Pulitzer prize-winning journalists Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele investigate Monsanto. ("We've never written about a company where some of its own customers are scared of it," they said.) Donald Trump and Michael Forbes duke it out over a chunk of pristine Scottish seacoast. ("When I called to tell him that Vanity Fair wanted me to look into the local furor over his proposed golf course in Scotland, [Trump] asked -- I could feel his almost childlike excitement growing, even on the phone -- "Do you think they're going to put me on the cover?")

In the print edition only, there is also Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. with a manifesto for America's next president, Michael Shnayerson with a fascinating piece on the twisted political demise of the polar bear, and a gorgeous preview of the new uber-green California Academy of Sciences, designed by architect Renzo Piano.

Online exclusives include a canoe trip down the once-filthy Bronx River and, of course, David's guest blogging at Green Beat.

Altogether a prize package to celebrate the Earth in '08 ... Let's just hope the awareness it raises offsets the impacts of the 285-page print version -- most of which is still devoted, sigh, to entreaties to buy more stuff (aka, advertisements).