The Irish Examiner View: When fear is the greatest threat

It was at very much at this time of the year — an early March Saturday — 87 years ago that Franklin D Roosevelt, as the 32nd president of the United States, gave in his inaugural address a warning. “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is ... fear itself.”

It was at very much at this time of the year — an early March Saturday — 87 years ago that Franklin D Roosevelt, as the 32nd president of the United States, gave in his inaugural address a warning. It has been often quoted yet so recurrently unheeded in the decades since: “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is ... fear itself.” It should not be forgotten in these opening months of a decade that historians might come to chronicle as an age of anxiety.

Roused by David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg, the young fear our world’s imminent extinction.