SPECIAL: The Ecologist

Am delighted to annnounce that I have recently become the Blog Manager for The Ecologist magazine. On top of my day job of course.

It is only intended to be an interim thing to tide them over whilst they assess some internal stuff but it should be great fun and needless to say I am very excited. I will be blogging, managing other bloggers and helping them get the blog more blog like (ie links, rss etc). Mostly.

But first things first, if you are a green blogger and you do not already do so then please do link to The Ecologist Blog.

WHAT I WILL BE DOING?
I will be blogging weekly, starting today, a series of posts (tentatively titled 'Everyday Green') that will follow my attempt as an ordinary urban guy to understand, appreciate and reduce my own and my immediate family's impact on our planet.

These posts will exclusively appear on The Ecologist Blog although I will flag them up on CityHippy as they are published.

'Everyday Green' intends to create a roadmap that ordinary mainstream urban folk (like me) can follow to green their lives. It will hopefully be the kind of thing you can refer people to when they ask your advice about being green. It will cover all aspects of modern urban life. Should be fun.

WHAT ELSE WILL I BE DOING?
I also hope to help The Ecologist editors post a whole lot more and we have some other exciting plans but more on that soon.

THE MAGAZINE:
In case you do not know anything about The Ecologist:

The Ecologist is the world’s most respected environmental affairs magazine. For 35 years The Ecologist has helped set environmental and political agendas around the world by focusing on the root causes, not just the after-effects, of current events.

The magazine is famous for many reasons but my favourite is to do with them having an entire issue on Monsanto mysteriously pulped by the printer back in 1998. That back issue is now the best selling back issue ever having sold nearly half a million copies apparently.

Additionally the magazine is also credited with producing the book (A Blueprint for Survival) that inspired the formation of the political party that came before the now well established Green Party of England & Wales.

Incidentally the back cover of that book is a searing indictment of our global governments total inactivity in addressing the environmental issues we all still discuss today. The book was published in 1972.

More recently the magazine has become famous thanks to the advisory status of Editor, Zac Goldsmith, nephew of magazine founder Teddy Goldsmith, to the Conservative Party here in the UK. Clearly Zac's impact on that party's environmental awareness is immense although whether the party is as green as they say will be discovered in time. Personally I do believe that by pulling the Tories over to the green agenda Zac has helped to pull the green agenda into the Westminster Foreground and has contributed to the greening of both the Labour & Lib Dem parties who now also fight on a greener platform as well.

Zac is often criticised for his family wealth and elite status but to be honest without independent means a magazine like The Ecologist would have historically struggled to survive.

Incidentally Zac is the brother of Jemima Khan, current boyfriend of Hugh Grant, for all you celeb-spotting ecorazzi's out there.

It is a great honour to work with a magazine with that kind of pedigree. I look forward to them bringing much value to the green blogosphere.

Namaste

Al

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