Adding Light Spotlight (08/30/2012):

The Adding Light Spotlight highlights people or organizations working to make our communities stronger, more resilient, and safer for our improved quality of life. Through the Spotlight, I hope to demonstrate that EVERYONE does not have to do EVERYTHING to make our world better as long as EVERYONE does SOMETHING.

"Grist has been dishing out environmental news and commentary with a wry twist since 1999 — which, to be frank, was way before most people cared about such things. Now that green is in every headline and on every store shelf (bamboo hair gel, anyone?), Grist is the one site you can count on to help you make sense of it all.


Each day, we use our Clarity-o-Meter to draw out the real meaning behind green stories, and to connect big issues like climate change to daily life. We count on our users to bring their stories to the table, too — through blogs, photos, and whatever else they care to share. Except Jell-O molds. Those things scare us."

I found Grist when I got an iPod and sought environmental media content. I found some staples like Sierra Club and Treehugger, as well as some more off the wall (but still insightful) programs like This Week in Free Energy and America the Green. Then I found Grist. It had three qualities that I prize: intelligence, compassion, and humor. The writers got their points across in many different ways: sometimes with simply-stated fact, sometimes with tongue-in-cheek, Onion-esque humor, and sometimes with cheerleader-like celebration of the American spirit. I have rarely read a piece and felt I wasted the time.

Grist focuses not just on the politics (so it is not a partisan sounding board) and not just on the science (so it is not as boring for most as Scientific American or Nature). They have taken equal issue with President Obama and with the presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Their single-minded focus on making environmental issues relevant puts them in a decidedly objective position in the environmental discussion.

Chip Giller founded Grist in 1999, and established it as a non-profit entity (a 501 (c)3 corporation). The magazine gets funding from three sources: foundation grants, private donations, and advertising. As with everything Grist does, its advertising policy carries a bit of humor (some might say "snark") with it:

Grist openly publishes a list of foundation funders, as well as its Board of Directors, which usually means those individuals contribute as well. Their IRS 990 shows annual expenses between two and three million dollars, with revenues from all sources varying from year to year between a little under two million and a little over three million dollars. No single funder appears to contribute more than five percent of annual revenues. This suggests to me that they take seriously their commitment to impartiality; a commitment that I find exemplified in the work they do.

Give Grist a try. Whether you veer left, right or center and follow MSNBC, Fox News or NPR, I know you will find substantive reporting with strong technical understanding of issues....and more than just a bit of humor to make it go down smooth.