Earth Day is a solemn occasion for most Bobos in search of Gaia's paradise--which means it's absolutely made for Mark Steyn to point out that the emperor is bereft of (hemp-made, PETA-friendly non-animal fiber) clothes:

Environmentalism doesn't need the support of the church, it's a church in itself -- and furthermore, one explicitly at odds with Christianity: God sent His son to Earth as a man, not as a three-toed tree sloth or an Antarctic krill. An environmentalist can believe man is no more than a co-equal planet dweller with millions of other species, and that he's taking up more than his fair share and needs to reduce both his profile and his numbers. But that's profoundly hostile to Christianity. [Spot on--Ed.]

Oh, and here's my favorite -- Dr. Sue Blackmore looking on the bright side in Britain's Guardian:

"In all probability billions of people are going to die in the next few decades. Our poor, abused planet cannot take much more. . . . If we decide to put the planet first, then we ourselves are the pathogen. So we should let as many people die as possible, so that other species may live, and accept the destruction of civilization and of everything we have achieved.

"Finally, we might decide that civilization itself is worth preserving. In that case we have to work out what to save and which people would be needed in a drastically reduced population -- weighing the value of scientists and musicians against that of politicians, for example."

Hmm. On the one hand, Dr. Sue Blackmore and the bloke from Coldplay. On the other, Dick Cheney. I think we can all agree which people would be "needed" -- Al Gore, the guy from the New Yorker, perhaps Scarlett Johansson in a fur-trimmed bikini paddling a dugout canoe through a waterlogged Manhattan foraging for floating curly endives from once-fashionable eateries.

Meanwhile, Power Line shares the thoughts of climate scientist Fred Singer on Vanity Fair's Green issue:

Today is Earth Day – and also the anniversary of Lenin’s birth. How appropriate! The Reds have morphed into Greens. In the old days of Marx and Lenin, capitalism used to oppress the working class; now it despoils nature. The new religion of environmentalism is on full display in the “Green” issue of Vanity Fair (May 2006), the magazine of conspicuous consumption. So amidst the ads for diamond-studded $10,000 watches and super-powered $100,000 SUVs you find paeans of praise for the moneyed “defenders of the environment.” The irony of it all seems to have escaped the editors.

Update: Tim Blair goes in search of species that are abso-farging-lutely guaranteed never to become extinct--pious celebrities and media elites. Here's a sample:

Over to you, Annie Leibovitz:

I wish that all of nature’s magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed.

So do I. Especially using the megalitres of chemicals that Leibovitz must have churned through during her photographic career. So natural!