WELCOME TO MATT RIDLEY'S BLOG

Electricity is magical stuff. From a couple of tiny holes in a wall comes an apparently endless supply of invisible, weightless, silent ether that turns instantly into light, heat, motion or information at your command. It is a metaphor for the modern economy: we use pure energy to create useful outcomes in the real world. […]

Future pandemics as bad as Covid are ‘a certainty’, says Sir Chris Whitty. He is right in one sense. So many people gained so much money, power or fame out of the pandemic that they will be all too willing to declare another one soon. The WHO is trying to vastly increase its budget and its […]

Contrary to reports, the evidence still points to a lab leak being the most likely cause of the pandemic No, there is no new evidence that Covid originated with a raccoon dog in a market in Wuhan. The public relations blitz that surrounded the publication this week of a paper in Cell from a team whose previous […]

Opponents of the lab-leak theory have comprehensively lost the argument. What was the worst industrial accident in history? Bhopal in India, where in 1984, at least 25,000 people died as a result of a leak of methyl isocyanate from a pesticide plant? No, if – as most people who have examined the evidence now believe […]

Green shift is already leaving our energy system hugely vulnerable ‘If Ed Miliband has a plan to deal with the volatility and intermittency of renewable energy, he is yet to reveal it’ Heathcliff O’Malley Energy is already ludicrously expensive. Making it more unreliable will only compound our misery. In November 2021, Storm Arwen gave me a […]

At the age of 66 I feel like a first-time voter. As a member of the House of Lords, I was not allowed to vote in the last three general elections. But I retired from the House in 2021, so democracy here I come. I shall scan the ballot paper with interest: who is standing […]

Under questioning from Congress, two key figures have unwittingly strengthened the lab-leak theory. Two of the key figures in the story of Covid’s origins gave away vital new information last week before the US Congress. One of these figures is Ralph Baric, the University of North Carolina professor who invented ingenious techniques for genetically altering […]

The jabs undoubtedly saved lives, but overblown claims sadly damaged the reputation of vaccination Vaccination is one of mankind’s most miraculous innovations. The eradication of smallpox, and the retreat of measles and other cruel afflictions, mean that vaccines rival sanitation for first prize in the saving of lives. New jabs against malaria and melanoma promise great benefits. […]

Greens are suppressing the plentiful good news about the environment. Over the past few years, we have been subject to endless media reports on the devastating impact humanity is having on the global bee population. ‘Climate change is presenting huge challenges to our bees’, claimed the Irish Times last year. ‘Where has all the honey gone?’, asked […]

Even green campaigners fear they are damaging the planet, consuming land that could be left to nature The actress Tracy Ward objects to her ex-husband the Duke of Beaufort building a 2,000-acre solar farm in Gloucestershire: “Solar panels should be on roofs, along motorways, or industrial sites,” she says. “Be careful what the climate change […]