New York Times Magazine: The Low-Carbon Catalog
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.20.08
The Times commissioned artist Gyongy Laky to create sculptural titles for each section.
Every newspaper and magazine on the stands has a green issue right now, and they are getting to be a bit repetitive. The New York Times has taken a different approach, calling it a catalog and covering dozens of issues, some obscure and some mainstream . It kicks off with a wonderful article by Michael Pollan, who answers the question "Why Bother?" Our own Jasmin Chua advises about pets in the "Live" section, while Planet Green's Bill Nye describes his very green house and greener lifestyle. Even the real estate ads are green in the::New York Times
UPDATE: I admire Joe Romm at Climate Progress, but he has to get over his reviewer shtick where he says "One of my most tedious jobs here at Climate Progress is to read all the crap major articles published on global warming, and sort the wheat from the chaff." Then give it up, Joe. He told people to stay away from Monbiot's wonderful Heat without reading the book; now he dumps on the Times for including a few things he doesn't like in its catalog, with the admonition "You can skip the whole thing", boldface Joe's. His blanket denunciations of anything that has a line in its index that he doesn't like are not helpful; there is a lot in that Times magazine that will open a lot of eyes.
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Sorry, Lloyd — I can’t imagine that many people who don’t already know the NYT mag stuff cold will finish it. Plus over half of it is downright irrelevant. Plus the subheads pitched it as if were actions individuals could take, when it isn't that at all. I saw very little I could recommend to my readers. Maybe your (far greater number of) readers are different -- if so, Vive Le Difference!
And yes it is my job to read everything and save the time of my readers. Movie and theater and restaurant and book reviewers do the same thing — and sometimes when they come across a real lemon, they pretty much make the same complaint.
And you took my opening line out of context -- I was trying to make a humorous point about the role reversal between the MSM and the blogosphere.
And I can’t recommend Monbiot’s book to my readers. There are now a zillion global warming books -- far too many for 99.99% of people to possibly read them all, and readers should know it isn’t in the top 10.
Oh and as for repeating my typo and putting a (sic) after it -- tsk, tsk -- everybody makes typos while blogging. I count four mistakes in your post above. But I wouldn't reprint them on my blog with the word (sic) after them to try to make you look foolish.
LA: touché on the [sic] ; I will remove it.