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SuperFreakonomics: Laughing All the Way to the Bank

Explore how SuperFreakonomics tackles climate change, sparking critiques and highlighting the allure of contrarianism in journalism.

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The critiques of the new Levitt & Dubner work keep rolling in; in particular, over at Bloomberg, journalist Eric Pooley eviscerates the book:

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner are so good at tweaking conventional wisdom that their first book, “Freakonomics,” sold 4 million copies. So when Dubner, an old friend, told me their new book would take on climate change, I was rooting for a breakthrough idea. No such luck. In “SuperFreakonomics,” their brave new climate thinking turns out to be the same pile of misinformation the skeptic crowd has been peddling for years. “Obviously, provocation is not last on the list of things we’re trying to do,” Dubner told me the other day. This time, the urge to provoke has driven him and Levitt off the rails and into a contrarian ditch.

You can read Pooley's full takedown here; it's devastating, of course. But here's the thing. ...

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