By Mark Pawlosky Editorial Director of MSN Live Earth

If brown is fashion's new black then red could be the environmental movement's new green.

For years, environmentalists and conservationists have eyed each other warily over the tops of wetlands. To many conservationists, the environmental green movement is filled with left-leaning, humorless, tie-dyed radicals and the precious idle rich. To many environmentalists, conservationists are gun-obsessed rednecks who are only interested in preserving the environment if it meets their ends -- namely, hunting, bass fishing and outdoor recreation (read: racing the engines of their all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles as they rip through pristine wilderness).

Crude, simplistic stereotypes, admittedly, but nonetheless a fairly accurate portrayal of how each side sees the other.

There's a long, tension-filled history between the camps. As Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst with the Reason Foundation, recently pointed out in an article in the Wall Street Journal: "Since its inception, the American Environmental movement has been torn between 'conservationists' seeking to protect nature for man -- and 'preservationists' seeking to protect nature for its own sake."

Most environmentalists I know are not radical romantics, but instead passionate, smart, well-intentioned activists, who unfortunately can tilt toward the shrill and self-righteous on occasion -- but a far cry from the zealots William F. Buckley Jr. accused them of being.

And conservationists are not selfish, narrow-minded rednecks but instead largely conscientious stewards of the land, who will, in private, admit to a certain kinship with aspects of the environmental agenda, but who can be too thin-skinned and too quick to condemn the whole environmental movement because they disdain the celebrities who have attached themselves to the cause.

The inconvenient truth is that they need each other more than they probably realize. If the environmental movement ever hopes to emerge from its coastal bunkers and spread across the country in a meaningful way beyond college strongholds, it's going to need the help of those folks who live in the "red states" that they've dismissed for years.

Conservationists, on the other hand, could learn a few things about guerrilla marketing and grass-roots campaigns the enviros have used effectively for years to influence politicians and shape the national debate.

We here at Live Earth like to think we just might be the perfect place for a meeting of the minds. As I noted in my first column, it's not Live Earth's intention to browbeat consumers into changing their lifestyles. Our goal is to provide sound information to make informed choices.

Just look at Live Earth's programming line-up. We publish environmental news from some of the most respected names in the field: Conservation International, Environmental Defense, Grist.org, Treehugger.com and Rodale.

But we also realize there are other non-traditional voices that deserve to be heard as well. That's why you will also find a Q & A with Eustace Conway, who carved a 1,000-acre homestead out of the North Carolina mountains with his own two hands and who grows all his own crops, hunts deer and other wildlife for meat and clothing and has his differences of opinion with the environmental movement.

We're also introducing another voice to the site -- which we unofficially call The Green Redneck by Robert Holthouser, who writes under the pen name Tred Slough. Holthouser has written extensively about the outdoors for publications such as Grey's Sporting Journal, and his unconventional point of view about the environment is worth reading.

If nothing else, Conway and Holthouser prove that environmentalists come in all different shapes, sizes and colors.