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Reading green blogs and websites is the key to eco-education and enlightenment no matter what's on your mind—be it biodynamic tippling, eco-friendly diapering, organic composting, or low-carbon driving. Are you a rabid online shopper prone to skimming product descriptions and then filling a virtual shopping cart with green goodies? There are plenty of sites for you, too. So sit back, power up the PC, and let GreenYour usher you to greener pastures. And remember, tell 'em GY sent ya.

Find it! Green blogs and websites

General
The Budget Ecoist	E Magazine
EcoStreet	The Green Guide
GroovyGreen	Ideal Bite
The Lazy Environmentalist	LIME
Sprig	TreeHugger
Environmental news
Dot Earth	Ethical Living
Environmental News Network	Grist
Off Grid	Orion Magazine
World Changing
The Greenguard
Environmental Defense Fund	Environmental Working Group
Greenpeace International	Natural Resources Defense Council
Organic Consumers Association	Rocky Mountain Institute
The Sierra Club	US Environmental Protection Agency
Worldwatch Institute	World Wildlife Fund
Eco-shopping
3R Living	EVO
Great Green Goods	Hippyshopper
Big Green Purse
Science & technology
Ecofriend	EcoGeek
Green Car Congress	MetaEfficient
RealClimate	Scientific American
Union of Concerned Scientists
Green fashion & design
Ecofabulous	Inhabitat
Metro Hippie	Style Saves the World
Style Will Save Us	Sustainable Style Foundation
How Green Is Your Life?	Green Design Girl
Food & diet
Chews Wise	EatLocalChallange.com
Eat Well Guide	The Ethicurean
FoodRoutes	GoVeg.com
Sustainable Table	Veggie Chic
Green business
Environmental Capital	GreenBiz
Sustainable Business.com	Triple Pundit
World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Green building & homes
Broomhuggers	Building Green TV
GreenHomeGuide	Jetson Green
Low Impact Living	Re-nest
Obligatory celebrity stalking
Al's Journal	Dhlovelife
Ecorazzi
A mixed blog
The Accidental Environmentalist	Alice in Blogland
Ask Pablo	Crunchy Chicken
Eco-Libris	EcoSherpa
Exploring the Urban Green	Fake Plastic Fish
Green Thing	The Sietch Blog
Society of Environmental Journalists	How Green Is Your Life?

Listed ablove you'll find just a small sampling of blogs and sites on GreenYour's finely tuned eco-radar—categorized for easy surfing. Although we'd like to think we've covered all bases, there is a lot out there. If there's an eco-blog or website that you think should be here, please drop us a line.

In addition to the blogroll above, we've pinpointed websites that may be useful for greenies interested in networking, activism, influencing political change, or finding true amour. Also head over to Best Green Blogs for a comprehensive round-up of the green blogosphere or scroll down to External links for other top blog and website rankings. And if you'd rather curl up with a hardcover instead of a laptop, check out our eco-themed book picks.

Reading green blogs and websites helps you go green because...

• It's an easy way to keep in-sync with the fast-moving world of environmental news. Keeping informed of the latest in green technology, sustainability, politics, and yes, retail therapy, can influence personal decision making and even play a part in sparking global trends.
• Patronage of green blogs and websites—whether it's just skimming an article, making a comment, or even contributing—gives the movement toward a more sustainable future its vital pulse.
• The non-static, boundless nature of blogs and websites often provides much more than print materials, like books, magazines, and even newspapers, for those looking to keep constantly abreast of green issues. By perusing the Internet for green information, you're also avoiding the cycle of paper production and waste associated with print materials.

Not too long ago, a Google search for "green" may have yielded a mixed bag of results, many of them having to do more with color swatches than with the environmental movement. The blogosphere was also sparsely populated, inhabited mostly by diary-keeping teenagers, college students, and technophiles. However, the meteoric rise of blogging—many credit Gawker Media publisher Nick Denton for first pairing a weblog format with a traditional magazine business model—along with the strengthening of global eco-consciousness has led Internet users to turn up a lot more than just facts on fabric hues and paint shades.

Approximately 15.5 million active blogs—or blogs updated within a 90 day period—were tracked by the leading blog index Technorati in April 2007.[1] One year later, in April 2008, over 6,700 blogs were tagged with the key term "environment" on Technorati. TreeHugger, a venerable green blog covering an extensive range of topics, leads the pack in terms of popularity.[2] Founded in 2004 by Graham Hill, TreeHugger's popularity led to its acquisition by the Discovery Channel in August of 2007.[3]

According to another blog traffic tracker, the Truth Laid Bear, the top five most visited environmental blogs are TreeHugger, AutoblogGreen, Inhabitat, The Oil Drum, and Worldchanging. In his own blog, Marketing Green, David Wigder admits that the art of measuring the popularity and influence of green blogs is not perfect (and rather confusing), although tools that track site traffic and external links from other sites are helpful. And whatever the numbers or rankings, green bloggers, like other bloggers, are increasingly influential and can compete with traditional news websites after building faithful readerships.[4]

The growth—or explosion, rather—of green on the Web is not restricted to North America. According to a May 2007 study conducted by UK-based Internet analysis firm Hitwell, traffic on environmental websites (not exclusively blogs) had increased by 25 percent over a two-year period. Most visited sites included the Environment Agency for England and Wales, the Freecycle Network, and the Earthday Network. The most frequently used environmental search terms were "freecycle," "environment agency," "earth day," "global warming," and "live earth" (an eco-charity concert).[5]

Overall, it's believed that popular green blogs and websites lure in more readers than environmentally focused print publications.[6] Says GreenBiz.com's Joel Makower: "One of the realities of our day and age is that as communication and media flourish, discourse is happening in a lot more places. And good ideas flourish no matter where they come from."[6]

External links

• Hugg
• Environmental Graffiti - Top 10 Environmental Blogs
• Times Online - Green Central: The Top 50 Eco Blogs
• ReadWriteWeb - The Top 35 Environmental Blogs
• Lighter Footstep - 10 Green websites you should be reading
• WIRED - Save the Planet by Surfing the Web, 'Green' Websites Promise
• New York Times - As Environmentalism Grows, Online Publishers Go Green