"It Was Twenty Years Ago Today..." The Green Skeptic at 20

Today, twenty years ago, I typed out my first blog post with a mix of uncertainty and conviction. “Why Blog? and Why The Green Skeptic?” the title asked—questions that would shape my next decade and a half of writing about environmental pragmatism, clean energy, and social innovation.

As The Green Skeptic, I carved out a unique space between environmental advocacy and market-based pragmatism. Working at The Nature Conservancy then, I saw firsthand the need for voices that could bridge ideology with practical solutions. One of my most effective early posts, “Caring, or A New Conservation Ethic,” first posted in 2005, challenged traditional environmental messaging and advocated for a more inclusive approach to conservation that acknowledged economic realities and people’s concerns. 

A 2008 post, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Protecting and Saving,” argued that everything we thought about saving or protecting ecosystems and habitats was wrong and we needed to unleash human creativity to find new technological solutions as well as new ways of living with nature.

The blog evolved to tackle emerging challenges and opportunities. My piece, “The Coming Disruption—Lead It or Follow It,” from 2011, argued that partisan ideology on both sides was getting in the way of facing the systemic problems of our way of life. (Still true today!) Another 2011 post, “A Tale of Two Cleantech Companies” offered a critical analysis of what worked—and what didn’t—in the emerging green economy, a deep dive I explored in a case study format at the IMPACT investor conference that year. Exploring the intersection of faith and environmentalism in a two-part post on “The Evangelical Environmental Movement” sparked important conversations about building broader coalitions for climate action.

Some of my proudest moments came from highlighting changemakers like Kalyan Paul and his work with Grassroots International, showing how social entrepreneurship could drive sustainable development. The post “What Keeps You Up at Night?” resonated deeply with readers, examining the personal stakes of environmental challenges. My analysis of “Philanthropy & Environmental Change” pushed for more effective deployment of charitable resources to support environmental causes. (It also led to my being introduced to the woman who is now my wife.)

As clean technology and social entrepreneurship emerged as critical areas of interest for me—I moved from the Conservancy to the social venture capital organization Ashoka, and then into my own consulting practice, VerdeStrategy, before landing with EY’s cleantech and power and utilities practices—expanding the blog’s focus into these areas. This evolution led to unexpected opportunities, including a three-year run as a commentator on Fox Business with Varney & Co., where I brought these nuanced perspectives to a broader audience.

The Green Skeptic on Fox Business in 2010

For ten years, I maintained a steady dialogue with readers about everything from microfinance innovation to personal environmental choices, as captured in posts like “Falling Up, Or The Choices We Make May Be Our Own,” part of which led me to write a short memoir called Falling Up, several years later. The blog became a space not just for commentary, but for imagining better futures, exemplified in pieces like “IMAGINE The Man Who Cared,” my reflection on John Lennon’s inspiring legacy of activism. Another post explored the impact of one of my boyhood heroes, Roberto Clemente, who died tragically trying to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. 

While The Green Skeptic’s final post came in September 2019, its spirit of questioning assumptions and seeking practical solutions lives on in my current writing—from regional features and profiles in Berkshire Magazine to exploring new frontiers in psychedelic-assisted therapy for Terrain.org and Lucid News. I still have another, occasional blog, Scott Edward Anderson’s Poetry Blog, where I post mostly about poetry, and my essays are regularly published in various publications.

The media landscape has transformed dramatically since 2004, with Substack and Medium newsletters replacing individual blogs. But that early blogging experience taught me something invaluable: the power of putting thoughtful perspectives into the world without perfectionism getting in the way.

Twenty years later, we need independent voices willing to challenge assumptions and bridge divides more than ever. So, here’s to The Green Skeptic—not just for what it was, but for how it helped shape the conversations we’re still having today about building a more sustainable future.

Back at the Helm...Because the Planet Needs The Green Skeptic

The Green Skeptic back at the helm.

I've been away too long and look what happens? The lunatics are running the asylum.

Well, my hiatus is over. I'm ready to start blogging again and calling out horse dookey (as Mary Karr calls it) about the environment wherever I see it -- and hoping to learn some new things along the way.

Now more than ever, it's clear to me the planet needs the skeptical view -- on both sides of the coin. So, I'm pledging here to rededicate myself to the mission of The Green Skeptic: "challenging assumptions about how we live on the earth and protect our environment."

Watch this space. 

10 Favs; 10 Years: Philanthropy & Environmental Change -- Should Social Capital Markets Take Over?

Back in October 2007, I had an exchange with my friend Lucy Bernholz about philanthropy as an agent of change in the environmental sphere (I was still working for The Nature Conservany). Lucy, as it happened, introduced me to my (then future) wife, Samantha, via LinkedIn a few days after this post with the immortal words, "You two should know each other." Thank God for social media...

