Ideas for an Environment-themed blog

Energy:  Should people be worried about fracking? How have alternative energies been taken up in our culture in the last year, five years, ten years, or fifty years? How is rhetoric used to persuade people to change energy sources? Why do people resist alternative sources of energy? Should government and/or local communities play a bigger role in promoting alternative energies? How does the phrase “big oil” function in our culture and is that representation fair?

Water: What are the water demands of the next five or ten years? Is water an equal concern for people in different parts of the U.S.? The world? Should it be?

Climate Change:  What has the increased visibility of climate change and of environmental issues more broadly in the last decade produced, in culture or in policy?  Has the “green movement” been a success?  How effective have forms of consumer-oriented environmental action—Priuses, compact fluorescent light bulbs, reusable grocery bags—been?  What is the relationship between the goals of awareness and action when it comes to climate change?  To what extent has the climate “debate” been resolved in the public eye?  What role has the U.S. played thus far, and what role might it play in the near future?  Given the centrality of scientific expertise to any discussion of climate change, how have universities played a role in public discourse on climate change?