The Daily Green's Heartburn of Green Awards

The Heartburn of Green Award

This award recognizes those whose environmental messages are important, but are often considered 'too hot to handle' or 'not ready for prime time.' They give us heartburn.

They may be right or they may be wrong. But their messages are important ones and deserve a listen...even if it makes us a little uncomfortable.

For a look at those who have helped green go mainstream, see The Daily Green's Heart of Green award winners.

Oh my God, is the world really running out of oil?

Part of the small universe of Websites dealing with the concept of peak oil and the civilization-quake that would result, the Oil Drum stands out for its emphasis on hard data, its clear-headed analysis and its interest in solutions to this global tsunami.

"We try to be the bridge between the doomers, the technopians and the cornucopians," the pseudonymous Prof. Goose, a founder of the site, wrote in a post celebrating its three-year anniversary in March.

The site's writers labor through the buried leads in the news of the day, crunch numbers major media ignore and drive home the message that the world's energy problems are not going to solve themselves.

Fair. Balanced. Totally scary.

Imagine telling Americans to stop shopping. Why, why, that's not even American!

But that's the message that Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping have taken on the road for years with humor, costumes, singing, crazy lyrics, street theater and a relentlessly unreconstructed anticonsumerist message. This year, and just in time for Christmas, he starred in a holiday movie mocumentary that we just bet you didn't see: What Would Jesus Buy? produced by Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame.

With a title sure to enrage, and starring Rev. Billy in full-out televangelist regalia of white suit and bleached blond pompadour, What Would Jesus Buy? takes a look at the crazed world of over-the-top consumerism and the toll it takes on the Earth and the people caught up in it all. Funny and controversial, it did not exactly get a lot of play in the local malls around the country.

Reverend Billy. We ain't saying he's all right. But we ain't saying he's all wrong neither.

From his 750-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment high in the New York City sky, Colin Beavan and his family ('10 legs and a tail,' as he likes to say) have pushed the philosophy of living lightly on the Earth to an uncomfortable extreme. Their hearts are squarely in the green space, and while their restrictive lifestyle may scare away everyday folks, their journey is a worthy one to examine.

When Beavan started his No Impact Man blog in February 2007, he hit on fears about global warming, rampant consumption and erosion of ties to nature. Since then Beavan -- who has a Ph.D. in physics and is a published author of history -- joined his wife, Michelle, and their toddler in an experiment that radically transformed their lives. They have given up motorized transportation (including elevators), plastics, most shopping (except for food), generating any trash (other than compost) and consuming any foods produced farther than 250 miles away.

Going further, they have even given up toilet paper (imagine bowls of water and air drying). While few will be willing to make such a deep dive off of consumption cliff, the Beavans' journey started many people thinking about just how much they use and waste.