Voice Post

UPDATE

I found someone. Though it wasn’t love at first sight, upon further reading of the posts I discovered many interesting facts along with a bit of voice.

Most of the blogs information is in my “Profile a Blogger” post. I might as well refer to them. Natural Capital is pretty good.

One of the first posts I read by Nick Cunningham, “Sharks Gain More Protection Under CITES”, started out pretty bland. But, as the author presented facts in combination with comparisons to give the reader some perspective I was intrigued.

“Much like the slaughter of African elephants for ivory, which is just a status symbol, middle and upper class Chinese are putting many species of sharks on the path to extinction.”

Though the author of this post doesn’t say something in first person reflecting his feelings towards the people killing the sharks, it is obvious how he feels. Throughout the post he also places short 1-2 word sentences that present a bit of opinion that he has towards what he is writing about. After showing a video of a sharks fin getting cut off he says, “Grisly stuff.” Yes, it may be obvious that watching a bloody shark try to swim away without fins is “grisly”, but it works.

Both of these authors have voice! Though Duncan Gromko’s post “Palm Oil and Deforestation” may not have a intriguing title, the use of voice in the post gives perspective that could not be portrayed through any other means.

“Before I started studying forestry issues, my assumption was that timber harvest caused deforestation. It seems obvious: cutting down trees leads to less forests. But, while timber harvest does play an important role, globally it has a much smaller impact than conversion of forests to agricultural uses. To oversimplify, there is only so much arable land on the earth and, as more food is needed to feed more mouths, the forests on good land are removed to make way for fields.”

Duncan approaches his writing a bit differently from Nick. But, they both have the same voice. Before I noticed that this blog was written by more than one person, I thought all the posts were written by the same writer. Together their voice is consistent. Their emotions are always prevalent, even if it is hidden behind complex comparisons or facts given. They link effectively, while also providing visual evidence to the problem at hand.

They are concerned.

Okay. These guys are as funny/sarcastic/witty as I wanted them to be, but the wide span of environmental issues that they cover through the use of their somewhat serious/informative voice is helpful. It gives me hope that I may find something even better.