In your review of Anthony Giddens’ The Politics of Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) you mention that “he chastises eco-warriors for their relentlessly downbeat message, arguing that people are more likely to change their habits if offered a happy future to look forward to rather than a bleak one to avoid” (“Meltdown,” April 11, 2009). The “pedestrian observation,” as you call it, that “distant, abstract crises tend not to change people’s behavior even if the consequences are extremely unpleasant,” is elevated by the pretentious author to the status of a paradox. The Giddens’ Paradox, no less. But it is enough to remember the Bible to see that all this is bunkum. The most popular book of all offers no happy future. Most of its prophecies are outright dismal. It is good to remember that it gained popularity during the protracted collapse of the Roman world. And climate change may in time create favorable conditions for wholesale acceptance of bleak futures galore.