Even amid impeachment talk and world financial turmoil, TIME sets aside 10 pages this week for a subject not always in the headlines but always vital to our future: preservation of the environment. Efforts to conserve natural resources have long been a preoccupation of TIME's, from our naming of Endangered Earth as Planet of the Year in 1989 to recent coverage of the apparent onset of global warming.
Now we launch our biggest environmental project ever: Heroes for the Planet, a two-year series of special reports. Running once a quarter, they will profile individuals who are working to save our natural...