Reihan: Breaking Through

I need to write at greater length about Shellenberger and Nordhaus, the men behind "The Death of Environmentalism" and the forthcomng Break Through. For now I'll just note that I think Dave Hawkins misunderstands their very important and very persuasive argument.

In truth, I'd much rather hear what Brad Plumer has to say first. A friend of mine and I were recently talking about how much we enjoy Plumer's idiosyncatic blog, and we both expressed the hope that he won't become a political beat reporter. That is a noble profession, to be sure, but my sense is that Plumer's comparative advantage lies elsewhere, specifically in synthesizing Vulcanian logic, an impressive command of scientific evidence, and a deep familiarity with many shades of leftish thinking. To the extent Plumer becomes a muckraker, it ought to be more in the vein of Multinational Monitor than Roll Call.