Welcome to Battle of the Blogs - the explosive weekly throwdown between the finest GO Journals. As editor/referee, I’ll feature thought-provoking posts that make our minds tingle with their brilliant wit — or maybe just important information related to saving the world.

You, too, can enter Battle of the Blogs by starting your own GO Journal. Winning posts will be featured on the GO front page for all to read and reckon with. Inspired yet? Ready to enter the ring? Ready, set, WRITE!

Behind Enemy Lines: Notes From a Coal Family - by Michelle Bennet

In my humble opinion, any written work that has “a left-wing conspiracy to take over the world” in the first paragraph is worthy of a gold star. In fact, that may become a requirement here at GO (just kidding..or am I?). Michelle offers a glimpse into her life, influenced by the coal industry and its necessary antagonistic approach to the environment.

During a recent tour of a coal mine, my father eagerly pointed to the run-off pools that help prevent muddy waters from ruining local creeks. The pools were sludgy and stained brown or black; the creeks were the same color. “You can find frogs and fish in those pools, they’re not polluted.” He was happy to reassure me that life would return to the wasted mountain sides, and every struggling weed or wandering flock of wild turkey confirm that life will prevail. But the rich biodiversity of Appalachia cannot be replanted with rows of one species of fast-growing saplings or grass from another continent. What he believes in principle lacks good science because he chooses to ignore parts of the picture. He aims his camera at what he likes best.

The eco-social externalities of coal (part one) - by Tim Hurst

It seems only natural to follow Michelle’s post with Tim’s thorough analysis of consumer choices and coal’s convincing externalities. As consumers we can’t always go for what’s cheapest - now we have to have a conscience as well.

The global economy lives and dies at the level of uncertainty a consumer will accept before choosing to not buy a good. Coal may be less expensive in terms of how much you pay every month for electricity, but those bills do not accurately reflect all of the electricity’s costs, or what economists like to call, “externalities,” like sulfur dioxide, mercury, carbon dioxide, or even dead miners.

Murder Your Lawn - by Billy Goodnick

The dying environment, the cost of dead coal miners and now we’re murdering our lawns. Great. However, Billy raises some valid arguments in his posts, mainly why in the hell do we have lawns in the first place? They create nothing but trouble between neighbors and are probably responsible for half the cases of OCD in this country among married suburban men. Billy calls lawns not used for recreational purposes “environmental arrogance.” Rant on Billy, rant on.

Would someone PLEASE tell me why there are lawns in front of houses? The kids are in their rooms playing computer games, chatting on AIM, or downloading pirated videos, so don’t tell me it’s about a place for them to play. Lawn in the backyard? Maybe. Into nude sunbathing? Get a chaise lounge and place it on your permeably paved patio. Something for the kids and dog to cavort on? O.K., there’s nothing to completely take the place of a patch of turf, but how many thousand square feet do you really need?

LED Christmas Tree Light Experiment - by Philip C. Curtis

This post is from a few weeks ago, but it’s very relevant with the holiday season in full swing. Shaking your head ‘no?’ Let me remind you December 1st is this Saturday. With that in mind, check out Philip’s rather adventurous experiment with LED Christmas tree lights and maybe you’ll be inspired to start your own.

We installed 2000 LED Christmas lights on my friend’s house and tree. We connected all 2000 lights together and plugged them into one plug which was connected to a watt meter. All 2000 lights only drew 150 watts of electricity. We did some math and determined that it would cost about $40 a year to run the lights for 8 hours a day for an entire year. I’m not sure if 2000 lights seems like a lot to the average reader but it’s quite a lot of lights. My friend’s backyard is very, very well lit.

Green Collar Jobs - by Jim Gunshinan

Now that you’ve realized the rapidly approaching holiday, it’s time to get a job — preferably a green one. Jim gives us the rundown on whole house design and the demand for contractors who know how their individual work on a house effects what everyone else is doing as well.

Plumbers have to respect air and moisture barriers, designers have to understand moisture dynamics, and HVAC contractors have to understand the pressure dynamics of the whole house; otherwise furnaces will backdraft, mold will form in walls, homes will have poor indoor air quality, they will cost a fortune to operate, be very uncomfortable, and fall down after a few years. In order to combat global warming and provide affordable housing to everyone who needs it, houses must be designed, built, and retrofitted to be energy efficient, healthy to live in, affordable, and made to last forever (or at least for a hundred years). Interested in being a part of the solution to global warming? Get a green collar job.

Congratulations, bloggers, a thrilling match! Tune in next week for Round 2!