Here is my post on "Philanthropy & Environmental Change -- Should Capital Markets Take Over?"


I'm taking up a friendly challenge here.

Lucy Bernholz, who writes the excellent blog Philanthropy 2173, and I started a blogalog (Did I just coin that term?) between our blogs about the state of philanthropy and environmental change.

The author, Samantha, and Lucy in New York, 2012.

It began in response to Lucy's listing of green blogs in the wake of Blog Action Day last Monday, and her noting the lack of discussion of philanthropy on the sites listed (including mine).

My defense stemmed from a concern about philanthropy and its effectiveness as an agent of change in the environmental sphere, which actually was the origin of this blog. I have grown increasingly concerned about the ability of traditional philanthropy to effect lasting change at a pace commensurate with the global challenges we face.

I expressed this concern in my essay for GreenBiz, "Confessions of a Green Skeptic," several years ago about the Earth Charter.

Back then (March 2003), I wrote, "we need to demonstrate how profitable being green can be, and how essential it is to a truly global sustainability. If we can turn the greed motivation to green motivation, effectively turning it on itself, does the means justify the end? Hard to say. But if greed isn't going away anytime soon, we are left with trying to redirect the motivation any way we can. Guilt has worked, but only gets us so far. 'Envy trumps guilt' every time."

This sentiment was influenced by Thomas Friedman's thoughts on the subject expressed in The Lexus and the Olive Tree, that "if conservationists are going to get ahead of the greedy we need to move faster. 'For now, the only way to run as fast as the herd is by riding the herd itself and trying to redirect it,' Friedman writes. 'We need to demonstrate to the herd that being green, being global, and being greedy can go hand in hand.'"

And it was echoed by Gretchen Daily and Katherine Ellison in their book, The New Economy of Nature, from which I quoted, "the record clearly shows that conservation can't succeed by charity alone. It has a fighting chance, however, with well-designed appeals to self-interest."

Things have changed quite a bit since I wrote that essay -- the world has gotten flatter, green has become the new black, Al Gore won an Academy Award and a Nobel Prize for his work on climate change, and the herd has started to move to greener pastures.

But a lot hasn't changed. In Philanthropy, as Susan Raymond points out in a two-part piece called "Does Philanthropy Scale?," the "vast majority of American nonprofits are small; 60 percent or more...have less than $100,000 in annual revenue." And, Raymond notes, "the average foundation grant to nonprofits is on the order of $25,000."

Raymond also points out that "the number of nonprofits with $10 million or more in revenue has increased by 73 percent in the last decade," and asks, "when $25,000 is the average grant, is philanthropy the answer to organizational growth? Indeed, is it even relevant as a source of capital?"

I'm going to quote one more thing from Raymond's essay: "The evolution of microfinance teaches that, when what had been a philanthropic initiative matures and proves its worth, alternative capital sources step in and redefine the opportunity. Is achieving scale, then, the clue for philanthropy to either evolve or exit? And, if so, do we need to rethink what we mean by 'philanthropy' for large organizations or proven initiatives in social markets?"

I quote Raymond's piece at length because it corroborates some of my own thinking on this subject. She rightly points out that the biggest advantage of philanthropic capital is its "ability to take significant risk, to seed a promising idea and recognize that all promising ideas can be failures."

So risk tolerance or tolerance for failure, playing on the field of ideas and at at the edge of problems "where the probabilities of success are unknown, is the key playing field for philanthropy."

For many ideas, perhaps chief among them those addressing environmental issues, it may be time for other types of capital to be brought to bear. I'm particularly interested in what Raymond describes as "a multiplicity of approaches to organizational finance in the nonprofit sector...for self-reliance, sustainability, and (yes) profit" to come to the stage.

This is not far from what Lucy refers to as "tri-sector solutions," such as the B Corporation she has described or the bond purchase strategy Raymond describes in her piece. (In the latter, Raymond explains, "'Donors' took on the role of guarantor rather than funder, and the resources flowed at levels that donations would never have been able to sustain.")

Elsewhere in the web pages of onPhilanthropy, John Bloom of RSF Social Finance, posits that "social finance holds that the purpose of money and finance is to support human initiative and to foster the evolution of new community."

And, Bloom suggests, social finance recognizes "the human and environmental consequences of economic activities...[and] presents a picture of a healthier sustainable future -- and one that leaves behind the industrialist model of philanthropy..."

I will continue this dialogue here on The Green Skeptic, because I think it is an important one, and part of an ongoing, evolving thought process for me that started over four years ago and which led to this blog. Thanks to Lucy for calling me out about it and fostering this dialogue.

