for its Earth Day story, the Times chose, in something of a punk move, to profile another generator of an unexpectedly viral idea -- Paul Kingsnorth.

Kingsnorth is a British environmentalist and anti-globalization activist who, back in 2009, very publicly lost faith in both struggles. Climate change was not something that could be stopped, he decided. "Sustainability" wasn't something that was attainable, given the current human population and fondness for things like heat, light, and food. The future did not look good. "Decline, depletion, chaos and hardship" were in store for the lot of us, and the sooner we realized it, the better.

Many people who come to such conclusions start hoarding a lot of canned goods; Kingsnorth's response to impending collapse was to found a lavish hardcover literary journal. The journal was called Dark Mountain, as is the group of uncertain size that has organized around it, which Kingsnorth described as "a network of writers, artists and thinkers who have stopped believing the stories our civilization tells itself." Together, he wrote "we are able to say it loud and clear: we are not going to `save the planet'."