TH Web Roll : French Eco - Enthusiasm
by Erwan Pianezza, Locronan, Brittany on 05. 8.06
Remember the early days of Treehugger, when interviews were performed via email, when video was only an idea, and Vanity Fair had not joined the recent magazine earth issue fashion? Well a few years have turned a lot of minds to a better understanding of green issues, not only in America. Our French correspondant Erwan has gone through the enthusiastic community of french webmasters, and reviewed local initiatives: video is not on the agenda yet, but blogs, wikis, and forums are flowering all over the world of francophonia.
ecoloPop, erwan's own french speaking 'treehugger' blog initiative, focuses on positive environmental news : there is work to cure the “big planet disease”, but things are going forward. In spite of poor institutional support (environmental agencies budget regresses every year !), the french web shows that people are moving forward. NotrePlanete, one of the oldest environemental websites in France, goes beyond the usual blog schema. its impressive database of pictures, news and services is one of the most accurate source of info and updates on the subject for french speakers. More specialized is oleocene, a very active discussion forum for peak oil addicts : most members here consider Matthew Simmons or James Horward Kunstler as ultimate stars. Oleocene's community forum is the place to go for instant comment on oil, geopolitics and alternative energy sources. Individual initiatives bring a lot too : Raffa 's blog, le Grand Ménage (Spring Cleaning) started as a collection of ecological recipes for everything related to housekeeping issues, and publishes free downloadable books. On the editorial side, professionnals are joining the move and daily papers, such as Le Monde or Libération, have their own environmental section. Video is not there yet but sound is ok : RadioEthic podcasts – unregularly – interviews of officials and entrepreneurs, but the best stuff to be heard remains the weekly “CO2 Mon amour” (CO2 my love) saturday broadcast, from France Inter, one of the french public radios.
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thanks so much for this post. i've been wondering where the french eco blogs and sites were.