Green websites' traffic yet to blossom.

One victim of the tanking economy is the environmental movement, as now consumers will be flocking back to cheap production/low cost alternatives. Surprisingly, I haven't seen much written about this. AdWeek today talks about how traffic for green sites have recently plummeted or were nipped in the bud:

In the past year, green-themed Web sites have sprung up like weeds. But perceived consumer enthusiasm for the green movement hasn't translated into major traffic for most publishers in this fledgling space, making some wonder whether the media business overestimated the trend. Meanwhile, publishers said that many consumers' interest in green has shifted this year from, "How can I save the planet?" to "How can I save some cash?"

In 2007 alone, both MSN and Yahoo! unveiled green channels, while Washingtonpost Newsweek Interactive (Sprig.com) and Hearst (The Daily Green) launched standalone green content sites. Meanwhile, Discovery Communications snatched up Treehugger.com, former cable net/Web property Lime.com was sold to green retailer Gaiam, and a handful of green ad nets (Burst, SustainLane) popped up. Thus far, traffic reports for these properties are less than promising.