Weekly Inchoate No. 6
Summarizing the week's posts -- Hannah Ritchie and Our World in Data; the Cass-Slade debate between a libertarian and a new economic conservative
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This week’s posts focused on the data scientist Hannah Ritchie, who just published a new book and is a lead researcher at Our World in Data, a fabulous resource for visualizing the state of the world on various important issues from economics to energy to food to population.
Thinking about political solutions to Anthropocene problems is as important as getting a clearer understanding of the issues. To that end, this week I analyzed a debate on the conservative side of the political spectrum between Stephanie Slade, a libertarian writing at Reason magazine, and Oren Cass from the new think tank American Compass.
I’d love to hear from you, if you have comments, questions, suggestions, or encouragement.
If you know of someone who might be interested in reading about the Anthropocene in a slightly more philosophical way, please share!
Not the End of the World
I’m nearly finished reading this book, just out, by Hannah Ritchie, who is the Deputy Editor and lead researcher at Our World in Data. Each chapter covers a key problem of sustainability, starting with a breakdown of the main definition. Sustainability is:
Cass vs Slade Debate - Part 1
Hello, everyone! The week off from Daily Inchoate gave me time to work on Pondercraft and to plan a little — vs. my usual seat-of-the-pants posting. In other words, I’m trying to be a bit less inchoate! I hope you had a chance to watch Hannah Ritchie’s TED talk
Sustainability in Conversation
Following on from recommending her book, here are Ritchie’s ongoing data-based investigations into sustainability, especially various forms of energy. Hannah Ritchie’s Substack newsletter: Sustainability by numbers Moving off non-renewable, high-carbon fossil fuels, energy’s future is in the direction of renewables and low-carbon. Nuclear sits in a unique position, being low-car…
Cass vs Slade Debate - Part 2
Today we pick up on the debate between libertarians, who were included in an old-style “fusionist” conservativism, and emerging new postliberal conservatives, who desire to be increasingly activist in pursuing their version of the common good, using state power as far as they can to do so.
Our World in Data
Today’s Friday resource has been mentioned before in Data Viz, and of course we’ve been following Hannah Ritchie’s work all week. Today let’s revisit Our World in Data and see what’s available on this rich and expansive website. Data Explorers There are four main resources currently available, the most important of which by far is the collection of Data Explorers, a tr…