6th September 2008

Philip Booth, a Stroud District councillor for Randwick, Ruscombe and Whiteshill has found himself listed in fifth place in the third annual Top Green Bloggers listings while Molly Scott Cato comes in at 12th place.

The blog, "Ruscombe Green", has grown to nearly 3,000 unique visitors a month and Philip Booth has made nearly 1,400 blog entries since he started writing comments about local events, meetings and more. Meanwhile Molly Scott Cato's "Gaian Economics" is a Green look at economics.

Philip Booth said: "Amazingly Stroud has two bloggers in the Top Twenty. The listings are only a bit of fun but it is nice to know people have been interested in the blog and a Green take on the world. I started the blog when I was elected as a local Green councillor in May 2006. There was not a regular news sheet that covered the ward so it seemed like a good way to let people know some of what I was doing on a day-to-day basis."

Visitors to the websites can and do leave comments which sometimes develop into a debate.

Philip Booth added: "I get quite a number of emails weekly resulting from items I've covered on the blog. I've also ended up talking to many people across the country, and further afield like a Seattle photographer who let me use some of his photos to an Aussie guy who ended up coming to Stroud this summer to talk to beekeepers as he considers he might have found an answer to Bee Colony Collapse Disorder."

Molly Scott Cato who last year came top in the People's Vote of Green Bloggers said: "I was a sceptical blogger at first and was persuaded to learn about this new literary genre by my brother-in-law, who grew tired of me moaning that my book was not selling as well as I wished, and that people didn't like reading more than a page at a time."

Molly Scott Cato's book, "Market, Schmarket" has however been welcomed by many. Mark Anslow in The Ecologist writes of it: "Just occasionally, you read a book that gives you an Archimedes-in-the-bath moment. Market, Schmarket is one of those."

The Ruscombe Green blog covers a huge range of local, national and international issues and campaigns like attempts to slow traffic, flooding, footpath changes, Transition Stroud, the local bus service and attempts to improve it, plus stories like a local sleuths attempt to identify the house in a 1832 painting of Paganhill Cottage found in Canada or the recent Bread Street street party - and there are also numerous photos and even a few cartoons donated by a local cartoonist.

The Gaian Economics blog heading says: "All other green campaigns become futile without tackling the economic system and its ideological defenders. Economics is only dismal because there are not enough of us making it our own." The blog gives a Green look at the current 'credit crunch' and recession, a look at Olympics and more about living the low carbon high life.

See the blog at:
http://ruscombegreen.blogspot.com/
And:

http://gaianeconomics.blogspot.com/

For Top 20 Green Bloggers see here. See 2007 results here.