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.