Concept
Mother Nature Network
Overview
Mother Nature Network (mnn.com) was a news and information website focused on sustainability and ranked by Alexa Internet as the most visited for-profit website in the world in its environmental category. It was labeled "the green CNN" by Time magazine, "green machine" by the Associated Press, and "best of the breed" by Fast Company. Founded in 2009 by former marketing executive Joel Babbit and Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell, it was the flagship property of Narrative Content Group, whose equity partners included CNN and Discovery Inc.
MNN generated revenue via exclusive content category sponsorships versus the traditional advertising model utilized by most websites. Brand partners included Walmart, Mercedes-Benz, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, UPS, Allstate, Dell, Subway, MillerCoors, Bayer, Dunkin' Brands, and many other leading corporations. In February of 2020, Narrative sold Mother Nature Network and TreeHugger, another of its sustainability focused websites acquired from Discovery, to digital media company Dotdash, an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IAC). The two sites were then merged and operate under the Treehugger name.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Naturalists, as we have seen, try to arrange the species, genera and families in each class, on what is called the Natural System. But what is meant by this system?
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
States what Mother Nature Network is.
This is called “roguing,” and is, in fact, a form of selection, like the rejection of inferior animals. Experienced horticulturists and agriculturists incessantly urge every one to preserve the finest plants for the production of seed.
Charles Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication
States what Mother Nature Network is.
Now in the whole corporeal nature, living bodies are the most perfect: wherefore the word "nature" has been transferred from living things to all natural things. For the word itself, "nature," as the Philosopher says (Metaph. v, Did. iv, 4), was first applied to signify the generation of living things, which is called "nativity": and because living things are generated from a principle united to them, as fruit from…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
States what Mother Nature Network is.
Place in the tradition
Part of Deism.