Apocalypse season is upon us again, bringing with it another round of claims that something or other is going to bring industrial civilization crashing down around us. Indeed, a case could be made that apocalypse season is like the holiday shopping season in America, which begins promptly each year on 26 December, and continues for the next 364 days. Certainly the most visible result, when one prediction of sudden cataclysmic change passes its pull date, is that many of the people who believed the failed prediction quickly go looking for another. Yet the number of believers, and the share of the public imagination taken up by apocalyptic predictions, does wax and wane over time — and another uptick in apocalypse fever seems to be brewing just now. No other theme in popular culture combines