For the first EWG project I worked on, our data was collected by a guy who "borrowed" the equipment and hauled it up and down Highway 101 in the trunk of his car, where he was living at the time. I think we got a story in the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian. For one of the last, nationwide blood samples were analyzed in a Stockholm University laboratory by one of the world's foremost environmental chemists, and the results will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
It's not that EWG's campaigns haven't always been backed by rigorous science. (We fired the guy when we found out he'd boosted the equipment.) But over the last 12 years, it's been beyond cool to see the organization mature and grow – in resources, but even more in reputation and reach. The staff is smart and skilled – not just about the issues, but about politics and the media. Hundreds of thousands of consumers value our guidance on safe food, cosmetics, baby products and more. Mainstream and online journalists turn to us for the names of farm subsidy fat cats, or to guide them through the 1872 Mining Law. Lawmakers and corporations want to work with us – when they're not afraid of us.
I have only a few more days to say us. This is the last Greetings from California, at least from me. After more than a decade heading EWG's California office, I'm moving down the block (literally) to become campaign director at Earthjustice. ("Because the Earth needs a good lawyer.") It should go without saying that I will miss EWG and its people very much. Ken Cook and Richard Wiles have built exactly the organization the movement needed: data-driven, politically- and media-savvy, tough, irreverent but completely serious about its mission.
If EWG's so great, why am I leaving?
First of all, 12 years is a long time in any job. I'm a restless type; I'd never managed to remain more than 4 years at any previous job. Working in the environmental movement is a real privilege, but you have to avoid burnout. As we used to say in the nomadic newspaper business, sometimes you just need to look out a different window. (Imagine a time when there were so many jobs in U.S. journalism that if you got pissed at your city editor you could probably get a better assignment in another town.)
Beyond that, I felt the need to reinvent myself, refurbish my tool kit. (Job-hunting talk.) I've either been part of the daily mainstream news media, or flacking it, for . . . you don't want to know. Anyway, with the MSM as we once knew it in meltdown, it's time to expand the portfolio. I'll still be dealing with the media world, but in different ways. I'll be working on some new issues. But I'll keep working on some old issues, using different tactics. And I'll be blogging over there, once I get settled in.
Thanks to Enviroblog's readers for allowing me to invade your cyberspace every Monday. Thanks to all the EWG staffers, past and present, who've made the organization what it is. We'll do beer:30 again sometime. Last but not least, special thanks to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for supplying so much material for these posts. Hasta la vista, baby.
*Tip of the hat to Waylon Jennings