Editorial 8.7, July 2006, by Deirdre Helfferich Carnival of the Green On the Internet, one finds here and there what are known as blog carnivals, roving digests of the best of blogging on a particular subject for that week or fortnight. Blog carnivals vary tremendously: there’s the Carnival of the Capitalists (highlighting the business blosgosphere), Carnival of Cars, Carnival of the Cats (one of the big ones, on issue #120), Carnival of the Dogs, Carnival of Feminists, Carnival of the Godless, Carnival of the Insanities, Carnival of the Liberals, Carnival of the Liberated (Iraqi and Afghani bloggers), Carnival of the Mundane, Carnival of the NBA, Carnival of the Polly-Kicking (on issue #3 of Pollyanna-punting posts), Carnival of the Recipes (read ‘em and eat!), Carnival of the Vanities (#198!—must be lots of vanity out there on the web, you think?). You can find a ton of carnivals of every description on Übercarnival, at the Truth Laid Bear. And, of course, there’s the Carnival of the Green. That’s Green as in Green politics and green as in sustainability issues, primarily the latter. The Carnival is a fascinating collection of green-themed posts, and the blogs that host them have equally interesting news, tips, analysis, humor, and useful information of a green nature. In February, I interviewed Al Tepper of City Hippy, co-founder of the Carnival of the Green along with Nick Aster of Triple Pundit (whom I interviewed via e-mail this month). Tepper lives in England; Aster in California. Aster was part of the Treasure America Project, which went to Kaktovik in 2005 to analyze the economic consequences of dependence on the oil industry and created a report on the potential for a tourism-based economy there (you can find the report at www.treasureamerica.org). Republic: What, exactly, is the Carnival of the Green, and how did City Hippy and Triple Pundit come up with this idea? What did you hope it would do? Tepper: The Carnival of the Green attempts to provide a weekly digest of as many green blogs as possible. When we say Green we tend to encourage the hosts to focus on sustainable issues as opposed to the myriad of green issues i.e., the Iraq war etc. We let the hosts decide what to include although we encourage inclusion of posts unless they are really badly written or way off topic. The carnival was born when I met up with Nick from Triple Pundit back in September. We were talking about his hosting the Carnival of the Capitalists and BAM the idea seemed so obvious really...why not start a Carnival of the Green? So we did. I think we both wanted the Carnival to provide that digest and spotlight what other green blogs are talking about. Also more important we wanted to bring all us green bloggers together. Of course I cannot speak for Nick...but I imagine he would agree with all that. Aster: The Carnival was a way to be social with other bloggers, get to know a few more people (albeit virtually) and to improve one’s own writing, pull in more of an audience, etc.... In that realm, it’s been really successful. It came out of a face-to-face meeting I had with Al in London, which proves that meeting in person is still better than virtual, but the inter-action that’s come since with him and with many others has been fantastic. It’s also interesting to see how your writing changes when you know people are reading it; you find yourself thinking a lot harder about issues and how you say things to make things more effective. Republic: What sorts of blogs are participating? What sorts of things are people blogging about on the Carnival? Tepper: The breadth of blogs participating in the Carnival of the Green is truly astonishing...the thing I love the most is how it draws green blogs together regardless of their politics. Green issues are actually not that political. Climate change will not only affect certain people, classes, races and countries. We are all in the same boat together...and we have no lifeboat. We have to keep this ship afloat and we have to work together to do it. The carnival seeks to unify the green blogosphere. The more people who post to the carnival the better. The more people who host the carnival (even partially green blogs) the better. The topics covered continue to amaze me. From vegetable growing to organic cosmetics to green parenting to sustainable architecture...the whole green lifestyle is covered at some point. When I highlight each carnival on Mondays I always pick my favourite post from that week’s carnival. I just love Mondays now hahahaha! Republic: How well has the Carnival worked? Has it gone in directions you didn’t envision? Tepper: Oh for sure...it has grown and grown and we now have hosts booked up to August* so it has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams really. I had no defin-ed directions when we launched it, to be honest, and so there is no direction that has phased me, even when someone submitted a hostile post about greens, we revelled in it and Nick from Triple Pundit did a great job of answering the attack successfully. We have nothing to fear and nothing to hide. Greens put people and planet up alongside profit and so we are happy to discuss anything, really. Republic: Is it attracting attention within and beyond the blogosphere to the subjects that the green bloggers are discussing? Does the Carnival seem to be promoting sustainability and green issues? Aster: Yes, I think that blogging in general is promoting green objectives and lifestyles etc. because it’s just more efficient and more accessible than “mainstream” publications. The cream rises to the top, and the best bloggers with great ideas get noticed by readers and other bloggers, and so on, until things get noticed by the mainstream. Green is a great idea and it’s taking off—blogs are playing a big role in that! Tepper: This is hard to measure outside of the blogosphere, of course, but I would like to think so. Within the blogosphere I am sure it is raising debate across all the topics although measuring this is tricky. I think indicators of the Carnival succeeding are the number of hosts and posts and the variety of people submitting stuff each week. I am delight-ed to announce that the largest green site around, Treehugger.com, has signed up to host in July [week of the 31st] as well as spotlighting the Carnival each week. That should help bring the wonderful works of so many great green writers out into the sunlight. That can only be good for all the topics we care about, but most important, it will be good for the bloggers themselves who work hard for very little, if any, love. Most of us do this in our spare time. That is what is unique about green bloggers: there is possibly no other blogging group who have a sense of urgency attached to a most passionate mission: to change the world’s path before it is too late. *** My own experience with green blogging has opened my eyes to the incredible amount of activity, ingenuity, and enterprise possible in sustainable ventures. Being green is profitable, fun, and amazingly inventive, and I’m happy to be part of it in my own small way. It’s easy to get depressed about things like global warming or persistent organic pollutants, particularly when the myriad green solutions out there seem to be virtually ignored by the mainstream media. So it is a wonderful thing to have a tool like the Carnival of the Green to connect me with the latest news about wildlife and the environment, green technology, Green (and anti-green) politics, and other offerings on the cutting edge of the future. * Editor’s note: as of this writing the Carnival is now booked through February 2007. The Republic is hosting issue #35 for the week of July 10–17. Check it out at http://esterrepublic.blogspot.com/2006/07/carnival-of-green-35_09.html. For the complete listing of previous Carnivals of the Green, go to City Hippy (http://cityhippy.blogspot.com). City Hippy is an online collective of writers providing articles and bookmarks to help readers live a green and fair life. Triple Pundit (www.triplepundit.com) is a digest of online information relating to the integrated bottom line, also known as the triple bottom line (Environment, Society, and Business). Triple Pundit is edited by MBA candidates at Presidio School of Management in San Francisco and was started by Nick Aster. | ||
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