The radical green fanatics of the latest chapter of the climate change alarmism movement (the dubiously named Extinction Rebellion) are the starting point of Theodore Dalrymple’s weekly Takimag column. The incident described in the article of angry commuters in England attacking the green zealots who were preventing a train departure can be viewed here.

Man is the only creature, as far as we know, that enjoys the contemplation of its own disappearance from the face of the earth. We find the prospect of our annihilation by disease, famine, war, asteroid, or climate change deeply satisfying. We feel, somehow, that we deserve it and that the world would be a better planet without us.