On a November 2007 episode of the NBC comedy “30 Rock,” former Vice President Al Gore makes a guest appearance and network executive Jack Donagy tries to demonstrate his company’s commitment to the environment.

“We’re with you on this whole planet thing,” he says to Gore, “Look at the set we built with the smiley-faced earth, and some green things.”

“We’re way beyond that,” Gore deadpans, challenging the network to “use entertainment for substance,” incorporating environmental themes into all of its programs for one full week.

Donagy is unimpressed, uninterested.

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At nytimes.com, the Energy & Environment page on a recent Sunday led with stories generated by its Green, Inc. team - covering everything from U.S. Chamber of Commerce efforts to derail climate legislation to Canada’s greenhouse goals and efforts by an Idaho pub to cut its greenhouse gas footprint.

But look farther down that November 1 page and you’ll find a cache of climate- and energy-related stories parked in spaces reserved for Greenwire and ClimateWire - two of several content products from Environment & Energy Publishing.

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Barbs from the left and right are nothing new, in fact are par for the course, for any environmental reporter in a position as visible as Juliet Eilperin’s.

A five-years-plus veteran of covering the beat for The Washington Post, Eilperin has often been the foil of those on all sides of virtually every issue she has taken on. Now that she, like many other beat reporters, is focusing more on more on the climate change issue, the criticisms come more often and more pointedly.

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The Web, no surprise, is both a gold mine and a mine field of videos dealing with climate change. Here’s an initial “Top 10″ listing of our favorites, a list that will grow over time with - or without - reader suggestions and comments. We prefer the former, so let us know your favorite online climate change videos.

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Impacts. Mitigation. Adaptation. Politics. Economics. Food security. Public health.

Those are just some of the key elements that mix together in the broad region where concerns about climate change and agriculture intersect. It’s an area with ample, and untapped, opportunities for news reporting and analysis.

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Surf your way to the U.K.-based Guardian’s “10:10″ virtual newsroom and you’ll find a broad menu of climate change-related stories.

Reports scolding greenwashers; profiles of energy-saving pioneers; an update on butterfly migration and changing seasonal weather. In short, items that might fit comfortably on the pages of conventional “objective” news-gathering organizations.

But there’s a catch. “10:10″ is the media arm of a wider social campaign.

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Gardiner sees a climate change ‘perfect moral storm.’

SEATTLE, WA. — First it was a scientific debate. Then it became also an economic and policy challenge. Now climate change is becoming a moral storm. Or maybe it always has been.

University of Washington associate professor and author Stephen M. Gardiner believes the latter is the case. A social scientist and professor of ethics, political philosophy and environmental ethics, Gardiner has studied the ethical and moral complexities of climate change for the past 10 years. But only now is that focus becoming a significant part of the broader discussion on what to do about the impacts of a changing climate.

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In 2007, Live Earth held massive climate change-themed concerts in stadiums around the world. The star-studded shows, broadcast globally, were intended to leverage the power of music to raise awareness, change individual behavior, and increase public pressure for governments to enact solutions.

How did the American public respond to the programming?

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American climate policy could use a bit of James Madison.

In a letter written in 1822, five years after leaving office, the fourth President of the United States cautioned that “A popular Government, without popular information … is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.” A strong democracy, Madison argued, requires both knowledge and public opinion.

How has U.S. climate policy treated either? Not well.

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