, our college president, David Anderson, talked about the future of St. Olaf's environmental initiative--plans that tentatively included inviting Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore to speak at the next Nobel Peace Prize Forum, a collaborative program that involves 5 Minnesota colleges, Augsburg, Augustana, St. Olaf, Luther, and Concordia. He also acknowledged the difficulties and constraints he faces when implementing new environmental policies. Here's the link for the youtube video of a the first half of his speech. Again, I'm sorry that we have only made portions of each teach-in presentation available. We'll have a full version of the speeches up soon!

David Orr

David Orr, our Focus the Nation keynote speaker, gave a stupendous presentation tonight! I sat up in the front row to try and get a decent recording on a DVR, while John Sopiwnik took some photos. I just posted a few of those, though I'm still working on getting a audio and/or video clip of the speech up. Keep your fingers crossed. In the meantime I'll try and summarize, as best I can, some of Orr's key points.

His speech and the accompanying Powerpoint presentation were entitled "Some Like It Hot...But Lots More Don't: The Changing Climate of U.S. Politics." In it, Orr emphasized the idea that environmentalism should be a bipartisan issue; it should not be isolated to either the left or the right of the political spectrum. According to Orr, the politics of environmentalism are complicated by the time lag between cause and effect in the environment, the complexity of climatology science, global vs. national issues and responsibilities, denial, and partisan filters, among others. He also cited some sobering statistics. Apparently, we are already committed, as a global community, to a 1.4-1.8 degree Celsius climate change, just from our past emissions. This warming, if left unchecked, could lead to what Orr called "global destabilization"--symptoms of which may include: rising seas, frequent and destructive storms, changing disease patterns (as areas of the globe that were previously inhospitable to certain disease-causing organisms become accessible), widespread drought and water shortages, changing ecosystems, coral bleaching, and political/economic disorder.

"There's no easy way out, no magic bullet," Orr said. "We need to be summoned to a different level of thinking."

Orr himself has been working closely with the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP) Advisory Committee. PCAP's goal is to promote the creation and installment of a federal climate action plan within 100 days of the 44th presidency (i.e. the next presidential administration). You can check out PCAP here; they have some very urgent and immediate goals, but at this point, I think our environmental policy needs to be fast-tracked a bit. At any rate, Orr's speech and powerpoint presentation ran to about 90 minutes, and you can see from the photos that we had at least 150 people in attendance!

Update: All right, so I've made good on my earlier promise...sort of...Here's a link to the introductory portion of David Orr's speech. The video is pretty dark, and it's occasionally hard to make out what he's saying. Bear with us, though, we have a recording of his whole presentation, and we're working on getting that online.

Focus the Nation

On Janurary 31st, roughly 10,000 volunteers in 1300 high schools, middle schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions across the nation will host a series of environmental teach-ins and presentations entitled Focus the Nation. Focus the Nation is a national education initiative that aims to " move America beyond fatalism to a determination to face up to this civilizational challenge, the challenge of our generation." That challenge is, namely, mitigating or preventing the effects of global warming and instilling environmentalism into the American psyche.

Since St. Olaf isn't in session on the 31st, the college is hosting their Focus the Nation event 2 weeks early. Beginning at 7:30 p.m. this evening, the college will be hosting a series of local and national environmental speakers. David Orr, a Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College in Ohio, will be delivering the keynote address tonight in the St. Olaf Science Center, and tomorrow the college will be hosting a series of "Teach-In sessions" in Viking Theater and the Black Ballroom.

The teach-in sessions are essentially a series of short presentations given by St. Olaf faculty and other noted environmental speakers covering various environmental topics. Arctic explorer and environmentalist Will Steger and St. Olaf President David Anderson will be among the speakers. For a full schedule, check out the listing on St. Olaf's website.

If you want to read up on the Focus the Nation initiative, you should visit their site, but suffice it to say that this is a really cool opportunity to learn about the various aspects of environmentalism, and what it might take for all of us, as individuals and a community, to correct global warming. There is no cost of admission, and since the teach-ins will be running throughout the day tomorrow, you can pick and choose which speeches to attend.