It Was Ten Years Ago Today...and I'm Thankful

Today is the 10th Anniversary of The Green Skeptic blog. 

Whether you've been with me for ten years (and please do let me know if you have) or recently came across my blog for the first time I want to say 

THANK YOU! 

Hard to believe I've been doing this -- albeit, not very much recently -- for 10 years.

So much has changed in those ten years, not only in my life, but in the world in which we live.

On 24 November 2004, I announced this blog with the following intentions: "to create a web voice that is at once environmentally concerned, while remaining skeptical about our methods of communication and action. My blog will explore current environmental issues in a pragmatic fashion, debunking environmental myths, while supporting market-based solutions that compliment actions taken both locally and globally." I certainly think I've lived up to that intention over the past ten years, both here and in my three year stint as a commentator on Fox Business with Varney & Co. While I've slacked off a bit on the number of posts in recent years -- only that first year has fewer posts than the current one -- the need for such a voice is ever more relevant and necessary today.


As I wrote on the occasion of the 5th Anniversary of The Green Skeptic, 

"People often ask me why I'm skeptical and what I'm skeptical about.

"Well, the answer is, I believe that skepticism is a hallmark of human nature. Without it, we are sheep. "I think we need to constantly challenge our assumptions about the way the world works or how others tell us it works. We must question even what our leaders tell us, regardless of what side of the aisle their derriere rests upon or what side of the issue they claim to represent."

As I mark our tenth anniversary, I will keep in mind the words I wrote on 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."

Thank you again for reading and happy anniversary!

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!)

In Case You're Wondering Why The Green Skeptic Hasn't Posted in Some Time...

As the season turns from summer to fall, it's becoming increasingly obvious to me that I've neglected The Green Skeptic and its readers for too long -- my last post was August 2nd.

But there's good reason! 

In addition to the usual summer vacation (those of you who follow me on Twitter or Instagram will have seen my tweets from Martha's Vineyard), back to school, and the Jewish holidays, which I've been fortunate enough to enjoy with my fiancee, Samantha, I've been cooking up a few other things -- besides delicious meals.

First, is EY Cleantech's upcoming CEO Retreat in Napa, California, where we'll welcome over 80 cleantech CEOs, corporate, and government leaders  representatives. It's a very exciting event and I've had the pleasure of organizing and managing it for the second straight year. You can read more about it (and read last year's report) HERE.

Second, I've begun work on a new book of nonfiction that pulls together stories of cleantech innovation and my own insights on the sector, which will be of interest to readers of The Green Skeptic. (More on that later, I hope.)

And finally, this fall, the Aldrich Press is publishing my first full-length collection of poetry, FALLOW FIELD. The book consists of 45 poems, representing my best work from the past quarter century, and you can order your signed copy of FALLOW FIELD here:

Here is what others have said about this collection, FALLOW FIELD:

“Scott Edward Anderson’s poems honor the reality that the things of the world – rye grass, fall warblers, ravens, owls, ‘Sargassum drifting/ in a pelagic wave,’ lovers and sourdough bread – speak to and for our innerness. Here the sense of place is not simply a matter of geography, but of feeling one’s way into that sense of becoming that makes one’s path clear. The book’s fourth section is comprised of poems that beautifully embrace the very human need to join the inner and outer, a territory defined, as the poem titles suggest, by ‘Becoming,’ ‘Shapeshifting,’ ‘Cultivating,’ ‘Mapping,’ and ‘Healing.’ Guided since childhood, as the book’s closing long poem relates, by nature’s teaching, Anderson is devoted to finding the words for what it means to dwell mindfully among others on the wounded earth.”

                                                            –Alison Hawthorne Deming, author of Rope: Poems

“I was impressed by Anderson’s engagement with nature — especially the way in which his lyrical lines sketch the profound relationship between humans and their environment.”

                                                             – Jonathan Galassi, author of Left-handed: Poems

For those of you not familiar with my poetry, it is rooted in nature and grounded in what Robert Hass called the “strong central tradition of free verse made out of both romanticism and modernism, split between the impulses of an inward and psychological writing and an outward and realist one, at its best fusing the two.”  (Hass, Introduction to Best American Poetry 2001)

I studied with Hass and with Gary Snyder, along with the late Walter Pavlich, and received some great mentoring and advice from poets Alison Hawthorne Deming, Donald Hall, Colette Inez, and Karen Swenson, as well as wonderful friends and readers.

My poetry is informed by a deep engagement with the natural world, attuned to the smallest details and complexities of nature and our experience of place. Attentiveness and mindfulness are critical to my method of working, both as the poem first evolves and later, through the often rigorous process of revision.

