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 at Grist.org, where he covers clean energy, politics, and much else. He also tweets to excess @drgrist. Personal obsessions include the perfidy of the U.S. Senate (excepting Sen. Cardin of course!), the undercounted social benefits of urban density and distributed energy, and the application of social psychology to energy use. Also, the douchecanoes currently messing everything up. His work has appeared in Scientific American, Popular Science, Fast Company, The Nation, Mother Jones, etc. etc., blah blah. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two boys, who may already be the internet's most tweeted children.
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 Grandia is the Director of Online Marketing for EnergyBoom.com and has been researching and writing on climate change and renewable energy issues for over four years.
He is also the Manager of the award-winning site, DeSmogBlog.com. Kevin is a regular contributor on Huffington Post and has written for many other outlets over the years, like the UK's Guardian.
Kevin is also the co-founder of VoteForEnvironment.com, which was nominated for a Global Summit Award an international recognition of the world's best e-Content and innovative ICT applications.
Kevin works as Director of Social Media at the Vancouver Public Relations firm, Hoggan & Associates.
You can find Kevin on Twitter here and Facebook here.
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.
