Book review of Greenwashed: Why We Can’t Buy Our Way to a Green Planet by Kendra Pierre-Louis. Green Washed: Why We Can’t Buy Our Way to a Green Planet. IG Publishing, Brooklyn NY, 2012. 216 pages. ISBN 978-19354394-1
“To Index on Censorship and English PEN it has become increasingly clear that English libel law and the use of ‘super-injunctions’ are having a profoundly negative impact on freedom of expression, both in the UK and abroad. Writers such as Simon Singh, and respected current affairs programme Newsnight, have found themselves facing defamation suits, whilst human rights campaigners are often forced to edit and retract articles in the face of potential libel action.
We need to persuade politicians from all the political parties to commit to reform of our unjust libel laws”
Interesting website I just came across. Public access to climate change information is vital, if there’s to be any possibility of popular political action to deal with human-caused climate change- which will mean, among other things:
So this website looks at climate change science, and at the way that the media report it.
Many thanks to the handful of people who’ve user-tested the Energy Royd website over the last two months.
The results aren’t statistically significant – but the fact that everyone said more or less the same things suggests that the comments are more than random.
None of the people who tested the website identified themselves as green, or involved in climate change and energy issues. I did know all of them though – no-one came in off the street, as I’d been hoping, so they were predisposed to be nice. But I think the mix of positive and critical feedback shows that they were able to be honest.
Summary of what people said
Website content
All comments were that the content is “good” and “interesting”.
Website design
All comments were that the website design is clear, clean and easy to navigate. Someone also added that the banner photo clearly shows what the website’s about.
Writing style
Everyone said that it would be better if the writing style was lighter. Someone also asked if I could inject a bit more humour. Everyone said that the writing style was “a bit heavy” and one person asked if I was trying to give a lecture. Someone said a glossary would be useful.
Tagline (Changing more than lightbulbs)
Everyone who commented on this thought it was funny and appropriate.
My response
I’m obviously glad that people liked the content, design and tagline. I agree with the comments about my writing style on the website. So far, writing it has felt like quite a laborious process and this shows in the way I’ve been writing.
I take the point about writing in a lighter, more humorous way and I hope I’ll be able to do this as I write more of the website. It’d be good if people read Energy Royd for pleasure as well as for information, and use it for enjoyable discussions, online or in the real world.
I think a glossary is a good idea and I’ve started one.
http://vimeo.com/35078978
Is it time to embrace environmental change? is a book review of “Love Your Monsters: Postenvironmentalism and the Anthropocene”. It suggests that, rather than trying to turn back the clock to an earlier era where there weren’t so many of us and our impact on the planet wasn’t so big, we need to work with what we’ve got. It also suggests that if the environmental movement keeps looking back and trying to recreate the past, it will be part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
Extracts from the book are online.