I believe poetry is the most direct language with which to approach our place in the world and reconnect us to nature. By nature, I mean not only the natural world, but also the built environment; not only the processes and causal powers of the physical world, but our immediate experience of the spiritual and the non-human.

For the past twenty five years, I have been building a body of poetry that tries to achieve my goal of writing that is open, approachable, and eminently readable, at the same time that it is intellectual and revels in the joy of language. FALLOW FIELD represents the best of my poetry over that time.

Order your signed copy of FALLOW FIELD below:

How the Internet Gave Me a Voice: Skepticism and Poetry

Craig Newmark via Paper Camera

Today is Internet Freedom Day and Craig Newmark asks "How does the Internet give you a voice?"

When Craig asks something, I feel compelled to respond. Not because he is the founder of Craigslist or because he posts some awesome photos of birds or because Leonard Cohen is his Rabbi.

Rather, it's because he is a champion of causes like veteran's issues and Internet Freedom. (Well, maybe his bird photos do have a special appeal.)

The Internet gave me a voice --actually two voices. One for my skepticism and another for my poetry.

First, the poetry. It was the late 1990s when I first realized the power of the Internet to give voice to my poetry or, more to the point, gave me an audience.

My poems had recently won the Nebraska Review Award and Aldrich Emerging Poets Award, but you couldn't find the winning poems anywhere. The Nebraska Review had to scrap the initial printing of the issue with my winning poems because of a printing error.

Then I got an email from an undergraduate student at a small liberal arts college in Cupertino, California. She had found some of my poetry on the Internet and wanted to write about my work for her assignment. (You can read her essay here: Essay on the Poetry of Scott Edward Anderson)

A total stranger all the way across country found my writing on the Internet.

And now, all these years later, many more have read my work through online magazines and journals and my poetry blog: Seapoetry

More readers have read my poetry than ever could read it in the Nebraska Review or almost any other print publication.

And since 2004 this blog, The Green Skeptic, provided a platform to question the assumptions we make about how we conserve the earth's resources and invest in green technology.

The Internet is many things. At its best, it is a community of voices where there was formerly silence.

Like any community, to paraphrase Parker Palmer, it is where the some of the writers you least want to read do their blogging. But the community of the Internet is richer for the diversity of its voices.

Visit Craig's call to action here: Craig Connects

How does the Internet give you a voice?

OMG, I Missed My Anniversary!

The humble pie is on me

Oh my God, I missed my anniversary!

November 24th, dear reader. November 24th 2004.

That was the date of my first post on The Green Skeptic. My 8th anniversary should have been acknowledged on the 24th of last month.

I completely missed it. Did you?

But I didn't post at all in November. I'm on track for my lowest number of posts since 2005.

It's not writer's block, lately, I just haven't been that inspired by what's going on in the great green (and clean) world.

Forgive me.

I could blame it on the trough of disillusionment. I could blame it on investors. I could blame it on the market. I could blame it on shale gas. I could blame it on a lot of things. But I'm the one to blame.

Frankly, I'm uninspired. And there is nothing worse than an uninspired blog post. Well, almost nothing.

In order to jump start my inspiration, I want to hear from you. What do YOU want me to write about? What do YOU want to hear from me? I'm not talking about PR pitches; I get way too many of those.

They usually start with something like, "Hey Scott Green Skeptic, The: You don't know me but I have a story idea for you about a game-changing technology. If you're interested in writing about this game-changing technology for Scott Greek Skeptic, The, please write me back and I'll give you access to blah, blah, blah..."

Write me something real. From the heart. Something that will inspire me to write and I'll try. I might fail, but at least I'll try.

Yours,

SEA

PS You can post your comments below or write to me at greenskeptic[at]gmail[dot]com.

7th Inning Stretch: A Note of Thanks from The Green Skeptic

One of my favorite quotes about the writer-reader relationship is from Walter Lowenfels. I keep it at the top of my poetry blog as a reminder. Lowenfels wrote,

"One reader is a miracle; two, a mass movement."

I try to keep those words in mind every day as a writer.

On this the seventh anniversary of The Green Skeptic, I want to thank you, dear readers. I am grateful for your support, your comments, and your readership. I hope you are finding some sustenance here.

Seven years ago I wrote in the first post for this blog,

"As 'The Green Skeptic' I propose to create a web voice that is at once environmentally concerned, while remaining skeptical about our methods of communication and action. My blog will explore current environmental issues in a pragmatic fashion, debunking environmental myths, while supporting market-based solutions that compliment actions taken both locally and globally."

While this blog is about "challenging assumptions about how we live on the earth and protect our environment," it is also about the practice of writing.

Two bloggers I read regularly wrote eloquently about writing this week, Fred Wilson and Joshua Brown.

