You tell two friends, and I’ll tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on…” Some of you may remember this tag line from an old TV commercial, some maybe not, but I think you can get the point. When you hear about or see something great, you want to share it with friends and have them share it, and so on!
When my friend and colleague Michealanne told me know about a wonderful new publication, Climate Confidential, that will be launching very soon and asked if I would help share the news, I took one look and said: “OF COURSE!”
Find out more about Climate Confidential from one of it’s founders, Climate Mama extraordinare, Amy Westervelt. Amy is one of six environmental journalists, all women, each with incredibly impressive CVs, who are teaming up to launch Climate Confidential. Amy and her fellow journalists need OUR help to spread the word. So without further ado, please take a moment and hear from Amy, in her own words, about why YOU need to support Climate Confidential, and then “tell two friends, and so on….”
Yours,
Climate Mama
Every Story Is An Environment Story
by Amy Westervelt
From what we feed our children to how we get to work every day to health conditions we deal with on a regular basis, “the environment” is not some abstract concept over there in the corner, but rather a part of nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Increasingly, though, stories about the environment slot into one of three buckets: politics (climate change scientists versus climate deniers, liberals vs. Tea Partiers and so forth); lists (three ways to avoid toxic sunscreens); and hand-wringing (extreme weather, climate refugees, the sky is falling).
While there is some merit to all of these, the growing concern amongst environmental journalists is that no one is evaluating the solutions, no one is providing the context that connects either big global issues or niggling daily travails to environmental concerns and the public is being left with a general sense of malaise about the environment, with no understanding of what’s really happening, what the future looks like, or who’s helping to shape it.
After years of complaining about the state of things, six environmental journalists–coincidentally all women–decided to do something about it. On March 5th, provided we can get 800 subscribers (and we are very close!) we’ll be launching Climate Confidential, a reader supported digital magazine focused on the intersection of innovation and the environment. By publishing our own content, ad-free, on the Beacon network, we’ll have the room to give readers the back story and details that are often missing, to place new ideas in the context of what came before, and to weigh the pros and cons of some of the more interesting proposed solutions to today’s environmental problems.
As a mother, I’ll also personally be exploring environmental health issues that put children and pregnant women at especial risk, and helping to ensure that our content is educational, informative and accessible for older children as well. As the inheritors of our mess, they have more of a stake than anyone in our environmental future.
We hope you’ll consider supporting this effort by subscribing and sharing with your friends and family. One reason we picked the Beacon platform for this project is that it enables us to directly connect with readers, and we plan to encourage our subscribers to weigh in on what topics and issues we investigate as well. Our first issue, which will be published in March, is focused on Unconventional Wisdom and will include stories on how small is not always better in manufacturing, and how saving money has turned out to be a poor incentive for conservation. Sign up today to read these and other stories, and to share your own ideas for topics that desperately need more coverage.
Amy Westervelt is an award-winning environmental journalist whose work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company and Slate. She writes primarily about the environment and health, and often about the intersection of the two.
