Who’s Who in Green: Hank Green

Hank Green is the founder and editor of EcoGeek.org, one of the most popular and well-respected sources of green technology news on the net.  Hank started EcoGeek in graduate school as part of an assignment, and it has evolved to become a highly trafficked blog serving up 10 posts daily on topics like electric cars, solar panels, wind tubines, ethanol and every type of eco-gadget known to man.

EcoGeek is driven by the belief that “technology can be a force for evil, or for awesome”.  That is, technology can help us achieve a balance that allows us to live convenient modern lives, and still be good to the earth. This ‘symbiosis between nature and technology’ defines the content on EcoGeek, which is written by Hank along with a great team of writers who keep up the steady stream of fresh green tech news and features.

The EcoGeek blog network also includes Carectomy, Envirovore and EnviroWonk, all dealing with environment-related topics.  EnviroWonk focuses on the green side of politics, Envirovore hashes out the environmental impact of food and Carectomy is all about ‘removing cars from people’.  Each blog provides unique, interesting, well-written content in niches that were previously lacking any real presence.

Aside from his work on EcoGeek, Hank has written for Treehugger as well as Mental_Floss.  He’s also a YouTube star, appearing in a series of daily video blogs called ‘Brotherhood 2.0’, created during 2007 when Hank and his brother, young adult novelist John Green, decided to communicate through video instead of text for a year.  The vlog has been featured on BBC radio and the Wall Street Journal, and has a fan base of 20,000 people, affectionately known as Nerdfighters.  Hank’s music can be heard on YouTube as well, like the awesome ‘Baby I Sold Your Dog on Ebay’ and ‘Accio Death Hallows’.  Hank also appears regularly on Planet Green’s nightly news show ‘The G Word’, and has been interviewed by NPR’s All Things Considered and Air America’s The Young Turks.

Some of Hank’s best environmental writing was done when he was writing a weekly column for a daily Boulder, Colorado newspaper. As Hank himself describes it, the column was about ‘being young, poor, and green’, and covers everything from fair trade coffee to scabies.

Hank’s efforts with EcoGeek have already caught the eye of TIME Magazine, who called the blog “porn for hardcore science, tech and enviro freaks” and noted funny post titles like “Sexy Photos of a Solar Furnace in Uzbekistan”.  Hank Green does indeed help make the environmental movement on the web more fun, and that’s what we love about him.  Nerdfighters FTW!

Hank Green’s Green Score: 15,984

EcoGeek Kills “Clean Coal” Ad and Calls Them Out for the Greenwash

Hank Green is my hero for the day. For those of you who don’t know Mr. Green, he’s the brains and geek behind EcoGeek- the authoritative green technology blog on the net. Hank and I have been blogging pals for the past few years and I’ve even done a bit of writing for his site.

Today Hank woke up to find an ad on his site from the Clean Coal Lobby, sitting pretty right at the top spot. He didn’t waste any time killing that shit and wanted to let the Clean Coal people know why he did. It’s a gem:

No…you’re not green. You’re full of crap.

Your industry turns mountains inside out, poisons the water of the rural poor in America and throughout the world. Your industry has never made an environmental move in its long and storied history without being forced to by a government. The promotional video for ‘clean coal’ at your lame PR site lauds a carbon sequestration plant that has now been canceled because it was determined to be pretty much impossible. The cleanest coal plants in the world still create more sulfer dioxide than the environment can deal with without acidifying the rain and the soil.

Of course, the future is in sequestering carbon, right? Pumping it into the ground so that it never hits the atmosphere. The problem is, building a sequestered carbon coal plant is actually more expensive than building a solar thermal plant. Why would we stick with you when solar is revving up to be cheaper than coal without expensive, unrealistic sequestration?

The only thing that makes you seem even a little green today is how extremely destructive you used to be. You cannot be, you will never be, green. Give up…go home…enjoy the next few decades because they will be your last.

We’re moving on without you, and you’re going to have to deal with that. Actual clean technologies are here now. We don’t need you anymore. There are 45 gigawatts of renewable energy planned for the United States. You are not renewable…you are not America’s Power…you are not the future and you sure as hell aren’t green. Stop pretending.

Sincerely,

Hank Green and the EcoGeek Team

Rock on Hank!

(In case you’re wondering, if we ever get a Clean Coal ad here on EarthFirst we’ll do the same as Hank but will probably drop a few more F bombs than he did.)

Link [EcoGeek]