Fred wrote on A VC that through blogging

"I have learned to love writing. It's creative. It's a puzzle. How do I tell the story? How do I get my point across? How do I do it crisply and clearly? How do I end it on a strong note?"

Joshua, who writes the excellent blog, The Reformed Broker, suggested,

"It is in the writing that I discover what I actually think.  It is in the writing and the communicating of ideas and concepts that they truly become mine.  This is a cognitive learning thing that is very widely understood in the education world.  When I'm blogging there are two things that are happening - you, the reader, are being exposed to something I think might be important and I, the writer, am crystallizing my own beliefs and understanding of the topic at hand."

Writing is important to me. As I've written elsewhere on this blog,

"I have always been a writer -- it's all I've really ever wanted to be. Sure, I do a lot of other things, always have, much of which I've stopped doing over the years. But I'll never stop writing. It's who I am. I'm a writer."

As we mark this seventh year of The Green Skeptic 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.

From The Green Skeptic Archives: Philanthropy & Environmental Change: Should Social Capital Markets Take Over?

Deep SEA. Photo by Mickey Rosenau

[Note: While on hiatus this week, I'm posting selections from The Green Skeptic Archives. This one was originally posted on 23 October 2007.--SEA]

I'm taking up a friendly challenge here.

Lucy Bernholz, who writes the excellent blog Philanthropy 2173, and I started a blogalog (Did I just coin that term?) between our blogs about the state of philanthropy and environmental change.

It began in response to Lucy's listing of green blogs in the wake of Blog Action Day last Monday, and her noting the lack of discussion of philanthropy on the sites listed (including mine).

My defense stemmed from a concern about philanthropy and its effectiveness as an agent of change in the environmental sphere, which actually was the origin of this blog. I have grown increasingly concerned about the ability of traditional philanthropy to effect lasting change at a pace commensurate with the global challenges we face.

I expressed this concern in my essay for GreenBiz, "Confessions of a Green Skeptic," several years ago about the Earth Charter.

Back then (March 2003), I wrote, "we need to demonstrate how profitable being green can be, and how essential it is to a truly global sustainability. If we can turn the greed motivation to green motivation, effectively turning it on itself, does the means justify the end? Hard to say. But if greed isn't going away anytime soon, we are left with trying to redirect the motivation any way we can. Guilt has worked, but only gets us so far. 'Envy trumps guilt' every time."

This sentiment was influenced by Thomas Friedman's thoughts on the subject expressed in The Lexus and the Olive Tree, that "if conservationists are going to get ahead of the greedy we need to move faster. 'For now, the only way to run as fast as the herd is by riding the herd itself and trying to redirect it,' Friedman writes. 'We need to demonstrate to the herd that being green, being global, and being greedy can go hand in hand.'"

And it was echoed by Gretchen Daily and Katherine Ellison in their book, The New Economy of Nature, from which I quoted, "the record clearly shows that conservation can't succeed by charity alone. It has a fighting chance, however, with well-designed appeals to self-interest."

Things have changed quite a bit since I wrote that essay -- the world has gotten flatter, green has become the new black, Al Gore won an Academy Award and a Nobel Prize for his work on climate change, and the herd has started to move to greener pastures.

But a lot hasn't changed. In Philanthropy, as Susan Raymond points out in a two-part piece called "Does Philanthropy Scale?," the "vast majority of American nonprofits are small; 60 percent or more...have less than $100,000 in annual revenue." And, Raymond notes, "the average foundation grant to nonprofits is on the order of $25,000."

Raymond also points out that "the number of nonprofits with $10 million or more in revenue has increased by 73 percent in the last decade," and asks, "when $25,000 is the average grant, is philanthropy the answer to organizational growth? Indeed, is it even relevant as a source of capital?"

I'm going to quote one more thing from Raymond's essay: "The evolution of microfinance teaches that, when what had been a philanthropic initiative matures and proves its worth, alternative capital sources step in and redefine the opportunity. Is achieving scale, then, the clue for philanthropy to either evolve or exit? And, if so, do we need to rethink what we mean by 'philanthropy' for large organizations or proven initiatives in social markets?"

I quote Raymond's piece at length because it corroborates some of my own thinking on this subject. She rightly points out that the biggest advantage of philanthropic capital is its "ability to take significant risk, to seed a promising idea and recognize that all promising ideas can be failures."

So risk tolerance or tolerance for failure, playing on the field of ideas and at the edge of problems "where the probabilities of success are unknown, is the key playing field for philanthropy."

For many ideas, perhaps chief among them those addressing environmental issues, it may be time for other types of capital to be brought to bear. I'm particularly interested in what Raymond describes as "a multiplicity of approaches to organizational finance in the nonprofit sector...for self-reliance, sustainability, and (yes) profit" to come to the stage.

