People don’t like environmentalists, and that personal disdain is hurting the green cause. That’s the gist of a new study, which found that the stereotypes people hold about environmental activists make them much less likely to adopt the kinds of behaviors greens promote, such as recycling. Pacific Standard reports: In one [study], 140 Americans…read an article about climate […]

Controlling costs while delivering better health outcomes is the holy grail of health care reform. But what if that holy grail isn’t as hard to find as we thought? Reason profiles Samaritan Ministries, a private group of Christians who cover each other’s medical care directly, without using insurance as a third-party payer. When anyone in […]

Imran Khan is the chief of Pakistan’s PTI party, but secular Pakistanis have a different name for him: Taliban Khan. His stubborn insistence on peace talks with the Taliban, despite the carnage that the group has unleashed on Pakistan’s terrorized citizens, has led critics to label him an “accomplice” to the Taliban’s actions.The charge isn’t […]

China has detained an expert on Sino-Japanese relations, Zhu Jianrong, a professor at a Japanese university near Tokyo, on what could turn out to be allegations of espionage. The move has worried expatriate academics in both China and Japan, as well as ratcheting up Sino-Japanese tensions at an already difficult time. The New York Times: The […]

Not long ago I had a conversation with the dean of a mainline Protestant divinity school. I asked him what his students are like these days. He said that there are three main groups: white women—most of them feminists and/or GLBT activists—African-Americans and Koreans, most in both groups being fundamentalists. He laughed and said that […]

Yesterday’s press carried the results of a Pew poll on “identity” issues among American Jews. The New York Times entitled its page A11 take, written by Laurie Goodstein, “Poll Shows Major Shift In Identity of U.S. Jews”—read it for yourself to get the full flavor of the story.Now, those who have made their way through […]

The people most skeptical of climate change may be doing more to avert it than the doomsayers who typically champion the issue. Michael Shellenberger & Ted Nordhaus describe this paradox of climate politics for the Breakthrough Institute: [T]he energy technologies favored by the climate-skeptical Right are doing far more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than the ones favored […]

In final speech in parliament before his term runs out, Turkish President Abdullah Gul struck a remarkably sensible and statesmanlike tone, seemingly gesturing toward a future in Turkish politics for himself. The Financial Times: In a possible reference to criticism that the prime minister has become more authoritarian and has muzzled the media, Mr Gul said: “The separation […]

The CEO of Germany’s largest utilty, E.ON, has some stark warnings for European policymakers regarding the continent’s energy policy. While American industry enjoys outrageously cheap natural gas (thank you, shale), energy prices in Europe are rising. In today’s globalized world, businesses are willing and able to pick up and move across the Atlantic to take […]

Usually when you hire an analyst to help invest your money you want to look for a sharp investor with a good record of success. Pension funds, however, don’t seem quite so discerning. A new report from NYT‘s Dealbook found that of the 94 percent of pension funds that hire outside investors to aid in making investment […]