I will be doing my part to attend and report on as many of the teach-in sessions as humanly possible, and if you aren't able to attend any of the programs, you should check back here, because I will be posting audio and (hopefully) video clips from some of the presentations.

Victims of Chernobyl

I ran across this photo essay concerning the victims of nuclear fallout from Chernobyl yesterday while I was searching for a few blog-related articles. It is one of the saddest and most stunning things that I have seen online, and while it has little to do with my research topic, I think it deserves to been seen. Click this link to view the slideshow:

http://todayspictures.slate.com/inmotion/essay_chernobyl/

Presidential Hopefuls: the sequel

• The Lazy Environmentalist: Some bloggers are simply not going to have political coverage or candidate endorsements on their websites. That is one of the risks I ran when I decided to choose a set of environmental blogs with different niche markets and viewpoints, rather than focusing on blogs that offer a specific sort of coverage. The Lazy Environmentalist is the first blog I have profiled that has a paucity of politically-related posts on its website. In no way does that detract from the quality of the blog; politics is just an area that Josh Dorfman decided not to write about on his website. However, that doesn't mean Dorfman has been completely silent on the topic. Here's a link to an interview where Dorfman speaks out about the sort of action he expects from our political leaders on global warming. It's a long interview, and that particular segment is towards the bottom, under the question "What would you say to the folks that still believe global warming is just a myth." Also, it is my understanding that Dorfman expects our culture's switch to "green" initiatives will be mostly consumer-driven, rather than the result of any top-down governmental policies. If you don't believe me, then check out this quote from that same interview: "With our business, profits and environmental change are directly aligned with each other because the more our business grows the more positive environmental change we effect by virtue of what we’re selling. If our products and services weren’t better for the environment than the conventional choices available today, I’d shut down the business and go work for someone else. The entire point of what we’re doing is to demonstrate that business can be an extremely viable and powerful tool for change."

• Dot Earth: Andrew Revkin has also maintained a degree of practiced "journalist's neutrality" in his New York Times environmental blog. Like Grist and TreeHugger, he has posted a summary of each candidate's position on the environment, but he never delves into any sort of commentary or interpretation.
  

• Green Options: Like Dot Earth, GO has refrained from making any overt political statements. In all cases, I am very hesitant on making predictions concerning a blog's political stance without any direct information, but here, I think the blog's clear aversion to "clean coal", its skepticism towards ethanol, and their heady support (read the last paragraph of that article) for a cap-and-trade system for CO2 emissions most closely aligns the blog with the platform of John Edwards, where the environment is concerned. This conclusion is based solely on issues-analysis, however, and without an direct statements by any of the blog's writers, I could be mistaken.

• New Scientist: I found more 2008 presidential race-related articles on New Scientist's homepage, rather than their environmental blog. After I read this article, I got the feeling that New Scientist isn't a big fan of Mike Huckabee, since he is officially a creationist. But that is neither here nor now in the environmental debate. Other than that, there is little on the website that is indicative of the magazine's bias, which is to be expected, since it is an international science magazine.

• Real Climate: Real Climate's blog has avowed that it will refrain from making any political statements in its articles. Because of the blog's decidedly apolitical stance, I had difficulty finding anything related to the 2008 presidential race.

• Eco-Street: The writers of Eco-Street, a green-lifestyle British blog, also had precious little to say about the U.S. elections. Sorry, not much to say here.

• De Smog Blog: Now, here's an interesting little blog. On January 4th, the blog awarded Barack Obama its controversial "SmogMaker" award, for "Blowing smoke on global warming." Since then it's retracted its statement, saying that, since Obama was far from the worst offender on their list, they "hoped his nomination might shock people to attention" because the media and the candidates have mostly ignored the topic. While it's true that the presidential elections have, for the most part, avoided talking about global warming (only 24 out of 2,275 debate questions have touched on the topic), the blog stirred up some controversy with its choice. That said, it's clear the blog is no big fan of Obama; here they accused him of "spin." Actually, while the blog had some good things to say about Edwards and Clinton, they seem to be upholding the position of "conscientious objector"; in this article, they state that they believe the issue of environmentalism has become too partisan, when in reality global warming should be a discussion "about science, about risk, about prudent government policy." Some very interesting arguments...
  

