National Geographic 2012 December

September 2012 National Geographic is the kind of magazine that looks you straight in the eye, points at a sky full of trouble, and says: “So… about the Weather.” Not a weather. The weather. Capital W. The moody main character of modern life. On the cover, a bruised tornado looms over an empty road like nature’s way of sending a “just circling back” email, while the famous yellow frame sits there calmly, as if it’s seen worse (it has).

Inside, it’s a globe-trotting mood swing in the best possible way. One minute you’re in Texas, the New Dust Bowl, where the land is auditioning for a gritty remake of itself. Next you’re off to Mountains in the Sea, because National Geographic refuses to accept that the ocean should be allowed to be flat and uncomplicated. Then it’s Yemen’s Day of Reckoning, an unblinking reminder that not all storms are meteorological. If you’re still feeling too comfortable, the magazine politely whisks you to Rome’s walls and the mansions of the Roma kings, because nothing says “perspective” like standing in the ruins of ancient power while your phone tells you it might snow in April.

It’s also an era-specific time capsule: the cover cheerfully hints you should watch “Doomsday Preppers” (a sentence that could only be written in the early 2010s with a straight face). There’s something oddly reassuring about that—like finding an old map of the future where everyone was convinced the apocalypse would arrive with better branding.

Condition: Good, which is perfect, because this issue is essentially a high-gloss reminder that the planet is dramatic, history is stubborn, and humans are forever trying to build walls against forces that do not care. Sold by Crappy Old Books, which feels poetically correct: even when the world is on fire (or flooded, or droughted, or snowmageddoned), you can still buy a magazine about it for the price of a pint and feel smugly informed while doing absolutely nothing about any of it.

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