New Economics
new economics Learn more about Thomas Homer-Dixon's book, The Ingenuity Gap See All Writing
Need a new search?
If you didn't find what you were looking for, try a new search!
What to Do with a “Soft” Degree in a Hard Job Market
Every year the students in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto organize a “career night” for the 60-odd undergraduates in the program. The evening aims to answer the question: What can one “do” with a B.A. in this field?
Conflict
conflict See All Writing
Complexity Science
Complexity science isn’t a fad. I will offer a brief survey of some core concepts and ideas, and I will make a strong case that . . . they can help us develop new strategies for generating solutions and prospering in this world.
Complexity
complexity See All Writing
Ahead: More – and Worse – Katrinas
with James Risbey and Karl Braganza | The science of climate change is the kind of topic that gives journalists great difficulty. As they bounce from issue to issue in our info-glutted world, they aren’t able to explore each one in depth or develop detailed expertise about a subject. So when it comes to complex scientific problems, journalists tend to cherry-pick findings and cite opinionated statement by outspoken researchers. Context and nuance are lost. And in the case of research on the links between global warming and hurricanes, context and nuance are everything.
Economic Costs of China’s Environmental Degradation
ACADEMIC project on environmental scarcities, state capacity, & civil violence Economic Costs of China’s Environmental Degradation by Vaclav Smil A need clearly exists for a realistic assessment of the socio-economic impacts of environmental pollution and ecosystem degradation. To achieve a realistic assessment, we must go [...]
How Climate Change’s Effect on Agriculture can Lead to War
by Ryan Bort | On February 12, the temperature in Magnum, Oklahoma, reached 100 degrees. It was a state record for the month of February, besting a mark that was set in 1918. The average February high in Magnum is 56.
Response to Baliunas et al.
with Karl Braganza, David Karoly and James Risbey | Complex issues like climate change are surrounded by a dense tangle of scientific theory and evidence that is difficult for any non-specialist to verify or understand. People can exploit this situation to tell very different stories about the issue. Because countless bits of evidence are available, it’s possible – by selecting and connecting the bits carefully – to construct practically any picture of the world and make it seem real.
Climate Change’s Costs Hit the Plate
In the mid-1980s, when I was a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and beginning to study climate change, I attended a lecture by a specialist in plant physiology at nearby Harvard University. He spoke about global warming’s impact on crop productivity. He was quite optimistic. More carbon dioxide in the air, he explained, causes certain kinds of plants to grow faster. So, on balance, food output should rise in a warmer and CO2-rich world.
