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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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    Archive for date: October, 2013

  • Storms are becoming ever more survivable

    Published on: Wednesday, 30 October, 2013

    A big wind hitting Britain today does less harm than in past centuries

    My Times article on the storm that was to hit Britain on 28 October. In the event, four or five people died. Disruption to transport lasted only a few days.

    If you are reading this with the hatches battened down, it may not be much comfort to know that 2013 has been an unusually quiet year for big storms. For the first time in 45 years no hurricane above Category 1 has made landfall from the Atlantic by this date, and only two in that category, confounding an official US government forecast of six to nine hurricanes in the Atlantic, three to five of which would be big. Even if the last month of the hurricane season is bad, it will have been a quiet year.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • Why nuclear power costs so much

    Published on: Sunday, 27 October, 2013

    Regulation has driven up the price

    My Times article:

    The real problem with nuclear power is the scale of it. After decades of cost inflation, driven mostly by regulations to redouble safety, 1600 megawatt monsters cost so much and take so long to build that only governments can afford to borrow the money to build them. Since Britain borrowing £14 billion extra is not really an option, then we have to find somebody else’s nationalized industry to do it, and guarantee high returns, as if it were a big PFI contract.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • The net benefits of climate change till 2080

    Published on: Friday, 18 October, 2013

    Few people know that warming is doing more good than harm

    My Spectator cover story on the net benefits of climate change.

    I will post rebuttals to the articles that criticised this piece below.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, Spectator
  • Offshore white elephants

    Published on: Friday, 18 October, 2013

    Britain leads the world in offshore wind -- because nobody else is so foolishRead Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • Don't discourage vaping

    Published on: Sunday, 13 October, 2013

    Don't treat e-cigarettes as medicines; glamorise them

    My Times column tackles an egregious example of regulation doing more harm than good:

    Should shampoo be classified as a medicine and prescribed by doctors? It can, after all, cause harm: it can sting your eyes and a recent study found traces of carcinogens in 98 shampoo products. Sure, shampoo can clean hair if used responsibly. But what’s to stop cowboy shampoo makers selling dangerous shampoo to the young? Far too many shampoo manufacturers try to glamorize their product. Time for the state to step in.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • The inexorable nature of technological progress

    Published on: Monday, 07 October, 2013

    Economic growth means the time it takes to do something falls

    My recent Times column on Moore's Law, technological progress and economic growth:

    The law that has changed our lives most in the past 50 years may be about to be repealed, even though it was never even on the statute book. I am referring to Moore’s Law, which decrees — well, observes — that a given amount of computing power halves in cost every two years.

    Robert Colwell, the former chief architect at Intel and head of something with a very long name in the US Government (honestly, you’d turn the page if I spelt it out, though now I’ve taken up even more space not telling you; maybe I will put it at the end), made a speech recently saying that in less than a decade, Moore’s Law will come to a halt.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • Global lukewarming need not be catastrophic

    Published on: Tuesday, 01 October, 2013

    Climate change could be real but do less harm than climate policyRead Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
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