Green Diary Rescue & Open Thread: DK GreenRoots 0
That fat collection of superb environmentally oriented diaries appearing at Daily Kos last week was no accident. Had Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse not invented the concept and cajoled – in some cases, corralled – dozens of bloggers to join the effort, wedging 50 spare-time hours between those of a full-time job, Eco Week would never have happened. Without Land of Enchantment’s partnership in the organizing, drafting of bloggers, the scheduling, and other day-to-day work such a project demands, it wouldn’t have happened. LoE also created a photo array that put razzmatazz into the promotion.
Fourteen diarists signed up originally, but 64 eventually joined the writing end of the project. They turned out 80 enlightening, sometimes joyful, sometimes disturbing essays, analyses and round-ups across a broad range of eco-subjects. Some of them were veterans, having written greenish stuff at Daily Kos for several years. Others wrote their first eco-diary ever. Several Kossacks who produce weekly or more frequent series diaries turned one or more of them to an environmental topic. They proved that there’s an environmental angle to nearly everything we humans do. Ties were found to health care, jobs, the economy, labor, political stability, family, equal justice, human rights and poverty. Our diaries explained these linkages and the need for sustainability. Here is a link to all those diaries.
Writing wasn’t the only aspect of Eco Week. It also provided an opportunity to initiate a new eco-bloggers advocacy group, DK GreenRoots. That will be our workroom where activists and other interested participants interconnect, inform each other, encourage the writing and cross-posting of diaries, teach research techniques, initiate short- and long-term working groups, develop special projects, hone our persuasive skills, plan political action, and draft legislation.
If that sounds ambitious, it is. But there are a lot of us already signed up for this collaborative effort. With new additions every day, more than 325 people have joined DK GreenRoots. As people get acquainted, between now and Netroots Nation in August, we’ll take the first steps in getting some or all of those activities under way. We have a GreenRoots website in development that will roll out shortly after Labor Day. Soon we will have a private forum created for GreenRoots to assist discussions as well as projects and working groups.
Collaborative projects are only as good as are the people committed to making things happen in a cooperative manner. Which makes DK GreenRoots especially exciting because many of those involved have previously demonstrated they’re willing and able. We don’t seek to be anybody’s rival. Our goal is to build alliances. If you haven’t joined yet, you can find us at DK GreenRoots.
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The rescue begins below and continues in the jump.
Jill Richardson put together a good model to copy in Meet the Lobbyists!, in her case, the food lobbyists of various sorts.
A Siegel pitted ACES vs Reality: “Due in part to our economic turmoil, but also due to increasing natural gas supplies and the double-digit annual growth rate of renewable energy and energy efficiency measures, US greenhouse gas emissions are falling … In fact, by the end of this year, the United States might be half-way toward achieving the emissions reductions targets set in the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act that recently passed the House and is now in the Senate for consideration. The reality of falling emissions provides yet another tangible reason for strengthening ACES. … Coal is of declining importance: Coal continues its fall in terms of percentage of total electricity. Coal has not been 50% of US electricity for awhile and the downward trend is one that we should continue … and work to accelerate … to help foster ending our coal addiction, weaning ourselves off coal rather than expending $10s of billions on illusion of ‘clean coal.’”
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The Overnight News Digest is posted. Included is the story Taliban infiltrate once-peaceful Afghan north.
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