David Roberts' Sabbatical and the Decline of the Free-Range Blogger

Grist's David Roberts, who blogs on the best policies to solve our climate & energy challenges and the politics that perpetuate our problems, has announced he's taking a one-year sabbatical from blogging, reporting & tweeting. I'll miss his work while he's gone but understand his motives - what's more disappointing is the void he leaves behind.

When I first started blogging here at The Green Miles, David's writing challenged me to improve. It's easy to make fun of climate science deniers, but it's much harder to figure out why they reject it. When I later got to meet him at Netroots Nation, I was struck by his work-life balance (he calls it The Medium Chill) and ability to keep his eye on the climate prize - to maintain his passion without becoming too embittered by small setbacks & petty disputes.

Knowing he values that balance, I wasn't surprised by his decision to step away. If you spend a lot of time working on the climate crisis OR interacting online OR reporting, burnout is a major problem. David does all three. With President Obama having already rolled out his plan to act on climate and Congress in gridlock, now's the best time in years for a climate activist to take some time off.

But what bugs me is that in David's absence, there are few great climate bloggers to fill his shoes. It's a reflection of how much of blogging has evolved from free-range to factory farming:

• Blogging as career. While pioneering bloggers like Markos "DailyKos" Moulitsas, Duncan "Atrios" Black, and Heather "Digby" Parton still blog independently, many of the next generation of bloggers have been hired by emerging progressive news websites (i.e. Huffington Post & TPM), by mainstream media blogs (i.e. the Washington Post's WonkBlog) or by organizations in need of online help (I got hired by the National Wildlife Federation). Which is understandable because ...
• Blogging for free sucks. It's a lot of work for very little reward. I can understand why many first-generation bloggers gave it up and why younger folks choose to use Facebook, Twitter & Tumblr instead. But combine these first two points and now we have ...
• The blanding of blogging. Many of those who do blog spend less time trying to break the mold and more time trying to impress the Beltway establishment that might hire them. What Dave Grohl said about American Idol destroying the next generation of musicians applies here - they spend less time trying to find their own voice than trying to make their voice sound like everyone else's. I read lots of nibbling around the edges and "smart takes," but who'll stand up when necessary to say shit is fucked up and bullshit? And their middle manager editor at a newspaper website - they're going to run that?

So who are the climate must-reads? Here's my list (add any that I overlooked in comments):

• The Washington Post WonkBlog's Brad Plumer
• Huffington Post's Kate Sheppard
• National Journal's Coral Davenport
• Andrew Freedman & Heidi Cullen of ClimateCentral.org
• Joe Romm of ThinkProgress.org
• Tim McDonnell of Mother Jones & Climate Desk
• RL Miller of DailyKos

Enjoy the break, Dave. And don't worry - unless a secret alien wizard breaks the spell of climate denial currently hanging over Congressional Republican leadership, shit will still be fucked up and bullshit when you get back.

Three Blogs You'd Want on a Deserted Island

Last night at a climate happy hour, I was asking people for their three must-read blogs, columnist, writers, Twitterers, whatever. How would you get the internet on the deserted island? Uh, well ... I guess you'd have a laptop. And a solar panel, and a satellite internet thing. Oh, and a tarp to keep it all dry. There! Showed you!

Anyway, here are my three:

• Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo
• Matt Yglesias of Think Progress
• And for something non-political to keep me from going insane while eating what I presume would be a steady diet of raw fish & coconuts, Drew Magary of Deadspin

That list is of course subject to change at any time - ask me tomorrow and I might say E.J. Dionne Jr., Greater Greater Washington, Grist's David Roberts, Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones, or Joe Romm of Climate Progress.

What are yours?

The Green Miles Rides the Tire Swing

The Green Miles has now been to two "blogger dinners" hosted by Democratic candidates in the Virginia governor's race. One was hosted by Terry McAuliffe, the other by Brian Moran. I went to Terry's because I wanted to hear him make his case for his candidacy. I went to Brian's because if the primary was held today, I'd vote for him.

Some bloggers who attend these dinners claim they have absolutely no impact on their objectivity. These blogger dinners are no different than reporters riding John McCain's tire swing. You may not think you're giving up your objectivity, but in this case, as The Rock might say, it doesn't matter what you think. It's perception that matters.

Me? I'll happily own up to being in the tank for all of the Democratic candidates for governor. While I may support Brian because he's the best of the three Democrats environmentally, no matter who the nominee is, he'll be vastly better on environmental issues than presumptive Republican nominee Bob "Drill, Baby, Drill" McDonnell.

The Green Miles Investigates: Metro Bus Lot Oil

Blogs often remind me of my dad's favorite New Yorker cartoon, illustrating both management's self-importance and self-imposed impotence.

Bloggers can be eager to point out problems, but reluctant to do anything to solve them. It's a shame because having a blog that's well-read, respected, or both gives you more a much louder voice than that of the average person.

The Green Miles has always tried to find solutions whenever possible, like back in March when Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment & OneBrick volunteers found a trash dumping problem along Four Mile Run. We alerted the Parks Department, the business involved agreed to clean up the trash, and the Parks Dept. will monitor that area more closely in the future.

Last week, I was walking down to Front Page in Ballston to meet a friend for brunch. It was raining hard, and I noticed an oil slick running down the driveway of the Metro bus parking lot at the corner of Wilson and N. Quincy. I took cell phone camera pictures of the slick, which didn't capture the bright rainbow very well, but give you an idea of how big it looked.

I thought the photos might be blog-worthy, but didn't want to just post it and never have the problem (if there was one) get solved. So I emailed the photos to a friend in the Arlington environmental community with a note saying, "Does this look like a typical runoff from a busy bus lot after a heavy rain, or could it be something more serious?"

She wrote back saying it looked like it was more than just residual oil. I then looked up the email of a Metro spokesperson on the Metro website and emailed the photos to her.

She immediately wrote back to say she'd contact the Bus Department, whose response came in less than two hours:

A bus blew a transmission oil filter gasket last week while parked at the Wilson Blvd. gate. The spilled transmission fluid was contained and cleaned with floor scrubber. Apparently the product remained in the concrete and cobblestone and when we experienced the weekend rains the fluid came to the surface. We will have the area reinspected and cleaned.

The spill is unfortunate, but it's nice that Metro responded so quickly and plans to follow it up with action.