PJ Media

Victor Davis Hanson writes about the history of eco-pessimism in affluent societies here:

http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson101506.html

He always ends with a zinger:

“From Hesiod or Spengler, gloomy predictions usually tell us far more about the author than they reflect an empirical assessment of the actual conditions of contemporary societies. Pessimism apparently fulfills a need in affluent, but otherwise guilty or troubled Westerners to feel bad about their privileges without ever having to give them up. And that explains why more than anything authors write that we are doomed by too many people, too much heat, and too much consumption — and why so many of us apparently enjoy reading of our misery to come.”