When optimism knows no bounds

摘要

I'm on the way to a smart hotel in Soho, London, to meet Matt Ridley, the aristocratic zoologist-turned-journalist who has become one of the UK's foremost science writers. He has a new book out with the daring title The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves.rnI use the word "daring" advisedly. Ridley's message is one of undiluted optimism: the world is getting better and better, it has been doing so for hundreds of years, and will continue to do so. Nothing stands in his way, not even global climate change, which he dismisses in his book as one of the "two great pessimisms of today".