The debate about global climate change is heating up again. Vice President Al Gore continues to hammer away at the need to control greenhouse gas emissions while the next scientific report of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is being prepared for release early next year. Patrick Michaels, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and coauthor of a new book on global warming, discussed the present state of both the scientific and political debates surrounding climate change. Environmental journalists John Fialka of the Wall Street Journal and Seth Borenstein of Knight‐​Ridder led the discussion thereafter.