The day we issued the first specialized environmental bulletin in Lebanon, “The Environment Platform” in 1995, our ambition was to reflect the ideas and struggles of what was known as the “Green Forum”, which is a Federation of Societies having common environmental principles (most importantly the independence from the authorities of all kinds). This bulletin has withstood until 2002 despite of the scarcity of financing and the weakness of the federal framework.
This bulletin (which was collected later on in a folder) used to be distributed by hand, through the associations affiliated to the Forum, which extends from Beirut and the mountains to Becharri, Kobayat, to Arsal, Nabatiyeh, Maghdouche, and Arabsalim … The forum left intellectual marks, which corrected and deepened the struggle for the environment in more than one incident … The folder, which collected the bulletin’s editions, was a reference for tens of theses in recent years.
This bulletin (which became a magazine) adopted fixed categories, which aimed at establishing a new culture about the environment, based on old orientations, which we thought (and still think) are the “saviors” in the dangerous and existential issues of the century, such as the environmental issue.
Our goal did not change after that, especially when we established the “Environment” page in “Assafir” newspaper in August 1998, and I am still in charge of the page until this moment. But the evolution of the means of communication and the domination of the era of the picture, and the deterioration of the paper era, for various reasons (including the environmental), made us think more about online media. The experience of launching the specialized website “greenarea.info” moving at fast speed. It is the speed of wide-reaching and quick access. But what do we want to deliver? Should ideas change with the changing methods of communication and delivery?
We should first acknowledge that a lot has changed, tremendously, and not necessarily for the better. Change in itself is not a supreme value. As I wrote at the information summit in Tunisia in 2005, the large number of information does not produce knowledge. The source of information, whether from the small screen or smart phones, smarts electronics perhaps made us more stupid. We can also infer that at the very least, the information revolution has been accompanied by further deterioration in the global economic situation, in addition to the continued health and environmental degradation.
Despite all that, the website might open up new horizons, that we are supposed to benefit from. The rapid picture and news, are of great and influential benefit. At the forefront of these benefits, is clarity. But as is the rule, “everything is at the expense of something else.”
Clarity is always at the expense of depth, and depth, is always at the expense of clarity. If the second rule was still the same “in order to know more, we should dig more,” because we should try to reconcile between these two values … The website includes clear and brief materials, as well as deep and extended ones, supported with arguments, evidence, and sufficient reference.
Despite all that has been positively said about the “information and communications revolution”, to signify the importance of the changes made by the evolution of communication technology, compared with the previous agricultural and industrial revolutions, which triggered structural shifts in the ways of the development of civilization on one hand, and the negative effects on the environment on the other. But the attributes of the “Information Age”, are still a bit vague. Perhaps, the multiple labels it had, in order to describe it, are the best proof of its vagueness.
It is the “era of endings” (the ending of place, distance, history, geography, state, nationalism, school, books, ideology, and metaphysics …). It is “the era of the post” (post-industrial, post-modernity, and post-humanity …). It is also the era of the “without” (factories without workers, education without teachers, schools without walls, offices without walls, flags without papers…). An Era that is known by “what it is not”, and is so different that “what is has been”. It is an era that is still groping what it could be, at the time that the talk is about the “post-information age as well!
Thus, the world shifted from a world of infinite “certain facts” to an infinite world of uncertainty and chaos, with many claims stating the ability of this “information revolution” to answer all the questions, and to find out what was unknown!
Will a specialized website such as “greenarea.info” succeed in answering these questions and challenges, while staying up to date? Will it be able to bring together the speed and accuracy of information, and the comprehensive knowledge? “greenarea.info” will open the doors for more knowledge, and contribute to the production of a new critical mind based on rapid information, meditation, and quiet thought, based on science and philosophy as well?
It is a challenge we accepted to take as a new beginning and a new experience, added to several previous attempts, with a distinctive group.
