Blog

Category: Public Policy

  • The Benefits And Limitations Of Business

    I am positive about the impact that business can have on the world. Business already does some useful things and could do much more. That said, sometimes people think too much of the power of business, for good or ill. We should think through the benefits and limitations of business when it comes to sustainable…

  • Information Is Key To Recognizing Progress

    Hannah Ritchie’s Clearing The Air is a must read for anyone interested in the challenge of greenhouse gases. She answers fifty common questions about how the world can make progress addressing climate change. Almost everyone can learn something from the book. You may have been able to answer some of the questions, but few people…

  • Hopeful News About People’s Perceptions

    The news can be pretty awful between, wars, natural disasters, and government actions. At times like this it can be useful to take a step back and look at the big picture. There is hopefully news about people’s perceptions. This isn’t just a story of how much progress the world has made in the last…

  • Explaining The Economy

    Kyla Scanlon has a book explaining the economy. There are some nice parts, and some things I wasn’t too sure about. (At least one graph seemed really odd as did a couple of comments but, being a popular book, the references were a bit too limited to check properly). Mostly she does a good job…

  • Improving Management In Politics

    In a democracy every few years a new bunch of people get to run the country. The advantages in bringing fresh ideas, fighting corruption, and truly representing the diverse views of people are clear and compelling. (Those of us who live in democracies should be grateful). That said, a challenge occurs that people who weren’t…

  • Is Devolving Or Centralizing Power Better?

    Is devolving or centralizing power better? This is a central question at the heart of Marc Dunkelman’s book, Why Nothing Works. Dunkelman worries that those people in the US who believe in the power of government to make the world better, basically the center and left, have set the rules to prevent themselves from achieving…

  • Do Americans Believe In Climate Change?

    Today I’ll look at some data from the Pew Research Center. Pew is a wonderful resource for understanding public attitudes. They even make a lot of their data available for additional research. It is a center I admire. One of the things they do investigate is the US public’s views of science, including what they…

  • Can Any Single Country Make A Difference?

    Can any single country make a difference to climate change? I could make this a short post by just saying, YES. That said, I will give a few more details. Bad Reasons To Do Nothing The other day I was hearing about someone who was relatively well-informed talk about how the US couldn’t really achieve…

  • Is Now A Good Time To Give Up?

    David Suzuki, the famous Canadian environmentalist, just gave a pretty gloomy interview. According to Suzuki in respect of climate change, “it’s too late”. It led me to the question: Is now a good time to give up? It Is Too Late? I’ve never said this before to the media, but it’s too late. David Suzuki…

  • Social Change Will Always Face Setbacks

    It is hard to improve the world even when it should be obvious that the world needs to improve. When things look bad it may be helpful to look at history to observe people fighting injustices that most of us can, thankfully, only imagine. Campaigners in history saw plenty of occasions when it seemed like…

Verified by MonsterInsights