The Awesome Science of Chinonomics

It's practically impossible to avoid the news of ecological crises (plural) these days. I'm not talking about Russia strangling Europe this winter by cutting gas flows. That will be a politically-made crisis. I'm talking about the epochal droughts afflicting the entire planet. You know it's bad when river flows in Europe are so low that the Rhine can't sustain commercial traffic; when the Tiber water levels in Rome are so low that the foundations of Roman bridges from the times of Nero are exposed.  Resurfaced remains of a bridge in Rome’s River Tiber, in July. Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg But you know it's next level bad when the literal "hunger stone" appears in the Czech Republic --an inscription from 1619 at the bottom of the Elbe river that says " If you see me, then weep " Hunger stone on the Elbe in Decin, Czech Republic (AFP/Getty) I wish it was only Europe. The Western US is going through the worst drought in 1200 yea

The more you want to get away from it, the easiest it finds you. Bad news and ominous signals have an inexorable way of powering their way to your skull. Regardless of how badly you want to get away from them. Our loss aversion makes us more attentive to bad news, because not acting on negative risk meant literally dying when we were apes.  Wanna know the saddest part of all this? This is still very much true in the year 2022.  I remember telling myself once and again when I heard nonstop reports on Russian amassing troops on the border with Ukraine before the invasion:  "Enough already! This whole 'will-he/will-he-not invade' non sense is getting tiresome. Of course Putin won't invade! I'm sick of this media alarmism. I mean, the costs are massive. Ukraine is too big a country. It's not Syria. It borders NATO, for God's sake! All Putin has to do to win is retreat, don't invade, and say 'See? I told you! Biden's a warmonger. I told you all along