Presidential Hopefuls

In light of the Yale University survey which stated that 40% of Americans believe a candidate’s position on global warming will strongly affect how they vote in 2008, I decided that a good place to begin with my blog issues analysis would be with the presidential candidates. I’ve reviewed a lot of the material on the blogs, and am making this a two-part post, simply because there is so much to say, and I don’t want to talk your ears off. In reality, though, it seems like there is somewhat of a bipartisan uproar going on over environmental policy-making. Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger have done a good job of injecting green topics into the political debate, and it seems like no candidate has been immune to environmental critiques and questions.

Also, after thoroughly looking through Eco-Worrier, I've decided the blog isn't quite what I'm looking for with my research blogs. Its content is interesting, but doesn't fit the purpose of this project. I'll be replacing it with Worldchanging, and editing my posts to reflect that change. Sorry; like I said, this is a work in progress.

• TreeHugger: TreeHugger's writers have their sights focused primarily on Senator Barack Obama. Of all the candidates, Bill Richardson (who recently dropped out of the race) appears in the most articles, but mostly because of his controversial statements concerning water supplies. Obama's name appears the second-most frequently on the website. A quick word search for "Barack Obama" turns up 24 related articles, with Hilary Clinton following closely with 22 results. As demonstrated by in Bill Richardson's case, quantity isn't necessarily an accurate measuring stick, so I read through a large portion of the articles. It turns out that TreeHugger has it's fair share of reservations concerning Obama. Chiefly, that as a senator from Illinois, Obama has, in the past, made endorsements for the coal industry. You can check out their gripes against him in this article. On the other hand, TreeHugger has done a lot of reporting on Obama's detailed environmental plan, and they seem to cautiously support him. This Obama-related article seems to reflect those sentiments. To be fair, the website also has a helpful summary of each presidential hopeful's postion.

• EcoGeek: Now, EcoGeek is, for the most part, a tech website, which means that its coverage of the 2008 presidential candidates isn't going to be as impressive as TreeHugger's myriad articles. However, I did manage to turn up several posts from the EcoGeek author, Hank Green, concerning the political race. Though this article is tangentially related to the candidacy, from what I can tell he is leaning towards either Barack Obama or John Edwards. At any rate, he calls both of their fuel economy standard plans hopeful in the article, though he expresses a lot of concern with Obama's clean coal ties in this post. Judging from this old post from December, 2006, the man Green really would've liked to see run for the presidency was Al Gore. Too bad Gore eschewed the 2008 campaign.
• Worldchanging: It took me a while to find it, but I think this statement by Alex Steffen, the creator/executive editor of Worldchanging, sums up Worldchanging's political endorsements quite nicely. Granted, the post is now 3 1/2 years old, but I couldn't find anything newer on the website to contradict it.
• Grist: I have to give Grist credit, they have an easily-accessible sidebar on their homepage where you can access information on a spreadsheet about each candidate's political platform. Also, kudos to Grist for having a ridiculous amount of information about the candidates. A quick wordsearch on the website for "John Edwards" returned 139 article results for Democratic candidate, while Obama and Hillary had, respectively, 129 and 126 hits on the blog. As to be expected on an environmental blog, the Republican candidates, for the most part, weren't as well-represented. For example, a search for "Rudy Giuliani" brought back 27 results, including this scathing article that accuses him of being bought by the energy lobby. John McCain was the only stand-out Republican contender; he had a whopping 168 articles to his name. Like I noted previously, these numbers aren't necessarily indicative of, well, anything, which is why you have to dig into the content. In this case, it looks like Grist's collection of writers and contributors are leaning towards either Barack Obama or John Edwards. In Obama's case, the website has been tracking his ascent since 2004 with a great degree of optimism. If you doubt me, then check out this article from way back in 2004. They also complimented Obama's recent energy proposal as "excellent." Grist also lauded Edwards' decision to run a "carbon-neutral" campaign in mid-March of last year. Hillary, unfortunately, took a hit for her support of tire-burning in upstate New York, and her flip-flop on ethanol production. Grist also complimented McCain for being "the only presidential candidate in the Republican field to take the climate change issue seriously" but noted that the GOP is still far from "accepting the sort of legislation that will be necessary very, very soon if the problem is to be addressed adequately."

