That used to be the line in a television ad for the magazine, back when it was edited by Tina Brown. The line gets repeated in the movie "Adaptation" by Chris Cooper's character. The New Yorker's been doing some solid environmental reporting recently. there's been kind of a run of environmental stories, in fact. The first one, a couple of weeks ago, and still on their website, is Raffi Khatchadourian's profile of the Sea Shepherd Conservancy's Paul Watson and his efforts to stop whaling. Watson's tactics divide people. Some think he goes too far and that ramming whaling vessels and other methods do his cause more harm than good by alienating potential supporters. But as controversial as Watson's methods are, his commitment is plain. The web version of the story includes video, as well as an audio interview with Khatchadourian about what it was like to report the story.

In the November 12 issue, the magazine's environmental reporter Elizabeth Kolbert put together an exhaustive piece about Alberta's tar sands. The full text of the story is not, sadly, online, just an abstract. But it's worth picking up the actual magazine for the story. Speaking of oil, Ms. Kolbert reviews a couple of books in the November 5 issue about the car of the future and what it might run on. Or browse her recent environmental reporting for The New Yorker. You could also consider getting her book, Field Notes From A Catastrophe, about global warming.