BPSDBIt has been almost a month since Honestpoet did me the singular honour of making me the recipient of the Woody Guthrie Award (presented to A Thinking Blogger). I am very late in acknowledging this honour and making the presentation to another blog for several reasons, one of them being the timing of my absence discussed under Houskeeping).
Another reason would be that I am a social coward. When asked to pick between two people I have been known to feign death rather than admit to a preference. Receiving the award was humbling, but it also threw me into a panic. The third, related reason is that
I am in Awe of you
All of you who blog for climate and social justice. Your passion, commitment, knowledge, insight, creativity and basic insanity humbles me every day.
How to pick one of the many? I like so many of your efforts (including the many that I have yet to acknowledge with a link or inclusion in my hopelessly out of date blogroll), each for it’s own reason(s).
This one for the freshness of the ideas, another for it’s thorough research, one for covering the latest stories, another for deeper analysis, this one for it’s sober academic approach, the next for it’s quirkiness, another for it’s heartfelt rage, yet another precisely because it’s from an diametrically opposed political view from my own. And so on.
And that is just the climate blogs, never mind the others that I try to read when I can. How to compare them? Apples and oranges? we’re talking Goldfinches vs screwdrivers! Yes I am a ditherer, but I also take this quite seriously. I not only truly in awe of so many of you, I am also a major Woody Guthrie fan, so this is no trivial matter.
Calumet: The Copper Miners’ Strike & Massacre of 1913
Having determined that I was not in any position to change my name and flee the country I started winnowing down the list. After much thought and careful consideration I was still left with far too many. I then feigned death for a few hours, but even that didn’t help. Finally I put the names into a spreadsheet and used the good old ‘=rand()‘ function.
Cheating? Maybe, but I honestly believe that so many of you deserve recognition for your awesome efforts. I hope Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal will not think less of the honour for my having gone this route, but rather shares my belief that it has been difficult because he is in the company of giants.
Why Dan’s? It’s definitely a “science blog” with occasional forays into politics and ‘other’, Dan’s Journal is solid science told with clear, conversational writing and lots of good graphics. In fact what has impressed me is his ability to find some stunning graphics that really drive home the point he is making, like this image of the Sept 2009 temperature anomalies
or the 30 trend in Northern Hemisphere sea ice anomalies. Truly pictures that are worth a thousand words.
That, and he authored “What Do Climate Scientists Think About Senator Laughing Stock?“1, and also really pissed off Denver Weather Examiner and climate Denier Tony Hake; what’s not to love?
So there you go Dan, you’re the (hopefully) proud recipient of the Woody Guthrie Award for A Thinking Blogger. Now it’s your turn to name another worthy recipient, and try to be prompt about it please 😉 .
And sincere gratitude to Honestpoet for the honour, and to all of you who made this decision so hard by making the blogosphere so rich. You truly are the common working stiffs building the the internet information railway
… keep on doing please.
1Note to Dan, your Maher link is dead, here’s one that works.
“Since 1982, spring in East Asia (defined here as the eastern third of China and the Korean Peninsula) has been warming at a rate of one degree Fahrenheit per decade.” Earth Gauge
We give our consent every moment that we do not resist.
Denier “Challenge” aka Deathwatch Update: Day 362 … still no evidence.
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Greenfyre's 
On short acquaintance of both, I applaud the choice of Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal as a reliable source of interesting articles.
And complain that Greenfyre is an unreliable (nothing new again today?) source of even more interesting articles.
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Greenfyre,
Congrats, but I’m baffled by the use of “insanity”, in
Is it simply that you meant “sanity”?
PS What did you make of the Bragg/Wilco Guthrie ‘Mermaid Avenue’ collaboration?
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Or just try babysitting one for a couple of weeks … 🙂
I’m a Guthrie fan as well, both for his music and his political/social viewpoints.
I don’t very often object to covers, as it helps to keep the music alive (Guthrie himself didn’t just sing his own songs). Very often cover versions have led me to seek out the original (or at least an earlier) version. It’s how I discovered Guthrie.
I hadn’t come across Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal before – but it’s a good choice.
re: covers … I’m not pretending to be rational about it, just stating how I experience it. Hell, I don’t even like many of the redos that the original artist does. There are exceptions though; I really like Green Day’s Amnesty cover of “Working Class Hero” (speaking of Woody & keeping us on topic 😉 ) which I love as much as the original.
But your points are well taken. For eg artists like Cash have exposed a whole lot of other people to NIN’s excellent “Hurt”, which is a good thing, but I still can’t really enjoy anything but NINs.
I am So honored!
Thank you for the kind words, and I shall try to live up to the spirit of the award in my choice for the next recipient.
Dan
Absolutely outstanding choice! Dan’s passion for science, education, and clear communication make him a stand out blogger! Great choice Mike!
Larry aka @tweetingdonal
I read Dan regularly – for his specific and general insights.
Wonderful choice! 🙂
Friendly ramblin’ thoughts…
A woman blogger tagged you, which is nice, since Woody might be considered an early feminist supporter (thanks to his openness to the influence of women like Aunt Molly Jackson).
Women’s posts and comments are largely absent from the dominant climate links and blogs.
Gender perspectives and analysis are largely absent from international negotiations on climate.
Something’s wrong. 😦
Women are obviously on the frontlines of climate change action and impacts.
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/?s=climate+change
http://picasaweb.google.com/ICT4dPeople/PACCQuiltParade1Oct2009#
http://www.ids.ac.uk/go/news/amplifying-women-and-children-s-voices-in-climate-talks
Etc etc etc
You’re very welcome. Glad to be of service.
If women’s voices are absent, it’s probably because we have, generally, a low tolerance for belligerence and bullsh*t, both of which seem to be prevalent in much of denier discourse.
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I look forward to reading them. No pressure, though.