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Income inequality is falling, globally
Matt Ridley
The poor are getting less poor My Times column on inequality: There was a row last week between the “rock star economist” Thomas Piketty and Chris Giles of theFinancial Times over statistics on inequalities in wealth — in this country in particular. When the dust settled, the upshot seemed to be that in Britain wealth […]
Sometimes it is right to wipe out a species
Matt Ridley
The world is better off without smallpox, polio, guinea worm, dengue mosquitoes My Times column is on the eradication of diseases and the resurrection fo extinct species. Both interferences with nature would be a good thing. The World Health Organisation’s annual assembly decided on Saturday evening not to set a date to destroy the last […]
Oh for politicians who value social AND economic freedom
Matt Ridley
Is a political realignment in the offing? My Times column on the politics of liberty: As the Ukip campaign ploughs steadily farther off the rails into the anti-immigrant bushes, in search presumably of former British National Party voters, it becomes ever easier for small-government, classical liberals — like me — to resist its allure. Nigel […]
Matt Ridley
Lennart Bengtsson’s treatment shows how climate sceptics are silenced My Thunderer column in the Times on the bullying of a distinguished climate scientist for having the temerity to advise those who doubt the speed of climate change: [update: links repaired below] Lennart Bengtsson is about as distinguished as climate scientists get. His decision two weeks […]
Race, genes and recent evolution
Matt Ridley
Collaboration between brains matter more than individual intelligence My Times column on the implications of genetic evolution since races diverged: Is it necessary to believe that racial differences are small and skin-deep in order not to be a racist? For the first half of the last century, science generally exaggerated stereotypes of racial difference in […]
Matt Ridley
This planet and its moon are so peculiar, maybe there are none like it My Times column on the Lucky Planet theory: We may be unique and alone in the Universe, not because we are special but because we are lucky. By “we”, I mean not just the human race, but intelligent life itself. A […]
E-cigarettes are making tobacco obsolete, so why ban them?
Matt Ridley
Smoking will go the way of the top hat and the crinoline My article in the Spectator (3 May) on vaping versus smoking: If somebody invented a pill that could cure a disease that kills five million people a year worldwide, 100,000 of them in this country, the medical powers that be would surely encourage […]
Technology is often the mother of science, not vice versa
Matt Ridley
Britain is good at science, but poor at turning technology into industry My Times column is on the relationshio between science and technology, especially in the UK: The chancellor, George Osborne, made a speech on science in Cambridge last week in which he contrasted Britain’s “extraordinary” scientific achievements with “our historic weakness when it comes to […]
Why most resources don’t run out
Matt Ridley
Economists versus ecologists and the limits to growth My Saturday essay in the Wall Street Journal on resources and why they get more abundant, not less: How many times have you heard that we humans are “using up” the world’s resources, “running out” of oil, “reaching the limits” of the atmosphere’s capacity to cope with […]
We can’t wreck the climate unless we get rich, but if we get rich, we won’t wreck the climate
Matt Ridley
The Paradox behind assumptions of economic growth My Times column is on economic projections for the year 2100. In the past 50 years, world per capita income roughly trebled in real terms, corrected for inflation. If it continues at this rate (and globally the great recession of recent years was a mere blip) then it […]
