Huffington Post is having an online voting contest: Who Is The Ultimate Game Changer In Green?
There are a number of good choices, though I wouldn’t have included Stephen Colbert — he does sometimes air some very clever environmental messaging, but he’s happy to ridicule environmentalists or environmental themes if it can get a laugh.
The guy you should vote for is Ken Ward, Jr (click here). Here’s why:
Changed the game by … raking muck while covered in coal. West Virginia isn’t an area that gets much national attention, but that changed this spring when 29 miners died at the Big Branch mine. There were questions: Where were the regulators? Why was Massey Energy able to game the system? How do workers feel the strain of weakened safety laws? Ward, Jr. a staff reporter at the Charleston Gazette since 1991, kept churning out answers on his blog, Coal Tattoo, which obsessively digs up the truth on mining. He keeps daily watch on those in government and industry, even after the rest of the press has moved on.Must-click link: Ken Ward’s Coal Tattoo blog
We are going to need a lot more journalists like Ken Ward, Jr. if we are ever going to have a chance at preserving a livable climate for our children and countless future generations (see “How the status quo media failed on climate change“).
You can vote for Ken Ward, Jr by clicking here.
It’s also great that they recognized Josh Simpson (aka Leroy Stick) of the amazing fake twitter feed @BPGlobalPr, with such memorable lines as
- Attn Scientists: If your gulf water samples explode, it’s only fair to deem your research inconclusive. http://ow.ly/2dAHk
- If you fall off your horse, get back on. If your horse explodes and leaks oil everywhere, try to sell that oil. #bpcares
- We’re #1! We’re #1! We’re #1! In your face IXTOC! Biggest Gulf of Mexico spill EVAHHHHH! http://ow.ly/264tD #bpcares
- You didn’t hear this from us, but the guys at Shell are terrible racists. #justsayin #bptattles
- Funny, the liberal media never talks about sharks we’ve killed. #bpcares
- Yes, we disabled the alarms on the Deepwater Horizon. Oh, like you’ve never hit the snooze button? http://ow.ly/2fQ6x
- The “smell test” works for checking diapers, assessing milk & deciding if seafood is poison. http://ow.ly/2k2YG #bpsmells
- Does anyone know where W. put that “Mission Accomplished” banner? #bpvictory 2:55 PM Aug 7th via TweetDeck
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Ken Ward Jr. and his Coal Tattoo blog are an invaluable contribution to our understanding of America’s (and the world’s) high cost energy reality.
Ken Ward for sure. And the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, who is truly an enormous champion, and doing a great job of making the kind of cross-cultural bridges we desperately need in this movement.
I would have voted for him but I didnt see anywhere that explained whether 1 was excellent or 10 was. Maybe I missed something but I even went to Huff’s game changer website.