A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Environment

  • Libertarians as social parasites?

    George Monbiot writes a scathing column about a British scientist-turned-businessman who used biological research to argue for laissez-faire but then turned to the gummint for a bailout when his business failed. The charge of hypocrisy seems accurate in this particular case, but applied to libertarians as a whole this column is a cheap shot, especially Read more

  • Economics as master narrative

    Did you know that economists can tell us how much we should care about future generations or how risk averse we ought to be? Yeah, me neither! I’ve recently found myself increasingly irritated at the way economics (or, worse, a popularized version of it) has begun to function as a kind of master narrative among Read more

  • Immigration, wildlife and the wall

    This article at Grist examines the reasons that environmental groups have been slow to criticize the proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, which will likely have extremely destructive consequences for the wildlife in the area. The reason, writes Glenn Hurowitz, is that they don’t want to invite the kind of bitter controversy over Read more

  • Save the whales!

    Here’s a sad article about the danger that “right whales” (originally so named because they were considered the “right” whales to kill on account of their tendency to float on the surface after being harpooned) face from shipping vessels and the political lobbying that is trying to prevent new regulations aimed at saving this endangered Read more

  • Book review: Small Is Still Beautiful

    Joseph Pearce is a noted English Catholic writer who has written books on G. K. Chesterton, Oscar Wilde, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis among others. In Small Is Still Beautiful: Economics as if Families Mattered, Pearce seeks to update the wisdom of E. F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful for the 21st century. Read more

  • Obama the green

    Grist is impressed with Barack Obama’s energy plan. Overall I’ve been underwhelmed by Obama and have had a hard time understanding the enthusiasm of certain of my Democratic friends. But we could do a lot worse than a President with an ambitious plan to tackle climate change and a commitment to a more rational foreign Read more

  • Skeptical of the skeptical environmentalist

    The Washington Post Sunday Outlook section ran a lengthy piece form “skeptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg (based on his new book), arguing that we need to avoid the “extremes” in the climate change debate – those who deny that human-caused climate change exists on one hand and those who see it as an extremely serious and Read more

  • September reading notes

    Well, okay, the month isn’t over yet, but it sure is flying. Earlier I mentioned I was still working on Monbiot’s Heat. Well, I still am. Just haven’t been in the mood to read it. ‘Nuff said. Finished Jame’s Alison’s Raising Abel. I stand by my earlier claim that, while Alison has some absolutely brilliant Read more

  • How much of a planet-wrecking consumerist are you?

    Find out with this fun quiz a friend of mine sent me. My score was 2.5, which means it would take 2.5 earths to support everyone in the lifestyle to which I’ve become accustomed. I scored the worst on food (6 earths!), which I think may have something to do with the superhuman amounts of Read more

  • How the meat industry thrives

    Quasi-monopoly, environmental degradation, and third-world style labor practices, according to this piece. Read more