WELCOME TO MATT RIDLEY'S BLOG

Introduced species are the biggest cause of extinction – but not all bad My essay on invasive species in the Wall Street Journal: In July, the New Zealand government announced its intention to eradicate all rats, stoats and possums from the entire country by 2050 to save native birds such as the kiwi. It’s an […]

When the Arctic loses all its sea ice one summer, will it matter? My Times column on how the Arctic sea ice has melted in late summer before, between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago:   The sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is approaching its annual nadir. By early September each year about two thirds […]

Economic libertarianism is no longer on offer to American voters My Times column on economic libertarianism:  Last week both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump set out their economic policies in set-piece speeches. Mr Trump’s, delivered in Detroit, so far as one could tell from the fractured syntax and the digressions into invective, involves a trade […]

Hunting in Africa and Durham bring spectacular benefits for wildlife My Spectator article on the similarity between trophy hunting in Africa and grouse shooting in Durham. Both have huge benefits for non-target species of wildlife.   The vast Bubye Valley Conservancy in southern Zimbabwe is slightly larger than County Durham, as well as much hotter […]

From coffee and printing to GMOs and shale gas, we’re too anti-new My Times column on the history of opposition to innovation:   The prime minister is to announce today that she would like to redirect some of the future profits of shale gas production to households, rather than councils. This is eminently sensible. It […]

Hinkley Point C and British renewables are too expensive This is my Times column on why we are paying too much to decarbonise via both nuclear and renewables, but I have expanded various points to give detailed quotes from sources to verify my arguments. [The expansions are in square brackets and italics.] If Hinkley Point […]

The track record of forecasters, except through extrapolation, is poor My Times column on why experts get the future as wrong, or more so, than non-experts: Michael Gove was mocked during the referendum campaign for saying that “I think people in this country have had enough of experts.” Critics asked pointedly if he dismissed the […]

Inequality is often worsened by government intervention My Times column on industrial strategy: In her first speech on the steps of 10 Downing Street Theresa May said that she intends to listen to those who “just about manage”, not to the wealthy and mighty. “When it comes to opportunity, we won’t entrench the advantages of the fortunate […]

What’s wrong with drawing attention to a new technology? Damian Carrington in the Guardian has attempted to imply criticism of me for writing an email to the energy minister in the House of Lords to draw his attention to a new technology for emissions reduction as a byproduct of an innovative manufacturing process. I explicitly […]

Social media’s echo chambers may do to society what radio once did   My Times column on the way social media polarises discourse and raises the political temperature:  Schisms of hatred seem to be fracturing the political landscape wherever you look right now: the police versus the black community in America, Sunni v Shia, Wahhabism […]