I've seeing a lot of discussion about the purpose and merit of blogs lately and have wondered about my own. It's ended up as an idea repository rather than anything interactive. That's okay as a record and means to reflect but isn't productive or particularly interesting. I have made it a goal to start something that is more interactive or at least disseminates information. Not sure exactly what it is or how it looks yet but it's one of the few 43 things I've decided on so far (I just started on my list yesterday so give me some time).
The last two paragraphs of Peter Levine's post on the press and social programs comments on the perceived divergence between the quantity of bloggers with strong leftish viewpoints on issues and the lack of people taking actual steps to do something active about it. Perhaps the ones that are really active aren't using their spare time to sit at a computer and blog?
6 comments:
http://gdagger.blogspot.com/2004/11/benchmark.html - I made a few comments and had some good reflections on the merit of blogging that you may find of interest. Keep up the blog as it has a unique focus! The sustainability of our planet is so often taken forgranted & although I may not agree with everything David Suzuki has to say on the topic, I do believe we are called to take better care of our planet than we currently are.
G
Hey Garth, not sure if you'll check back here, but I was curious about your David Suzuki comment. I probably tend to put him on too much of a pedestal, so I'd love to hear what you disagree with him on.
Hey Jer,
While I agree with much of Suzuki's concerns for the environment, I do have some issue with his approach. I attended a Kyoto Accord Informational Seminar that he conducted in Winnipeg last year and frankly, I was really disappointed at how he was bashing his opponents. He definitely wasn't using science but instead was questioning their evolution as a species? Maybe he didn't have enough sleep over on the flight down?
He also attempted to sell Kyoto as some type of a cure-all to all our environmental woes when it clearly is far from perfect. I'll give in that it may be a step in the right direction but clearly will not make as much of a difference to the environment as is claimed. In fact, if we put the same amount of money into the third world as we are into the Kyoto accord our environment would be much better off according to Bjorn Lomborg.
I'm a skeptical environmentalist, in that I definitely will not take Suzuki's opinions as the gospel truth.
So there ya have it - my 2 cents on Suzuki.
You should actually check out the book A Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg - very interesting read and definitely a different perspective on the data out there on environmental concerns.
I sometimes feel bad for Suzuki. He's been sending out the same message for about 30 years now, and he must get frustrated to see so little progress. Not to defend him -- if he was acting like a jerk at the event you attended, that's not ok.
Any individual policy or initiative like Kyoto can be deconstructed and criticized and analyzed to the point where it looks hopeless...but I suspect Suzuki (and others) embrace them because they're better than nothing, and they know they won't get countries to agree to measures that would make significant impacts.
Admittedly, I haven't read Lomborg's book, but going through a few of the rebuttals to his argument makes me pretty skeptical about his approach. It sounds like he got a lot of media attention and support from conservatives, but his version of "science" isn't holding up too well under the scrutiny of people who have spent their whole lives studying things he's approaching from a journalistic perspective.
That said, it is a compelling argument that we (the collective we) are wasting money and energy on the wrong kinds of problems. Thought-provoking.
http://www.greenspirit.com/lomborg/ - is a good rebuttal to the rebuttals out there - by the guy who cofounded Green Peace ironically. I think it is important to see both sides and I personally was skeptical of Lomborg initially until I actually read his book. And you are right if it does nothing - it at least is thought provoking. I'm not sure conservatives would like Lomborg because he clearly still is an environmentalist, just not an alarmist/doomsday sayer. Environmentally, I live in very clean city - our recycling program is actually staffed by mentally handicapped people which I think is very cool! Anyways - Tannis you must find this humorous how your original blogpost went down this rabbit trail eh? Me bad.
G
Discussion = good. Love it.
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