The Environment

As the national discourse on global warming heated up, New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin emerged as its de facto moderator. On Dot Earth, a relatively new, must-read newspaper blog, Revkin's commentary roams from inspiring to enlightening to plain old silly. In one post, he calls on readers to send in an imagined private conversation between climate crusader Al Gore and science-phobe George Bush. In another, he laments the death of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion-pricing plan, which could have cleared the worst of the city's traffic. "How will we ever think (and act) globally if we can't even act locally?" writes Revkin. His voice, which often adds a refreshing lightness to the most leaden environment-related questions, is that of a dyed-in-the-wool journalist: someone who's seen everything three times but is still curious about the world.

Sample Dot Earth post: The world has seen the first international conference on manufacturing meat. This is the process, tested so far only at laboratory scale, of growing pork, chicken, or beef through cell culture in vats instead of raising and slaughtering animals. ... What if you can have your meat, be ethical, and environmental, too? (And presumably they'll engineer the bad fats out as well...)