THE SIMON-EHRLICH WAGER 25 YEARS ON: “As the famous environmentalist bet showed, Malthusians are always wrong.”

But since fear is also an inexhaustible natural resource, Malthusians can often reach superstardom (particularly in Ehrlich’s case — Johnny Carson interviewed him at least 20 times) by causing endless amounts of panic along the way.

QED: “Forget ‘developing’ poor countries, it’s time to ‘de-develop’ rich countries,” screams the Guardian. Curiously though, they don’t seem in any hurry to play their own small part, by voluntarily de-developing their offices and server farm.