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Rachel Carson, in her hugely influential book Silent Spring, wrote that she expected an epidemic of cancer caused by chemicals in the environment, especially DDT, indeed she thought it had already begun in the early 1960s: “No longer are exposures to dangerous chemicals occupational alone; they have entered the environment of everyone-even of children as yet […]

Britain tries to reverse the industrial revolution Update: the photo above shows a wind turbine’s parts blocking a road in Wales. Two hundred years ago, Britain discovered how to make energy cheaper and cheaper, which caused a rush to mechanisation, which raised living standards all around the world by making it easier to fulfil people’s […]

To cheer people up tell them things are OK Update: see below for a contribution from Steve Budiansky, the Liberal Curmudgeon. My friend Geoffrey Miller, the brilliant author ofThe Mating Mind and Spent, was kind enough to send me some comments on The Rational Optimist. I asked him if I could post them here as a guest […]

The longer your past, the longer your future My latest Mind and Matter column in the Wall Street Journal is about how the human brain deals with the future. Here it is with added links. I recently came across the phrase “remembering the future.” Rather than some empty poetic paradox, it appeared in an article about […]

Will exagerated claims about ocean acidification provoke responses, or only sceptical ones? Update: as expected, Williamson has declined to take up my suggestion. But here is a chart Update: as expected, Williamson has declined to take up my suggestion. But here is a chart summarising over a thousand experimental results of acidification, taken from here. Note […]

Economics for environmentalsist in one short volume Bishop Hill has a review of Tim Worstall’s book Chasing Rainbows, which reminds me that I meant to write about this book. I wrote a cover quote for it that described it `fearless, fresh, forensic and funny’. What is particularly clever about the book is the way that Worstall makes […]

Why trade restriction lowers everybody’s living standards   (picture from Eden’s Path) Steve Landsburg, writing at The Big Questions, takes issue with Paul Krugman’s argument that restricting free trade cannot cause a depression: Paul Krugman writes that  trade does not equal jobs and concludes that trade restrictions cannot even in principle trigger a depression. After all, restricting trade […]

The Economist turns to astrology Here’s a letter I sent to the editor of The Economist: Sir, Last winter, we were told by scientists that it was `stupid’ to take the cold weather as evidence against global warming. Yet this winter you are quite happy to speculate, entirely against the consensus view, that the cold […]

The environmental cost of NOT using a new fuel There is a big new report on shale gas from the No Hot Air website. It is far too expensive for me, but here is a summary of what it supposedly concludes: The key issue going forward for natural gas is not managing supply, but creating demand. […]

How to guide children to use the internet in groups to educate themselves My latest Wall Street Journal column is on the work of Sugata Mitra, who is turning education upside down with the help of the internet:     His TED talkwas amazing and I have since shared some very enjoyable connversation with him over Chinese […]