In the Financial Times over the weekend, John Burn-Murdoch discussed how projections of global population keep decreasing: Burn-Murdoch concludes: [T]hese estimates are extremely fuzzy and based on frameworks that were true in the…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | October 28, 2024
Today, The Washington Post has published a lengthy analysis titled, “The real reason billion-dollar disasters like Hurricane Helene are growing more common.”1 The article, by the Post’s Harry Stevens, is brilliantly…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | October 24, 2024
A new paper is just out claiming that climate change is increasing the damage associated with U.S. hurricanes: “US hurricane damage, normalized for changes of inflation, population, and wealth, increases approximately 1%…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | October 21, 2024
In 2024 it can be difficult to sort wheat from chaff in the peer-reviewed literature. There has always been better and worse science — that goes with the territory —…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | October 15, 2024
“Not true, Governor Romney.” President Barack Obama, widely considered to have lost his first debate against Mitt Romney thirteen days previously, was eager to defend his record. But Romney, having…
By M. Anthony Mills | July 11, 2024
As you may have noticed, “sex” is out, and “sex assigned at birth” is in. Instead of asking for a person’s sex, some medical and camp forms these days ask for “sex assigned at…
By Carole Hooven | Alex Byrne | April 4, 2024
For years now, sports experts and culture warriors alike have been fiercely contesting the issue of whether transwomen (males who live and identify as women) should be eligible to compete…
By Carole Hooven | March 22, 2024
Since early December, the end of my 20-year career teaching at Harvard has been the subject of articles, op-eds, tweets from a billionaire, and even a congressional hearing. I have become a poster child…
By Carole Hooven | January 17, 2024
There is a certain class of book, the members of which have the ambivalent honor of being remembered for encapsulating the era in which they were written. Such books typically…
By M. Anthony Mills | January 2, 2024
Last month, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on artificial intelligence. Among the longest in recent decades and encompassing directives to dozens of federal agencies and certain companies, the order is…
By M. Anthony Mills | November 20, 2023
The Covid-19 pandemic was a disaster. Over a million Americans died—many in isolation in hospitals and nursing homes, far from their friends and family—and millions more became seriously sick, lost…
By Brian J. Miller | M. Anthony Mills | November 6, 2023
Dr. Mandy Cohen has been on a national tour. The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she aims to rebuild trust in that troubled agency at a moment…
By M. Anthony Mills | October 4, 2023
“Mask Up DC” signs are still visible in the windows of some businesses around Washington, D.C. Are these signs public-health recommendations based on science, or just outdated reminders of a…
By M. Anthony Mills | July 21, 2023
Last year, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, which, besides shoring up the American semiconductor industry, also significantly increased federal spending on scientific research. Both the Department of Energy and the National…
By M. Anthony Mills | April 26, 2023
In 1878, a wave of yellow fever swept through the American South and spread out through the Mississippi River Valley. Along with cholera, “yellow jack,” as it was known—after the…
By M. Anthony Mills | March 14, 2023