The essay, penned by John Horgan, the director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology, analyzes two recent reports by "ecomodernists" who reject climate panic and frame the question of climate change and humanity's ability to cope with it in radically new terms.

One of the reports, a work called "Enlightened Environmentalism" by Harvard iconoclast Steven Pinker, urges people to regain some much-needed perspective on climate, especially in the context of the overwhelming material benefits of industrialization.

Pooh-poohing "the mainstream environmental movement, and the radicalism and fatalism it encourages," Pinker argues that humanity can solve problems related to climate change the same way it has solved myriad other problems, by harnessing "the benevolent forces of modernity."

Separating himself from environmentalists who seem to detest modernity, Pinker asserts that industrialization "has been good for humanity."