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Welcome to Matt Ridley's Blog

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Matt Ridley is the author of provocative books on evolution, genetics and society. His books have sold over a million copies, been translated into thirty languages, and have won several awards.

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Matt Ridley's latest book Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, co-authored with scientist Alina Chan from Harvard and MIT's Broad Institute, is now available in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

    Archive for date: October, 2017

  • Britian's population growth requires building more houses

    Published on: Monday, 30 October, 2017

    Too many people favour immigration but resist development

    My Times column on demography, immigration and the building of houses, roads and runways:

     

    The Office for National Statistics says it expects Britain’s population to grow slightly more slowly than it thought three years ago, partly because of lower immigration after Brexit and partly because of slowing increases in life expectancy. But it still forecasts the figure to pass 70 million in a little more than ten years from now. That is not necessarily a bad thing, unless we remain as reluctant to build new houses, roads, schools and hospitals as we currently are. Britain can thrive as a dense city-state, a big Singapore, but not if it hates development. Openness to immigration and antipathy to building cannot both persist.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • The glyphosate scandal

    Published on: Monday, 23 October, 2017

    Bounty hunting lawyers lie behind a distortion of science

    My Times column on the scientific and legal scandal behind the attempt to ban a weedkiller.

     

    Bad news is always more newsworthy than good. The widely reported finding that insect abundance is down by 75 per cent in Germany over 27 years was big news, while, for example, the finding in May that ocean acidification is a lesser threat to corals than had been thought caused barely a ripple. The study, published in the leading journal Nature, found that corals’ ability to make skeletons is “largely independent of changes in seawater carbonate chemistry, and hence ocean acidification”. But good news is no news.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • How to turn fishermen into conservationists

    Published on: Saturday, 21 October, 2017

    New technology may allow regulation by effort rather than quotas

    My recent Times column on Britain's opportunity for fisheries reform post Brexit:

     

    A richly abundant sea fish population is one of the great wonders of the world that my generation has rarely seen. Last week I was lucky enough to be aboard a boat off California, surrounded by five humpback whales, more than 2,000 common dolphins, plus hundreds of sea lions and shearwaters all gorging on anchovies. There is no reason that properly managed British waters could not be as healthy and diverse as this.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • The curse of good intentions

    Published on: Thursday, 19 October, 2017

    Politics is increasingly about motives, not results

    My Times column on how intentions are taken to matter more than what works:

     

    The curse of modern politics is an epidemic of good intentions and bad outcomes. Policy after policy is chosen and voted on according to whether it means well, not whether it works. And the most frustrated politicians are those who keep trying to sell policies based on their efficacy, rather than their motives. It used to be possible to approach politics as a conversation between adults, and argue for unfashionable but effective medicine. In the 140-character world this is tricky (I speak from experience).

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • Montesquieu's "sweet commerce" and Cobden's "God's diplomacy"

    Published on: Friday, 06 October, 2017

    Empirical evidence that free markets make people nicer

    My Times column on free markets and free trade:

     

    The “ultimatum game” is a fiendish invention of economists to test people’s selfishness. One player is asked to share a windfall of cash with another player, but the entire windfall is cancelled if the second player rejects the offer. How much should you share? When people from the Machiguenga tribe in Peru were asked to play this game, they behaved selfishly, wanting to share little of the windfall. Not far away, the Achuar in Ecuador were much more generous, offering almost half the money to the other player — which is roughly how people in the developed world react.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
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