Word Clouds are cool!

I'm still in the process of synthesizing all of the information on my chosen blogs, but so you can get an idea of my process, I've posted links to the keyword clouds I've generated for each blog. A keyword cloud generator is a web program that condenses all of the content of a blog in a virtual representation, where the size of any given article of text corresponds with how many times that word appears in the blog's content. I'll be using these keyword clouds to help me choose topics for analysis. At this point in time, my blogging will get a little tricky; there is just so much to sift through on these eleven sites.

Keyword clouds sound a little confusing, but they're actually a brilliantly simple way to search through all of the text in a blog. Try it yourself, if you'd like. Just go to this website, and type in the URL of any given website. The result is an easy-to-analyze content representation of that website. God, isn't the internet awesome? Anyway, here are links to my keyword clouds for each blog:

TreeHugger

EcoGeek

Worldchanging

Grist

The Lazy Environmentalist

Dot Earth

Green Options

New Scientist

Real Climate

Eco-Street

De Smog Blog

And just because I think word clouds are cool, here's one for my own website.

And now, the contenders...

I suppose you're wondering how I chose my eleven "Research Blogs." The process is pretty simple in theory: I simply picked eleven of the most prevalent and credible blogs. In practice, finding a set of blogs on the internet with established credentials and a wide readership was much more difficult. There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of environmental blogs online. So why do my choices stand out from the crowd?

• TreeHugger: According to Technorati (a blog statistics site), TreeHugger.com is the 19th most popular blog on the internet. Technorati ranks blog authority by the number of websites referencing a specific blog by posting links to that blog. In this case, TreeHugger is linked by 8,164 other blogs. Additionally, TreeHugger employs more than 40 writers in 10 countries, and averages about 23 posts a day. To seal the deal, TreeHugger has amassed over 4.2 million page views and 45,000 newsletter subscribers. Simply put, In the world of environmental blogs, TreeHugger is king.
• EcoGeek: EcoGeek may only boast a Technorati authority of 1,442, but it covers an interesting niche that is sometimes ignored in other environmental blogs. Namely, it explores "the symbiosis between nature and technology." Its creator, Hank Green, has a masters in Environmental Studies and a degree in biochemistry, and is a professional web designer. If that isn't an impressive set of environmental blogging credentials, I don't know what is.
• Worldchanging: Worldchanging is a blog and a non-profit organization, all rolled up into one. It has more than 7,000 articles on its website, employs 43 editors, columnists, and contributors, and is run by its Executive Editor/creator, Alex Steffen. It won the UTNE Independent Press award in 2004. The blog operates on the simple premise that "that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us."
• Grist Mill is another big dog in the environmental blogging world. It may only have an authority of 1,717, but it has been referenced by media biggies like Newsweek, MSNBC, Time, and the Chicago Tribune. Furthermore, in 2006, it was awarded the National Wildlife Federation's "Connie" award for "extraordinary contributions to the conservation of wildlife and natural resources." Given that the NWF is America's largest conservation organization, with more than 5 million members, I'd say the Connie award carries quite a bit of weight.
• The Lazy Environmentalist: Josh Dorfman, the man behind The Lazy Environmentalist blog, is a nationally syndicated environmental talk show radio host (that is one hell of a long title). He's also the author of The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish Green Living, and the CEO of Vivavi, a company providing eco-friendly furniture. As you might guess, his blog is full of tips for those of us who would like to be green, but are lazy.
• Dot Earth: Dot Earth is written by New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin. As if being affiliated with one of the most reputable newspapers on the planet isn't enough, Revkin and his blog are also the recipients of a Guggenheim fellowship. His professional status and fellowship allow him to do a fair bit of travelling, so his blog is more "worldly" than many of the others on this list.
• Green Options: GO is a blog out of Berkeley, CA, with a large community. It has an authority of 822 on Technorati, and was founded by David Anderson, a UC San Diego graduate with degrees in Political Science and Sociology minors in Biology and Law.
• New Scientist's Environmental Blog: New Scientist is an international science magazine with a weekly publication. It's been around since 1956. Sound like a solid platform for blogging? Good, because it is. As can be expected, the blog focuses on scientific developments in the environmental community, but they also have a surprising amount of "current events" content. For extra credit, read New Scientist's online magazine--it's just as informative as the blog.
  
