The campaign to get ".eco" as a domain name on the web recently gained traction by getting an ally in Al Gore.
I learned of this from one of my former college mentors at the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Mich. St. -- who's not a fan.
[H]ere’s my gripe: Just whose awareness are we increasing? This sounds an
awful lot like preaching to the choir. Like it or not, you slap “eco” onanything
- let alone something as high profile as a top level domain - and you’ve
immediately polarized your audience.It has a tremendous appeal to certain
consumers of news and information.
For others, it inspires eye-rolling disdain for yet another “greenie”
initiative - one now linked to the even more polarizing Al Gore. How many
peoplesuspicious of the legitimacy of environmental issues will turn to a .eco
domain for information? That’s why journalists who cover the environment are
neededmore than ever. I’ve chosen my words carefully here. We need journalists
who cover the environment, not environmental journalists.
I somewhat agree with his point. But I'd also add, where are the parameters for such a domain name? Could Bjorn Lomborg, notorious climate change skeptic, start a website with .eco? Can you imagine Big Coal setting up www.cleancoal.eco?
Doesn't environmentalism include social well-being as well? Poverty, malaria, world hunger have huge implications on the environment. Do those causes get tagged with .eco? Probably not, but who's to say?
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