It turns out Plenty was paying attention to the wrong climate change: A tipster tells us the environmental magazine laid off almost the entire staff today after a funding round fell through.

Back in September, Plenty may have foreseen it faced extinction as advertising cooled. It was trying to cut a funding deal, purportedly with global-warming evangelist Al Gore. (Given the losses and layoffs at Gore flagship media property, Current TV, news of the former vice president's interest should have been recognized immediately as a bad omen.)

But the do-gooder magazine apparently moved far too slowly.

Our tipster said the money from Gore or whoever didn't come through, and that Plenty editor and publisher Mark Spellun on Monday sacked everyone save for a skeleton crew of four or five people who will keep the website going. Which is actually a net positive for the environment, short term, what with the rescued trees and all. We just wish the likes of Vanity Fair and the Times Magazine would do the same with their own much more cynical "green" issues.