This is not far from what Lucy refers to as "tri-sector solutions," such as the B Corporation she has described or the bond purchase strategy Raymond describes in her piece. (In the latter, Raymond explains, "'Donors' took on the role of guarantor rather than funder, and the resources flowed at levels that donations would never have been able to sustain.")

Elsewhere in the web pages of onPhilanthropy, John Bloom of RSF Social Finance, posits that "social finance holds that the purpose of money and finance is to support human initiative and to foster the evolution of new community."

And, Bloom suggests, social finance recognizes "the human and environmental consequences of economic activities...[and] presents a picture of a healthier sustainable future -- and one that leaves behind the industrialist model of philanthropy..."

I will continue this dialogue here on The Green Skeptic, because I think it is an important one, and part of an ongoing, evolving thought process for me that started over four years ago and which led to this blog. Thanks to Lucy for calling me out about it and fostering this dialogue.

What My Brush with Fame in Naples Taught Me About Engagement

I arrived in Naples in late July 1990 as a minor celebrity.

My article on Italian-American novelist John Fante had just appeared in the Naples daily, Il Mattino, in a translation by my friend and editor Francesco Durante.

Wherever we went in Naples it seemed everyone I met had read the article, had an opinion about it, and wanted to discuss it with me. 

I met more people who had read something of mine in those few days than I ever have, at least, until the Internet made it easier for me to reach a large, global audience.  What was so interesting about that experience was not the brush with fame..

No, it was how engaged people were with the writing, and not just my writing.  Mine was one of many articles about which they held and shared their opinions.

I wonder whether, more than 20 years later, newspapers in Naples still engender that kind of engagement and dialogue.  And I wonder how we can better capture such engagement on the Internet.  Disqus helps.  Twitter does it occasionally, although dialogue is hampered by that service's forced "retweeting" without commentary.

Some bloggers such as Fred Wilson, who blogs at AVC is a master of fostering such community; whereas another popular blogger, Seth Godin, does not allow comments on his posts.

Within a few days the talk had shifted from my article to the invasion of Kuwait and the first Persian Gulf War, just as we had moved on from Naples to Capri.  I realized those Italians I met were newspaper readers; it was the medium of their day and they formed a community of readers around their reading.

How are you encouraging community among your readers? What kind of reader engagement metrics do you use for your web site?  How are you encouraging dialogue among your readers or your customers?

   

How My Readers Saved My Blog

Image by Affendaddy via Flickr
Yesterday I froze when faced with the blank page of this blog.  How could I write something that would compete for readers with the news of the day -- that Osama bin Laden was dead?

I put out a call to my readers.  Basically, to paraphrase The Clash song, should I stay or should I go?

My readers saved my blog.

Some of you offered comments; others sent me emails or tweets.  One reader who sent an email pretty much sealed it for me,

"You are far to important to stop doing what you are doing. You are in shock right now, so the best thing to do is to let some time pass, then dust yourself off and get back to what you do best. (Just like the firemen of NYC.) 

Coffee, core exercises and dog walks in the woods sounds like a cure to most anything.  Enjoy and don’t forget that we need you!"

How could I not write after getting such a note?  Thank you, dear readers.

Over at my poetry blog I've got a quote from Walter Lowenfels that has always served as a reminder: "One reader is a miracle; two, a mass movement."

My readers have spoken.  I will not remain silent.

How Osama Bin Laden Killed My Blog

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeOsama bin Laden killed my blog.

Yes, he did.  From the dead. I did everything right this morning.  Drank three cups of coffee (not tea, because three cups of tea is now tainted).  Walked my dog in the woods.  Did my core exercises.  Showered.  Got dressed.  Sat down at the computer...

...and my fingers froze.  What the hell was I going to write about?  I had no ideas.  None.  Zippo.  The latest potential IPO?  A conference I recently attended?  My thoughts on venture capital and cleantech?  Why conservatives have abandoned conservation?

Stumped.  I was completely stumped.

Aw, just shake it off, you haven't posted in a week and a half, your muscle just isn't working. You'll get it back.  Get up and have another cup of coffee, walk around, meditate. Do something.  

How was I going to compete with the death of Osama bin Laden?  And how was I going to write something that anyone would want to read in the wake of all the news of Obama bagging Osama? 
 
During last night's remarkable news, I thought of my friend Barbara, whose apartment was in the shadow of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  I'll never forget trying to find her on that day almost ten years ago to make sure she was safe.  She was safe, but shaken.

Her life was irrevocably changed that day, as were the lives of many -- of all of us, really.  I reached out to Barbara and found her on her way to New York City from Baltimore, where she now lives. 

