Independent Voters and the Balance of Power

In 2004, 31% of American voters self-identified as independents, less than either Democrats or Republicans. Twenty years later, 43% identify as independents, much higher than either Democrats or Republicans, both sinking under the weight of voter dissatisfaction at just 28% each. The trend is obvious…

Republicans Passing the Baton to Democrats: The Noble Cause of State Rights

“The inhabitants of a particular town are much better acquainted with its wants and interests than with those of other places; and are better judges of the capacity of their neighbours than of that of the rest of their countrymen. The members, therefore, of the legislature should not be chosen from the general body of the nation; but it is proper that in every considerable place a representative should be elected by the inhabitants.” (Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, 1748)

Montesquieu, Liberty, the Nature of Power, and Trump

“Political liberty is to be found … only when there is no abuse of power. But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.” - Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws

Contributing to the Solution of a Problem You Don't Believe Exists: Why Not?

Climate change is mostly about bad weather becoming worse over time, to the detriment of humans and the rest of the biosphere. However, one doesn’t have to believe in climate change to care about bad weather and its impacts. Nor does one need to believe in climate change to want to fix problems associated with today’s bad weather. And since problem-solving capacity builds over time, whatever is learned fixing today’s problems will help us fix similar problems in the future.

Adversaries as Occasional Allies in the Environmental Movement

The same goes for fossil fuel companies and the meat industry. Yes, these are businesses whose main interest is profit and survival. I don’t expect them to willingly self-destruct. That doesn’t mean they can’t be allies on some environmental issues, eg, reducing methane emissions. But I don’t require that they really care about these issues. Environmental allies don’t need to be pure of motive as long as they contribute…

Ideology, Climate Change, and the War on Optimism

Some may feel that optimism undermines the spirit of political activism and thus makes people less open to “structural change”. This is not an unreasonable proposition: if optimism is based on positive experiences, why would anyone want to hobble a system that has improved the quality of life for so most of humanity?

The Ups and Downs of Public Opinion about Protecting the Environment (Detecting a Pattern)

What I find surprising is the sharp rise in public concern about the environment during the pre-Covid Trump administration, despite the administration’s anti-environmental rhetoric, aggressive deregulation and cost-cutting measures.  Apparently, the administration’s top-down messaging was unable to override the inclination of Americans to care more about nature when bread-and-butters worries subside. 

How Obvious Persuasive Intent Backfires: The Case of Climate Change...er, um, "Climate Crisis"

“News organizations increasingly use the terms “climate emergency” and “climate crisis” to convey the urgency of climate change; yet, little is known about how this terminology affects news audiences...[The results of our study] showed no effect of terminology on climate change engagement; however, “climate emergency” reduced perceived news credibility and newsworthiness compared to “climate change.” …No interactions with political ideology were found.” - Feldman & Hart (2021) Upping the ante? The effects of “emergency” and “crisis” framing in climate change news.

Grandiosity, Thy Name is Trump

Grandiosity refers to a sense of specialness and self-importance that might lead you to:

  • boast about real or exaggerated accomplishments

  • consider yourself more talented or intelligent than others

  • dismiss or try to one-up the achievements of others

  • believe you’re above rules or ordinary limits

  • fail to recognize that your actions could harm others

  • lash out in anger when someone criticizes you or points out a flaw in your plans

— from “What is Grandiosity?”, PsychCentral

How to Survive and Thrive in a Warmer World, Part II: A Slight Detour

AI Overviews are a wonderful tool but shouldn’t be considered the final word on a topic or query. They are, however, a good place to begin an exploration.

With that in mind, I’ll start subsequent Survive and Thrive posts with an AI Overview on the topic under consideration and then proceed to whatever more I’ve found out in my own explorations.

Trump and the State of Democracy across the World

“A sanity-preserving maxim among observers of Mr Trump is to pay attention not to what he says but to what he does. Better yet, pay attention not to what he says or does but to what the courts allow him to do. By this standard, Mr Trump’s first-month frenzy is likely to fall well short of a constitutional crisis. (The Economist, Donald Trump is a reckless president, but not yet a lawless one. February 22, 2025)

The Politics and Policy of Rent Control: An Update

This post is an update to a post on rent control I wrote in 2022. It was inspired by a Zoom conversation I had some weeks ago. We were talking about rent control and I mentioned there was plenty of research showing that rent control often does more harm than good. My comment triggered a quick response, “yeah, that’s what conservatives say”. (For the record, I’m not a conservative).

Moral Judgment as Perception of Harm.

Gray and Pruitt maintain that perception of harm is central to all moral judgments. Or as they put it, “harmless wrongs do not exist”. They also argue that “moral disagreement across politics is in part grounded in different assumptions of vulnerability”. For example…

Changes in Total Global Emissions Since 2000 and 2010

The last four posts focused on countries with the highest CO2 emissions as a percent of global CO2 emissions: total emissions per country, per capita emissions, changes in emissions since 2000, and the decoupling of emissions from economic growth. This post will look at global trends in CO2 emissions since 2000 and 2010.