Over millennia, plants and animals have adapted to changing climates by migrating to more favorable locales. If the climate continues to change in a manner consistent with current expectations, most warming will occur in the high latitudes. In order for plants and animals to adapt, large areas of habitat, especially those along north-south gradients, must […]

Religion was central to my early work in political economy. I lived among the Hutterite Brethren in the late 1960s, visiting and staying with two-dozen Hutterite colonies in the Northern Plains. My goal was to explain what conditions enabled a communist society to survive, and in their case even thrive. This fieldwork occasionally involved driving […]

“Things Counterintuitive” is the theme of FREE’s first summer conference. We have invited a select group of economists, mathematicians, free-range intellectuals, and a magician to explore interesting and important counterintuitive truths about nature and human behavior. Much human behavior is given by nature, immune to pious pronouncements. It is irresponsibly naïve to ignore this reality. […]

I’m just back from Western Michigan after giving a series of talks on our energy future. In the 19th century, Dutch immigrants settled much of this area, bringing with them an affinity for windmills. There is an authentic windmill named De Zwaan, meaning graceful bird, in the town of Holland. When the local utility proposed […]