But even writing about that seemed half-cooked, uninspired.

Then I thought, maybe I'm really stumped.  After over six years of writing this blog, I'm literally stumped.  It's not writer's block, that I can write through.  No, this feels worse than writer's block.  What's the purpose of a blog that can't compete with a major world event?

Like many things in my life, this blog feels like it's at a crossroads.

I'm in need of a serious rethink and I need your help.

Where does The Green Skeptic go from here?  Where do you want to see it go from here?  What do you want to hear about from me?  What do you want more of or less of?  Would you rather I just retire this blog and move on to other things?

Here's your chance, send me your thought in the comments here or via email (greenskeptic[at]gmail[dot]com.

I want to hear from you.

Six Years of The Green Skeptic

Six years ago today I launched The Green Skeptic as a blog devoted to challenging assumptions about how we live on the earth and protect our environment.

It's been fun and I'm cooking up a lot of changes for my 7th inning ahead.

For the 5th anniversary last year, I wrote:

People often ask me why I'm skeptical and what I'm skeptical about.

Well, the answer is, I believe that skepticism is a hallmark of human nature. Without it, we are sheep.

I think we need to constantly challenge our assumptions about the way the world works or how others tell us it works. We must question even what our leaders tell us, regardless of what side of the aisle their derriere rests upon or what side of the issue they claim to represent...

...So, I'll remain a skeptic and try to stop the bleating where I can.

I am neither a climate skeptic nor a climate denier, but I do believe the rhetoric on both sides is spoiling our chances to achieve true prosperity through innovation.

We need to stop all the bleating and blathering and get on with a new agenda for our economy, a new green economy that balances technological progress and environmental impact.

As my pal Andy Swan says, we need "a 'green' that embraces the technological efficiencies that can make our world more productive and cleaner while concurrently lowering the barriers to entry for persons and businesses requiring energy to succeed."

Succeed. Innovation. Prosperity.

Sensing a theme here?

Ultimately, my skepticism about the way "we live on the earth and protect our environment" all gets back to making our world a better place -- a better place for all of us to thrive and grow and, to use one of Andy's favorite words, win.

Thanks for reading; I hope to continue to provide value for the next seven years.

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My Top 10 "Green" Books of the Decade 2000-2009

Here's The Green Skeptic's list of the top ten green books of the decade 2000-2009. This reflects my personal favorites and not necessarily their influence or popularity among the reading public.

1.) The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman

2.) Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals by Joy Williams

3.) Break Through: Why We Can't Leave Saving the Planet to Environmentalists by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger

4.) Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit

5.) The Song of the Earth by Jonathan Bate

6.) Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment by James Gustave Speth

7.) The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly

8.) Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century by Alex Steffen

9.) A New Theory for American Poetry: Democracy, the Environment, and the Future of Imagination by Angus Fletcher

10.) Eye of the Albatross: Views of the Endangered Sea by Carl Safina

What were YOUR favorite "green" books of the decade?

Still Skeptical After All These (5) Years

Today marks the 5th Anniversary of "the green skeptic." The blog, if not the person.

People often ask me why I'm skeptical and what I'm skeptical about.

Well, the answer is, I believe that skepticism is a hallmark of human nature. Without it, we are sheep.

I think we need to constantly challenge our assumptions about the way the world works or how others tell us it works. We must question even what our leaders tell us, regardless of what side of the aisle their derriere rests upon or what side of the issue they claim to represent.

As the recent controversy around emails sent by and among climate scientists reveals: we are none of us -- left, right or center -- averse to cajoling, tricking or brow-beating to get our point across and win the minds of others.

So, I'll remain a skeptic and try to stop the bleating where I can.

A Year on the Path: Some thoughts on what I do next and what I am looking for

So it's been a year since I left the social venture capital organization Ashoka to embark on developing a business idea, which I've written about here and here on The Green Skeptic. The collapse of the market and downwardly spiraling oil prices conspired to make timing for that idea -- an alternative energy investing business -- um, to say the least, problematic.

As I've said before, I was too small to fail, hadn't taken anyone's money and hadn't hired anyone, so it was fairly easy to downshift and slow it down. The idea is still a good one, even with the SEC challenges raised early on by the venerable Steve Goodman and Morgan Lewis. But it is time for me to face reality: I'm not going to be able to pursue this right now.

So, I've spent the better part of this year consulting for various organizations and companies, co-founding the Mid-Atlantic's Renewable Energy Business Network chapter, having fun being a part of the StockTwits community as it builds and grows into a viable business, and advising and connecting people with great new ideas like GoodCompany Ventures, Radical Inclusion, and Humanity Calls. Along the way, I've spun out a few new ideas of my own, but haven't focused on one particular direction -- not yet.

