Several years ago, I wrote about about an insurrection in the environmental movement. A new group of greens–called eco-pragmatists–had taken on the old nature-centric guard, which still held sway but also had rendered environmentalism anachronistic and ill-equipped to address complex 21st century challenges, such as climate change. It was a battle between what I called…Continue Reading…
From The Economist’s Demography and Development blog, several months ago: FACTS can be stubborn – and irritating. It is satisfying—perhaps even gratifying—to accept the idea that genetically modified crops are causing thousands of Indian farmers to commit suicide (as this article claims). The notion seems plausible: farmers take out higher debts on the promise that GM seeds…Continue Reading…
You may not know this, but there is a celebrity data geek who isn’t named Nate Silver. This other famous statistician is a rock star in the global health and development world. He captivates audiences with innovative presentations that illuminate abstract facts and figures. Last year, Time magazine called Hans Rosling one of the 100 most influential…Continue Reading…
Bill Gates is the world’s most generous humanitarian. He is also very ambitious and self-assured. Last month in the Wall Street Journal, Gates outlined his plan to “fix the world’s greatest problems,” as the headline of his piece stated. (It is reproduced from his annual letter.) This includes reducing child mortality and improving educational performance by better…Continue Reading…
Several weeks ago in Washington D.C., I met with a scholar whose work I find fascinating. My interview with Ed Carr, an archaeologist-turned geographer, is now up at Yale Environment 360. Here’s an excerpt: e360: Over the summer various commentators talking about the famine in Somalia and the drought in the Horn of Africa were making…Continue Reading…