From the Archives
For new-ish readers, some of my favorite posts pre-2023
Readership here at THB is increasing every day. So far in 2023, the number of subscribers has almost doubled. Today, I received an email from a reader who said:
Congrats on the many subscribers to your newsletter. I never would have guessed any academic's thoughts would be that popular!
Me either! And it is great.
Today I also had a Zoom chat with a colleague/reader who said that he was unfamiliar with what I had written before he had subscribed. That comment has motivated me to highlight the five pre-2023 posts below which are among those in the archives that I’d recommend to new-ish readers.
The Global Population Crisis that Never Was: Apocalyptic visions of over-population have always been grounded more in politics than science (Jan 2021). This post summarizes one of my favorite papers I have worked on. It was the result of many years of collaboration with Björn-Ola Linnér who is a global expert on neo-Malthusianism.
Coal to Nuclear is Smart Climate Policy: A new U.S. government report shows huge potential benefits to climate, the economy and justice (Sept 2022). One of the most obvious, common-sense energy policies available. That combination probably renders it impossible.
Shadow Science Advice: The pandemic has highlighted key lessons for the conduct of oppositional science advisory mechanisms (May, 2021). Shadow science advice is one of the more important science policy topics of our time (Think Proximal Origins). It deserves more attention. I’ll be writing more about it in coming months.
Scientific Integrity in the Federal Agencies: An Unfinished Agenda (Oct, 2020). This was one of my first posts here at Substack. Why is it that science integrity — a issue for the ages — is only a U.S. policy issue when Republicans are in charge?
Free Copy of My Book, Disasters & Climate Change (Aug 2022). A reminder that paid subscribers can download a bunch of stuff, including this book. I should do a 3rd edition but sometimes I think, What’s the point? We shall see, a 3rd edition would have to get in line!
Thanks for reading!
In your essay on global population, you reference a paper done with Bjorn Ola-Linner, “From Green Revolution to Green Evolution: A Critique of the Political Myth of Averted Famine.” Is there any way you could provide us with a non-paywalled link to the paper? Thanks.
Coal to nukes still makes sense.. they could start with the communities who want them. Also develop a national policy on sources for uranium or other inputs. Otherwise we might find that various conservation efforts have put areas with those minerals off limits to mining. Which may also happen to areas for potential renewable transmission lines and renewables. 30 x 30 and energy policy seem to be on a collision course. A reasonable approach would be to 1. Develop a decarbonization strategy 2. Map out what is needed where, renewables, nuclear, new transmission and 3. Then decide what land to take out of commission for protection. What’s happening now policy wise is random flailing in the interests of whomever has attracted the Admin’s good graces.