25 November 2013

Number 9 Dream and a Note of Thanks to Readers

Nine years ago yesterday I wrote my first blog post here The Green Skeptic. Some 900+ posts later, my come more slowly and less frequently as other forms of writing and communication have usurped the blog's domination, but it's still chugging along.

As John Lennon sang in his song "Number 9 Dream" from his 1974 LP, Walls and Bridges:

"So long ago
Was it in a dream, was it just a dream?
I know, yes I know
Seemed so very real, it seemed so real to me..."

Nine years does feel like a dream. I never dreamed I'd still be publishing this blog nine years later, even on a less regular basis than some years.

A lot has changed in nine years, but one thing remains steadfast: my appreciation of you, my readers.

You come from 10 countries (according to Google Analytics), with the United States, France, and China topping the list, followed by the Ukraine, Germany, and Russia; then the UK, Belgium, Slovakia, and Hong Kong.

An eclectic list, indeed. If your country is represented or if it is not, please let me know.

Of the 940 or so posts I've written here (or at least since May 2007, when Google Analytics started tracking my posts) the most popular is one that I posted over three years ago on the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers. It's being chased by a couple of recaps from Cleantech Alliance events, my "Take-Aways" from the Aspen Environment and Global Philanthropy forums of a few years back, and book reviews for Amy Larkin's ENVIRONMENTAL DEBT and Mark Tercek's NATURE'S FORTUNE, posted earlier this year.

The inclusion of the last two posts on my all-time, top 10, leads me to believe you are still finding relevance in what I write here, which encourages me to keep going -- and perhaps to focus more directly on book reviews and lessons learned from events in the marketplace.

As The Green Skeptic starts its 10th year, I will keep in mind the words I wrote to mark our seventh year together, "I want to thank you again for reading. I hope to keep up my end of the bargain moving forward with good, informed writing about the issues, a healthy skepticism about both hyperbole and hysteria and, most of all, a respect for you, my readers."

Happy Thanksgiving (or "Thanksgivukkah," as we're saying this year).

"Ah! böwakawa, baby, poussé, poussé," as John Lennon sang it. (And if anyone knows what he meant by that phrase, I wish you'd post it in the comments!)