I've even toyed with going back to my old, long-time employer The Nature Conservancy or joining its rival/partners WWF or Conservation International but have dragged my feet on that too.

The other day I had a pointed conversation with my leadership coach, Joni Daniels. If you don't know Joni or her work, you should, she is phenomenal. She's also tough on her clients who hem-and-haw and, well, drag their feet.

She's pushing me to put things in perspective, decide what's important to me and to decide what option makes the most sense to me in achieving my goals and what I want.

Throughout this year, I've also learned a lot about myself and what I want in a working environment. Here's the top five things I am looking for in what I do next, not necessarily in order of importance:

1.) A place where I am part of a results-oriented leadership/management team.
2.) A place where I can build a team of highly motivated talented people.
3.) An entrepreneurial enterprise with global impact.
4.) An enterprise with international reach/travel opportunities, especially in the developing world.
5.) A social business enterprise that is either for profit or at least not afraid of profit.

I'll be exploring this in several posts over the next week or so. Happy to have your thoughts on the matter.

Van Goes to Washington? Rumor Has It He'll Be Green Jobs Czar...or Not

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

A Tweet over the weekend by Karl Burkart of GreenDig has spread like wildfire on the blogosphere: Van Jones has been confirmed as the nation's first Green Jobs Czar.

greendig: Big news!! An inside source reports Van Jones just confirmed as Obama's Green Czar and will be moving to DC shortly.
2 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

I retweeted Burkart's original Tweet on Saturday and several others did the same to mine (view).

Even Grist.org picked it up: On the Van Wagon

But is it true, just a rumor, or wishful thinking? One of those things that become truth because so many people repeat it over and over?

I noted that almost the ONLY source quoted for almost every reference on Twitter is the same shortened url: http://tinyurl.com/bf6mdf, which points back to the original GreenDig article.

And a scroll down the Twitter Search reveals very little additional information: Search.

In addition, a Google search on the terms "Van Jones" + "Green Czar" this afternoon, also results in very little new information or details from credible sources. Almost every reference refers back the Burkart tweet or his GreenDig article, some even quoting it as an original source!

Not satisfied, I called The White House and they had no information about such an appointment. I have a call and an email into David Falkenstein, of Sunshine, Sachs and Associates, who represents Van Jones' Green for All, as well as an email to Van and to his office. And have pinged Karl to ask him to share his source.

As of 2:30 EDT this afternoon, I have not been able to confirm this appointment. Stay tuned.

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On Ideas, Status, Conversation, and Flow: Life and Twitter

Image via Wikipedia

Fred Wilson wrote on his blog, A VC, yesterday about how the status update has become the primary user experience, whether you're on Facebook or Twitter or another social networking option.

"I believe Facebook's recognition of status as the most important and most powerful social gesture seals the deal," wrote Fred. "Status is where it's at in social networking. This is very good for Twitter and it's also very good for the other social nets who recognize this and move quickly to provide status updating features and open them up to the social web."

Howard Lindzon, whose latest idea StockTwits, is built on the Twitter API and features a clever twist on the status update (Substitute "What Are You Trading?" for "What Are You Doing?"), countered that "It's about Ideas."

I agreed with both and said so in a tweet yesterday afternoon: I think it's about Status + Ideas + Conversation.


Jeffrey McLarty, who knows about such things from his study of global water issues, commented that it's all about flow. More specifically, "the flow of it all."

He's right too.

My wife, who is always right, really doesn't get Twitter or why I'm hooked on it. She asked me yesterday whether I preferred my "Twitter life" or my real life. Of course I said my real life, but later I started thinking about it.

There are plenty of moments during any given day when I do prefer my life online, connected to the folks in my various social networks over what I'm doing at that moment. And there are other times when I want to shut off that online world.

But then, it's becoming increasing apparent to me that there is no real difference between the two. And that is where the flow happens: I'll tweet something that feeds into StockTwits, it's picked up and retweeted by a total stranger, and then one of my good friends sees it on my Facebook status feed and comments on it or sends me an email about it.

Another friend calls me to set up a meeting in a couple of weeks and asks me about another tweet, which is in turn commented on by someone else. That comment might trigger another idea in my head, which I might share with my wife or someone with whom I'm having coffee or a beer, which sets off another flow.

A couple of weeks ago I tweeted something about my son collecting coins. One Twitter friend picked up on that and, because he is a coin collector himself, offered to send me some coins from the British Raj. Amazing flow.

The trick is to learn to "go with the flow" and not get swallowed up by it or run ashore. Now that the Dalai Lama (or at least his office) is following me on Twitter, I'm hoping the flow leads to some harmonic convergence or something. Or at least a continuous flow of ideas and status and conversation.

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