• Real Climate: Real Climate is another blog with some great credentials; the blog is primarily maintained by climate scientists. One of its contributors is a climate modeler at NASA, for crying out loud. This one concentrates on global warming and its associated climate changes, and has sworn off talking about the political or social implications of environmentalism.
• Eco Street: Eco Street is a British import. I think it's a bit more family-oriented than many of the other blogs on this list, and it has an active (and large) forum. It's also more consumer-based than many of my other choices--one of the blog's goals is to "promote websites that are offering green products or services." Eco Street will provide my list with a little international perspective. Cheerio, then!
  
• De Smog Blog: De Smog Blog is one of those interesting outliers; it's a Canadian-based blog founded to "clear the PR pollution" surrounding environmental issues. The blog is led by James Hoggan, the founder of a Canadian public relations firm. They recently gave Barack Obama their annual "Smogmaker" award for "blowing smoke on global warming," and then retracted it. Interesting, indeed...
  

So that is my list. I think that each of my choices for "research blogs" are justifiably big in the world of environmental blogging. Furthermore, I believe the blogs comprise a good spectrum of viewpoints and backgrounds in the environmental conversation. Now that we have our players, let the games begin!

Opening a Blog

Oh wow, I have a blog. I usually reserve a certain amount of wonder for the "blogosphere" (a terrible misnomer that I will try to avoid using when and where I can), so my reaction to this development is a mix of anticipation and excitement. I mean, according to Technorati's July 2006 statistics, there were 50 million blogs and counting on the internet, with the number of blogs set to double every six and a half months. I can only assume that, a year and a half later, there are somewhere around 200 million blogs online; it's an amazing amount, especially if you stop to consider the quantity of information that passes through those sites daily. News posts, personal journals, political commentaries: it's a multi-faceted online conversation, and like all conversations, it deserves a degree of analysis.

So this is where I'm stepping in; I may be new to blogging, but I do have a perspective that I'm going to explore in this commentary. Specifically, I will be analyzing the content of 11 major environmental blogs: TreeHugger, Ecogeek, Worldchanging, Grist, The Lazy Environmentalist, Dot Earth, Green Options, The New Scientist Environmental Blog, Real Climate, EcoStreet, and De Smog Blog. In this commentary, I hope to discuss the political orientation of specific blogs, the differences in their content, how they cover environmental news, and their stance on environmental issues and developments, among other topics.

I'm an English major, and I have a concentration in Environmental Studies, so I figure that I'm fairly well-suited to this pastime. And let's face it, as the realm of environmental blogs, like the science it mirrors, continues to expand into new directions, it could probably stand to benefit from a little introspection.

Anyway, now that I'm done with my windy introduction, let me point out a few things:

• Keep an eye on the "Other Environmental Blogs" links list in the lower righthand corner; I will be updating it frequently with a list of blogs that I think are worthwhile, but aren't among my primary research blogs. Think of it as an "Honorable Mention" section.
  
• As I am relatively new to blogging, I will be revising my method with each post, so I apologize in advance if some of the discussions seem tangential or circular.
• I aim to make 2-4 posts a week, depending on time constraints and the happenings of the environmental blogosphere (oh no, I did it again!).
• I will be concluding my month-long research period with a summarizing essay, which I will also be publishing on this blog.