The curious age discrimination of coronavirus
Matt Ridley
Why does it affect the generations differently? My article for Spectator: The generational effect of the corona-virus is cunning and baffling. By often being so mild in the young and healthy it turns people into heedless carriers. By often being so lethal in the old and sick, it makes carriers into potential executioners of friends […]
Britain needs to rediscover failure if it wants to prosper
Matt Ridley
Britain needs to rediscover trial and error, serendipity, speed, and innovation My article from The Spectator: What was Brexit for? After finally taking Britain out of the European Union, the Prime Minister can now start to give us his answer — and the opportunity in front of him is pretty clear. He could speed up, […]
Matt Ridley
How bad science gets used for power and profit by some activists My Spectator article on a surge in medical and environmental pseudoscience: ‘The whole aim of practical politics,’ wrote H.L. Mencken, ‘is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of […]
Why selecting intelligent babies won’t happen
Matt Ridley
Recent findings about intelligence make designer babies less likely My Spectator article in the Christmas edition: Christmas Day marks the birthday of one of the most gifted human beings ever born. His brilliance was of a supernoval intensity, but he was, by all accounts, very far from pleasant company. I refer to Isaac Newton. Would […]
Wind is an irrelevance to the energy and climate debate
Matt Ridley
Even after 30 years of huge subsidies, it provides about zero energy My Spectator article on the futile numbers behind wind power: The Global Wind Energy Council recently released its latest report, excitedly boasting that ‘the proliferation of wind energy into the global power market continues at a furious pace, after it was revealed […]
Getting the rich to pay for conservation
Matt Ridley
Hunting in Africa and Durham bring spectacular benefits for wildlife My Spectator article on the similarity between trophy hunting in Africa and grouse shooting in Durham. Both have huge benefits for non-target species of wildlife. The vast Bubye Valley Conservancy in southern Zimbabwe is slightly larger than County Durham, as well as much hotter […]
Matt Ridley
Americans would never dream of joining a project like the EU is today My Spectator article on what it would be like for the United States to join the American Union: o the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, thinks his country has a ‘profound interest… in a very strong United Kingdom staying in a […]
Matt Ridley
Why climate policies are doing more harm than climate change I have written five articles on climate change science and policy in the past week, for Scientific American, The Times (twice), the Wall Street Journal and the Spectator. They follow here in the form of a lengthy essay. Sentences in square brackets have been added […]
Matt Ridley
It was always about quitting smoking My Spectator article on meeting the man who invented vaping, Hon Lik. Few people have heard of Hon Lik, which is a pity because he’s probably saved more lives already than anybody else I have met. Twelve years ago, he invented vaping — the idea of getting nicotine […]
Matt Ridley
On climate policy, coal, charity and ducks My recent Spectator diary: Martin Williams, former head of the government’s air quality science unit, has declared that the reason we have a problem with air pollution now is that ‘policy has been focused on climate change, and reducing CO2 emissions, to the exclusion of much else, for most […]
