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MAGAZINES (Environmental Organizations) by Tom Turner |
1. World Watch, published by the Institute of the same name, is the one to read if you read only one. Serious but handsome, well-written, no frills (that is to say no color or advertising), World Watch had its eye glued to the big picture. It provides extensive summaries of its articles on the web. Six times a year.
2. Sierra has improved markedly since last we visited. Many more of its articles are now posted on the web. Subject matter is broad--politics, tourism, natural history--and, of course, ample opportunities to learn about the club and become a member.
3. The Amicus Journal doesn't post as much of its contents on the web as one would like, but what it does put there is worthwhile, particularly for research (and for poetry, if that's your bag). A button for "Clippings" offers an intriguing potpurri of archived articles; another for "Shortlist" is a charming and quirky set of short reviews and links on some unlikely subjects like spelunking.
And that's all for now. We've dropped Earth Island Journal for the time being because it seems to have buried itself in too much of a good thing. It is a trove of good news and information (bad news too), but it hasn't been updated for nearly a year. We've also dropped Audubon since the site carries almost nothing from the magazine besides subscription come-ons.
If, however, we can broaden the category to include magazines not published by membership organizations, we'd offer
4. High Country News, a small miracle of a paper published in rural Colorado that gives news of the West in a thorough, serious, straightforward way and has been doing so for a quarter-century or more. A broad and generous website is definitely worth a bit of your time.
5. Cascadia Times is a newish regional paper serving the Pacific Northwest from Portland. It is similar to High Country News in format and coverage and is run by two reporters who learned their trade on the Portland Oregonian. Again, a website that's more than a advertisement for subscriptions.
Tom Turner is staff writer and director of publications for the Earthjustice (formerly Sierra Club) Legal Defense Fund in San Francisco.