Here's my talk from the recent Battle of Ideas festival session -- Kindergarten culture: why does government treat us like children? -- which some readers may find interesting. Some context: it begins with a reference to the proposal to ban smoking in public parks in...
The Green Blob in Academe
Catherine Mitchell is Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Exeter. She is also one of the academics behind a joint venture between Exeter University and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, called IGov: 'Innovation, Governance and...
Nuclear power? Yes please. But not this…
This was originally written for Spiked, who haven't yet decided whether or not to publish it. Plans to bring UK nuclear energy out of its torpor were given mild relief last week, as the EU Commission approved the deal between the Government and EDF – the developer of...
Battle of Ideas 2014
The Institute of Ideas' tenth Battle of Ideas festival is taking place next month at the Barbican Centre in London. If you're not familiar with the event, the Battle is a weekend of many debates and discussions on many different matters, led by speakers from around...
Stern's Turn
Way, way back in the 2000s, when everyone believed in Hockey Sticks, the UK's Labour government commissioned somebody nobody had ever heard of to write a report on the economics of climate change, so that it could make an argument for domestic and international...
Monbiot Re-Writes History
Environmentalists don't understand politics. Especially democratic politics. And Environmentalists aren't much good at history either. And it should be noted, that although environmentalists like to claim that their perspectives are grounded in science, they are...
A Climate Economics Antinomy
Paul Ehrlich once famously remarked, Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun. A point noted here often is that although environmentalists claim that their perspective is grounded in science, their desire for...
How Not to "Crush and Bury" Climate Sceptics
The Guardian has quoted Royal Society President, Paul Nurse's outburst: He urged researchers to forge relationships with politicians, lobbyists, religious figures and leaders of organisations in the hope that they might feel ashamed to misuse scientific evidence. But...
Science can’t tell us how to live the Good Life
According to new research from the University of Cambridge, the world’s growing and increasingly wealthy population must change its diet if environmental harm and catastrophic climate change are to be avoided. Lead researcher Bojana Bajzelj and her colleagues used...
Does the UK Need Another Climate 'Unit'?
Imagine that you are a journalist -- it's not hard to do -- in need of some information about climate change. Where would you turn to first? You might start with the UK's allegedly independent Committee on Climate Change, they are charged by the Climate Change Act...