![]() It is reprinted here with permission of SEJournal Editor Mike Mansur. The piece that follows, written by the editor of this site, was initially published in the Spring 2010 issue of SEJournal, the quarterly journal of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Revkin’s initial comments about not showing his hand as a liberal or a conservative may challenge that assumption, and one or the other may have to give. One challenge he’s likely to encounter: Experts say the most successful opinion columns frequently take strong and unequivocal positions, one side or the other. Revkin’s transition from a conventional ink-on-newsprint reporter to an intrepid blogger to, now, a multi-media communicator and opinion columnist will be closely watched by others inside and outside of conventional journalism trying to make their way in the new and challenging news room and post-news room environment. If forced to choose a bumper sticker promoting “Climate Crisis” or “Energy Quest,” he for one would take the latter, Revkin wrote, quickly adding: “This doesn’t mean I reject the idea that we face a climate crisis.” He said the world “is not remotely engaged in the kind of energy quest” needed … “from the household light socket to the boardroom, the laboratory, to the classroom.” ![]() In his maiden opinion piece on April 7, Revkin began with a not-terribly-opinionated or editorial overview of energy and climate issues he described as “powerfully established.” Among his key points: Even with more energy conservation, “a world heading toward roughly 9 million people seeking decent lives will require far more of this resource than today’s supplies and systems can provide.” He wrote that he’ll “continue listening to you as we jointly explore and test drive this evolving form of discourse.” In going from a straight news to more of an opinion format, Revkin as a freelance blogger “will say what I think in ways I could not when I was a Times reporter.” But he said Dot Earth “will remain home to a dynamic, sometimes exhausting exchange of reader comment.” (Some outsiders say the site will find it challenging to maintain the same rate of reader interaction in the absence of Revkin’s bylines, frequently on the front page, in the printed Times. “I’m not going to suddenly be revealed as an ardent liberal or conservative,” he wrote, but rather as an advocate … “for reality.” By his count, he had overseen some 940 blogs at the original Dot Earth site. “Don’t expect momentous changes,” Revkin said in his final post to the original Dot Earth blog format before setting out with what he called the site’s “new iteration.” Revkin had secured his new position with the “opinion side” of the online Times while maintaining his new “communicator” position with Pace University and embarking on a new opinion-writing role with the newspaper’s Dot Earth blog, which he had started. ![]() It took longer than he had thought it might, but by the end of March, former New York Times science reporter Andrew C.
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