The hoopla surrounding Earth Day on April 22 inspires Commander Rick to take the pulse of the planet as diagnosed in comic books and speculative fiction, with: SF humorist Douglas Adams; Canadian comic book artist Ty Templeton; Sinister Cinema distributor Julian Grant; Taboo publisher Steve Bissette; Science Matters co-author James Trefil; and SF writers Robert Sawyer, Spider Robinson, Garfield and Judith Reeves- Stevens, Larry Niven, Gregory Benford, Lewis Shiner, Nancy Kress, Pamela Sargent and Lois McMaster Bujold.