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Remember when calling someone a “tree hugger” was supposed to be an insult? Now with global warming becoming a prominent issue, it seems to be worn like a badge of honor and I’m sure there are people who would hug a lot worse than trees to get a traffic trend like treehugger.com has.

The one-stop-shopping site for everything green has seen substantial growth over the past two years. Unique visitors in April of this year are up 281% over the same month last year and are more than 8 times bigger than April 2006.

The depth of the site has also led to increased engagement – just under 7 page views per visit. Treehugger is an impressive example of the new environmentally conscious wave and it’s indicative of an overall trend.

We took a look back at our ’07 resolution to see how far the environmental category as a whole (ranging from the old school - sierraclub.org and greenpeace.org, to the newer wave - motherearthnews.com and treehugger.com, and more) has done since then. After moderate growth from April ’06 to ’07 (14%), unique visitor traffic growth accelerated over the past year, growing 33% since last April.

From the perspective of the sites and the state of the environment, this graph shows that the trend is going in the right direction and as the general public becomes more aware of the issues it will only increase. Someday maybe we’ll all be tree huggers.

This article has 8 comments:

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    Of course there is profit in tree hugging. Just ask Uncle Sam. 33% tax profit margins and the EPA has a $7.2 billion budget for 2008.

    The Global Warming Hoax and the Peak Oil Myth are big business. And the only way you can get so many so-called "scientists" to lie about data is by paying them.
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    Brian, I urge you to seek emergency care for your brain injury.

    www.youtube.com/watch?...
    Reply
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    May 28 10:29 AM
    Brian you may have some valuable information to share but your angry accusations undermine your position.
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    May 28 10:33 AM
    Steve...your little insult toward Brian is not helpful or particularly mature. I hope SA doesn't sink toward your lowest common denominator as so many other websites.

    Rather than refer to a single you tube graphic as proof of anything, if you are serious and open minded I would suggest you try reading "Cool It" by Bjorn Lomberg.
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    May 28 09:05 PM
    Bjorn Lomberg is a mathematician (a statistician more accurately), not a climatologist. You might as well read Dilbert for insight into open heart surgery.

    If you are serious and open minded, you may want to study the volumes of research world scientists have been producing about climate change. And if you're technically inclined, you can even download the models they use and run them yourself.

    Despite what people such as Brian here would have you believe, there is no global conspiracy. The research methodologies, the data, and even the source code to the models themselves are available to the public. A few minutes using google and some technical know how could have you running the models yourself.

    Given the intelligence of the average American and the general decline of education in math and hard sciences, I find it amusing that people would rather listen to those who have no training in the climatological sciences than those who have spent their lives researching the subject. This would be like getting sex tips from a monk.

    To put it another way, if it isn't in a peer-reviewed science journal, then it doesn't mean squat. Any idiot can write a book promoting or decrying the favorite trend of the month. However, you have to have a VERY solid case before you get published in a science journal.

    So until we start seeing peer-reviewed and duplicated results showing that no warming is happening, I'm going to have to go with the researchers.

    Peak Oil Myth? You mean like how world demand will outstrip supply this year without an increase in production? Peak oil simply means the point where demand outstrips supply. That's been threatening to happen for the past couple of years, and looks likely to occur this year. Can supply increase? Sure. But can it increase to the point to exceed demand again considering countries like China and India are ramping up? Maybe. But when processing tar sands begins to look profitable you may want to consider that the glory days of easy oil might be coming to an end.

    Unlike global climate change, we don't have the world monitoring technology that would allow us to know how much oil is left. We can make some decent approximations based on known reserves, but we don't know if there is a little more, a lot more, or no more places to look (yet).

    Yes, there is plenty of profit in tree hugging. As energy and materials continue to climb, Joe Sixpack is going to find that alternatives are becoming competitive. If oil goes to $200, you may see a lot more solar panels.

    ~X~

    Reply
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    May 29 08:34 PM
    Tsk, tsk, this issue always seems to get more emotional than logical. I for one would like people to differentiate between global warming and climate change. Global warming has become more religion than science and carries a lot of baggage. The weak links lie in what the causes are and any scientific proof of thoses causes. Climate change is a reality and has been going on for several thousand years that we know of.
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    May 31 12:00 PM
    Perhaps even more, or most, disturbing is the fact that one can probably get legitimate sex tips from a monk, or priest, or a .....
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    May 31 01:59 PM
    what cracks me up about the whole dbate is how the otherwise rational gas guzzling meat eaters defend their foolish, wasteful and toxic consumption patterns; there's just no common sense to hanging on to outmoded ways of living. now i dont smell like patchouli and i certainly dont give a rat's ass about al gore and the like with their climate change or peak oil; you all are missing the point arguing assinine technicalities as forces totally independent of your understanding are meanwhile busy coercing a change of the Market as we know it even if the pace seems glacial
    Reply
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