National Geographic last month became the latest national magazine to place climate change on its cover, publishing one of the strongest series of pieces on the topic yet to appear in a mainstream publication. You can view free excerpts here, but will have to pay a visit to your trusty library to read the whole issue. Be sure to check out the note from the magazine's editor in chief, Bill Allen, in which he explains why he felt compelled to run the stories even though he anticipates a lot of angry reaction to them. "Some readers will even terminate their …

Earth in the BalanceBy Al GoreHoughton Mifflin, 416 pages, 2000 How many environmentalists have actually read Earth in the Balance? Very few, I'm willing to wager. The truth is that until recently, I myself felt qualified to pontificate on Al Gore's environmental beliefs and, yes, occasionally question whether he'd lived up to them, even though I hadn't read more than a few excerpts from the book. Well, that age of innocence is over. Gore reissued his book with a new introduction on Earth Day 2000, and I have since fulfilled my duties as an environmental writer. I'm here to say …

The stomp of enviro feet leaving Al Gore's camp and heading toward consumer advocate Ralph Nader's Green Party tent appears to have put quite a fright into the vice president's operation. The veep is spending valuable time nowadays campaigning in the Pacific Northwest and states like Wisconsin, places he should have locked up by now were it not for Nader. This weekend, Gore's lead environmental advisor, Katie McGinty, took aim at two big-time issues that have raised environmental hackles: Occidental Petroleum's plan to drill for oil on rainforest land in Colombia claimed by the indigenous U'wa tribe, and ongoing disputes …