Matt Ridley
Author, newspaper columnist, rational optimist, peer, Northumbrian. Keen on science, scepticism, genes, evolution, innovation, "ideas having sex".
Thought Leader
| #162 | The New Center |
Last synced from Twitter 16m ago
Big Ben must bong for Brexit – and show Britain isn’t ruled by bureaucrats
Whitehall mandarins may not want bells to ring out, but the people do.
Matt Ridley
Like Charles Moore, I was unenthusiastic about the campaign to make Big Ben bong for Brexit...till the bureaucratic excuses and obstructions started.
5h
Vaping is still at least 95% lower risk than smoking – debunking a feeble and empty critique
This paper turned up in my weekly search of PubMed. Invalidity of an Oft-Cited Estimate of the Relative Harms of Electronic Cigarettes. Eissenberg T, Bhatnagar A, Chapman S, Jordt SE, Shihadeh A, S…
How GMO Technology Saved the Papaya
Oh, sweet summertime. These long, hot days are the perfect chance to enjoy cool, refreshing fruits and vegetables. They keep you hydrated, are chock full of vitamins and are, of course, delicious. Pineapple. Watermelon. Strawberries. I could go on....
Police put Greenpeace on extremist list with neo-Nazis
Greenpeace has been placed alongside extremist groups such as neo-Nazis by counter terror police in guidance to officers. A guide produced by the counterterrorism policing unit lists campaigning...
1
Matt Ridley
Quite right too.
A letter signed by 151 Nobel prize winners addressed to @Greenpeace asked, of its campaign against golden rice: “How many poor people in the world must die before we consider this a “crime against humanity”?”
9h
Unlearning the lessons of Prohibition
A hundred years on, and some people still think curtailing citizens' everyday freedom is a good thing.
Matt Ridley
We've got to start giving young people a sense of what can be achieved rather than a counsel of despair.
I joined the Institute of Economic Affairs Conversations podcast to discuss why we've just...
Peter Foster: Mark Carney and Michael Bloomberg’s ‘sustainable’ scheme to dismantle Canada’s economy
It is a key weapon in the supposedly inevitable ‘transition to a low-carbon economy.’ As such it represents a particular threat to Canada
4
Matt Ridley
"The inconvenient truth for the shock troops of climate finance is that if climate risks were quantifiable, and likely to have a material impact any time in the foreseeable future, they would already be incorporated into financial reporting."
13h
David Attenborough is making the same mistake as Greta Thunberg
It wasn’t so long ago that Sir David Attenborough came across as a calm voice of reason. His much-admired documentaries touched on environmental issues but were not driven by them; they were not…
What has the New York Times got against Britain?
America's most prestigious paper has since 2016 produced a string of absurd caricatures about the UK
IEA Conversations: The last decade was the best in human history
I appeared on the Institute of Economic Affairs podcast with Darren Grimes to discuss why we've just had the best decade in human history
Matt Ridley
I joined the @iealondon podcast to talk to @darrengrimes_ about why we've just had the best decade in human history
28h
Matt Ridley
We've got to start giving young people a sense of what can be achieved rather than a counsel of despair.
15h
1
Matt Ridley
The percentage of the world population that lives in extreme poverty has halved in the last decade. It's now below 10%. It was something like 60% when I was born.
12h
Matt Ridley, author The Rational Optimist, Evolution of Everything | Matt Ridley
Matt Ridley author of the Rational Optimist and latest book Evolution of Everything
How Innovation Works - Matt Ridley - Hardcover
Building on his national bestseller The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley chronicles the history of innovation, and how we need to change our thinking on the su...
How Innovation Works: Serendipity, Energy and the Saving of Time by Matt Ridley - Hardcover | HarperCollins
The products of innovation are all around us, from light bulbs and nuclear energy to antibiotics, artificial intelligence and even wheelie suitcases.In the 1...
How Innovation Works - Matt Ridley - Hardcover
Building on his national bestseller The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley chronicles the history of innovation, and how we need to change our thinking on the su...
Matt Ridley
May 14 in the UK
May 19 in the US and Canada
Pre-Order: harpercollins.com/9780062916594 pic.twitter.com/6mxbKGY6tR
39h
Meet the relatives of our cellular ancestor
Microorganisms called Asgard archaea have been grown in the laboratory.
UK tech sector leads global growth
In what was another record-breaking year, investments in the UK tech sector soared to £10.1 billion (€11.8bn) in 2019 – a £3.1 billion increase on 2018’
The Democratic Debates Are Downers. That's a Big Problem for All of Us.
I found last night's Democratic presidential debate to be profoundly depressing and downbeat, yet I struggle to explain why exactly.
1
Matt Ridley
"Forests are expanding, the amount of stuff we consume on a per-capita basis peaked around 2000, and infant mortality rates continue to decline, leading writer Matt Ridley to declare the 10 years that just concluded the best decade in human history."
54h
The plot against fracking
Most experts said shale gas was a flash in the pan and would not much affect global supplies. They were wrong. By 2011 America’s declining gas output shot up and oil soon followed suit. The US has now overtaken Russia as the biggest gas producer in...
Matt Ridley
The head of @NATO said the Russians, as part of a sophisticated disinformation operation, "engaged actively with environmental organisations working against shale gas to maintain Europe’s dependence on imported Russian gas".
58h
About
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