The New Hot Zones

Books, films and a slick ad campaign make global warming the topic du jour.

In the din and clamor of issues competing for public attention, there’s an inner circle of causes that virtually define good citizenship. Who would argue that a mind isn’t a terrible thing to waste? The quasi-official gatekeeper to this pantheon is the Ad Council, which deploys more than $1 billion in donated media time and space each year for a few dozen carefully vetted, slickly produced messages. Last week a new issue got the Ad Council’s blessing, a potential catastrophe that could make college dropouts the least of our worries: global warming.

The council’s two new TV spots were released on the same day as the premi