A Warming Web: The Blogosphere and Climate Change
Global warming blogging is red hot: The Senate is debating climate change legislation. The Obama administration is pouring billions of dollars into clean energy and green jobs. Countries are maneuvering for position in this December's crucial international climate treaty conference. And nearly every week scientists are revealing how global warming is changing the conditions of life on Earth -- and how much worse conditions may become if we don't slash our greenhouse gas pollution. At this panel, some of the top bloggers covering environmental politics and climate science will talk about what they do, how they do it, and why it's more important now than ever before.
Kate is the political reporter for Grist. She was raised on a vegetable farm in southern New Jersey (yes, they do exist), but now calls Washington, D.C. home. She has also covered politics, the environment, labor, and transportation for The American Prospect, WhoRunsGov.com, In These Times, The Guardian, and Alternet. Kate graduated from Ithaca College with degrees in journalism and politics, where she also served as the editor of the college's award-winning indie rag, Buzzsaw Haircut. She misses trees and having a congressional representative with voting power, but thinks D.C. is pretty great anyway.
David Roberts is a senior staff writer for Grist.org, the net's kick-assingest environmental news site. His work focuses on climate change, clean energy, and the politics where they intersect. You can follow his Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/david_h_roberts.
Brentin Mock is a 2009 USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism Fellow reporting on environmental justice issues. He is also a 2008-09 Metcalf Institute Diversity in Environmental Reporting Fellow. His reporting for both fellowships is featured in The American Prospect magazine and their blogsite TAPPED (www.prospect.org). Mock also writes for MSNBC's The Grio.com as well as contributor to Essence.com, GOOD and parlourmagazine.com. Earlier in his career he was a staff writer for Pittsburgh's alternative newsweekly, Pittsburgh City Paper.
Kevin is well-known for his expertise in the areas of social media, blogging and search engine optimization with the PR firm Hoggan and Associates. Kevin manages DeSmogBlog.com, named by the Times of London as one of the Top 50 “eco-blogs” in the world. Kevin also runs EnergyBoom.com.
In 2008, he co-founded VoteForEnvironment.ca and was nominated for a World Summit Award, recognizing the world's best e-Content and innovative ICT applications.
In the Fall of 2009, the co-founder of DeSmogBlog, James Hoggan, will be releasing a book titled: "Climate Cover Up: the crusade to deny global warming."
Brad Johnson is a Climate Researcher/Blogger for ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Brad holds a bachelor’s degree in math and physics from Amherst College and master’s degree in geosciences from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. He is the co-author of Technomanifestos and the founder of HillHeat.com. Prior to joining the Center, he worked as a developer for Saatchi & Saatchi, Lextranet, and the Democratic National Committee. Brad grew up in Boston, Massachusetts.
Amanda is a climate scientist with the National Wildlife Federation Her work has garnered widespread attention in the media, from USA Today and NBC Nightly News to numerous smaller papers that reach more targeted audiences. Recently, Amanda has ventured online by releasing YouTube videos accompanying each report.
Previously, Amanda was a senior program officer at the National Academies, where she was a key liaison between the scientific community and the federal agencies that support climate change research. She helped author more than a dozen National Academies reports. She holds a Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences and an A.B. in environmental engineering and sciences from Harvard.
