A few years ago, one of my children returned home from school, worried about all the environmental issues that plague the world. She was learning about sustainability, and I wanted her to share more about it. In her notes on global warming, poaching, deforestation, and other major challenges were two statements about polymers: "Plastic is bad for the environment. I should be recycling more." We're proposing individual solutions for major issues. On the other hand, I was delighted to watch her participate in a class about sustainability, which is a subject that teachers struggle to incorporate into a crowded curriculum....

Environmental Minister from the Federal Government Josh Frydenberg is meeting with his counterparts from the state and territories today. What's on the agenda? The recycling crisis was triggered by the China "ban." Councils and states across the country have had to struggle following the imposition of import restrictions, which exclude all recyclables that Australia had previously sold to China. Read more: Curious Kids: Where do my recycled items go? Hopes are high that the federal government will step in and take a clear role. Proposed solutions include investing in onshore processing facilities and local markets, incentives or mandates to use recycled...

They've since changed from " emergency to industry" and are praised for their efforts to reduce food insecurity and help solve the issue of food waste by diverting tons of food from the landfills. This is the ideal win-win scenario which large food companies and retailers are devoted to helping people experiencing poverty and protecting the planet in the process. This premise has been codified within the Canadian National Food Waste Reduction Strategy and also in European law, which requires retailers to donate excess food items to charitable organizations. If we want to be determined to address the issues that lead to food insecurity,...

The main purpose that the framers had in their minds was to establish a limited representative government in the newly joined former colonies. The various elements of the Constitution must be viewed as instruments that perform all of the purposes they were designed to serve. Popular sovereignty, as well as rules of law federalism, representation of the political checks and balances, and the separation of power between the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches, were thought of by the authors of the Constitution as the perfect structure to serve as a guarantor for the self-evident truths proclaimed a couple of years...

The principal inspiration behind what I am referring to as the "title" of this essay and the basis for my argument comes from the Romanian proverb "copilul vine cu painea lui." My goal is not to refute Oreskes's claims per se. It is rather to deny the claim that she identifies Julian Simon as representative of an unpopular misunderstanding of Simon's argument and to make clear what is not clear in Oreskes's assertion. While this title and the proverb that it is linked to are not just unusual but also consistent with the idea of Oreske, it is, in fact, prompted...

The writings of Ludwig von Mises and James M. Buchanan are a reflection of the most outstanding of the classic liberal intellectual tradition. Since the year 100 years ago marked Mises' Socialism 1's publication Mises' Socialism, and because 2023 marked the 10th anniversary of the death of Buchanan, the author, it is the perfect time to reflect on their contribution to the field. Both advocate ethical and methodological individualism and private property rights. They also support the concept of a minimal government, a market economy, as well as a liberal democracy. They both agree that economic and political systems and decisions should be evaluated by...

The Norway comparison is, to me, untrue. It's like Twenge does not believe the reader to understand the figure of 5.8 million. It is, at best, condescending. It is, at worst, an attempt to expand the size of the brain that the person is reading. The author's "perspective" almost always nudges in this direction. I'm also curious whether the generational framing strategy works in the way she suggests. Twenge writes: The time in which you were born will have a significant influence on your behavior, attitude, and values, as well as the traits of your personality. In reality, the year...

The impact of well-articulated ideas could be insignificant in their influence on a particular election or legislative vote, or an act of a leader of the state. But the context in that this decision-making takes place could have a specific view or a particular conflict of ideas when intellectuals have played an important role in history, not just by speaking words of wisdom into the ears of political leaders as being a part of the massive and powerful currents of concepts and misperceptions that propel humans' actions. The impact of visions does not depend on them being articulated or on...

In the fall of 1997, the political economics William A. Niskanen, at the time director of the Cato Institute, published an essay that argued against regulating (CO 2) and other greenhouse gases through an international treaty (or different ways). 2 The Kyoto Protocol was just ahead that was a battle between the neo-Malthusian intellectuals and rent-seeking companies (such as Enron or BP) against the modern-day, consumer-driven, high-energy living. "In December," Niskanen's essay 3 began, "policymakers will meet in Kyoto to discuss an international treaty to control greenhouse gases." In the absence of knowledge regarding the costs as well as the benefits and alternatives, taking...

The terms innovative conceptualist and experimental innovators do not have to be limited to the world of art. Further research has shown that a similar pattern is also evident across other disciplines, including the literature field (Galenson 2005 and Elias (2013)) and music (Galenson 2009) as well as the high-quality wine industry (Elias and Co 2020) and food and drink (Elias and colleagues 2022). Bruce Weinberg and David Galenson (2019) demonstrate that economists are also classified into two kinds of innovators. Conceptual economists find specific issues and resolve them through deductive reasoning. They typically make the most important discoveries during...