Thursday, January 22, 2009

Welcome Article XI

Question: Where can you find a blog that has Lowell Feld, Miles Grant and Jim Hoeft as contributors?

It's Articel XI, a brand new environmental blog that has brought Lowell out of semi-retirement. It promises to be a non partisan effort to begin a dialogue on environmental issues, from different political perspectives. Jim reminds readers that one of the founding fathers of the modern conservative movement, Barry Goldwater, was as passionate about conservation as he was about free markets and recognized the sometime contradictions that arose from those positions. Of course, real creativity often comes about precisely because of the tension of holding two diametrically opposite points of view in balance and arriving at a third, brand new position because of it.

Meanwhile, Lowell, Miles, and other contributors, who will be familiar to RK readers, will continue to write insightful posts on the Virginia environment, energy issues, and climate change. They will continue the quality that readers have come to expect from them.

I'll admit, that's not my area of expertise or even my passion - politics and economics are, with a dash of religion and culture thrown in. But since RK turned out the lights, nobody has been doing the important stories on energy conservation and the environment that need to be done. It's because it's a topic I know so little about that I welcome this new site. I need it as a resource as much as anybody else.

So, welcome to the Virginia blogosphere.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, if you are passionate about economics, shouldn't also be passionate about energy issues? How we power our economy or how we regulate pollutants or how we mitigate climate change all involve essential economic questions.

Also, does lack of passion about a particular issue translate into a lack of advocay on that issue?

Anonymous said...

Actually, I would say Lowell has been brought out of retirement to semi-retirement.

Now if we can just Leslie Byrne running against Tim Kaine, THAT would be something to bring him out of semi-retirement!

Karen Duncan said...

tx2vadem, I think you are overreading my statement about economics rather than the environment being my passion. That does not imply that I have no interest in environmental issues. Far from it. If I wasn't an advocate on behalf on energy conservation, renewable energy sources, green jobs, and smart growth, I certainly wouldn't have linked to Article XI, let alone been so enthusiastic about it.

I merely meant to say that the type of in depth posts that Lowell, Miles and some others will write are so beyond my area of expertise that I will be going to them as a resource.

I am better informed about the economy and politics than the science and technology behind environmental issues. That in no way implies I'm not interested or passionate about a clean environment and climate change.

Bwana, Lowell will probably be out of semi retirement post haste when it comes to environmental issues. But I doubt Leslie will run again. But Byrne vs Kaine would be interesting to watch :)

Anonymous said...

Daggone right...shoot, I'd buy tickets to watch that one!