The Rational Optimist_ How Prosperity Evolves - Matt Ridley [207]
Anabaptists 211
Anatolia 127, 128, 164, 165, 166, 167
Ancoats, Manchester 214
Andaman islands 66–7, 78
Andes 123, 140, 163
Andrew, Deroi Kwesi 189
Angkor Wat 330
Angola 316
animal welfare 104, 145–6
animals: conservation 324, 339; extinctions 17, 43, 64, 68, 69–70, 243, 293, 302, 338–9; humans’ differences from other 1, 2–4, 6, 56, 58, 64
Annan, Kofi 337
Antarctica 334
anti-corporatism 110–111, 114
anti-slavery 104, 105–6, 214
antibiotics 6, 258, 271, 307
antimony 213
ants 75–6, 87–8, 192
apartheid 108
apes 56–7, 59–60, 62, 65, 88; see also chimpanzees; orang-utans
‘apocaholics’ 295, 301
Appalachia 239
Apple (corporation) 260, 261, 268
Aquinas, St Thomas 102
Arabia 66, 159, 176, 179
Arabian Sea 174
Arabs 89, 175, 176–7, 180, 209, 357
Aral Sea 240
Arcadia Biosciences (company) 31–2
Archimedes 256
Arctic Ocean 125, 130, 185, 334, 338–9
Argentina 15, 186, 187
Arikamedu 174
Aristotle 115, 250
Arizona 152, 246, 345
Arkwright, Sir Richard 227
Armenians 89
Arnolfini, Giovanni 179
art: cave paintings 2, 68, 73, 76–7; and commerce 115–16; symbolism in 136; as unique human trait 4
Ashur, Assyria 165
Asimov, Isaac 354
Asoka the Great 172–3
aspirin 258
asset price inflation 24, 30
Assyrian empire 161, 165–6, 167
asteroid impacts, risk of 280, 333
astronomy 221, 270, 357
Athabasca tar sands, Canada 238
Athens 115, 170, 171
Atlantic Monthly 293
Atlantic Ocean 125, 170
Attica 171
Augustus, Roman emperor 174
Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony 184–5
Australia: climate 127, 241, 300, 334; prehistoric 66, 67, 69–70, 127; trade 187; see also aborigines (Australian); Tasmania
Austria 132
Ausubel, Jesse 239, 346, 409
automobiles see cars axes: copper 123, 131, 132, 136, 271; stone 2, 5, 48–9, 50, 51, 71, 81, 90–91, 92, 118–19, 271
Babylon 21, 161, 166, 240, 254, 289
Bacon, Francis 255
bacteria: cross fertilisation 271; and pest control 151; resistance to antibiotics 6, 258, 271, 307; symbiosis 75
Baghdad 115, 177, 178, 357
Baines, Edward 227
Baird, John Logie 38
baking 124, 130
‘balance of nature’, belief in 250–51
Balazs, Etienne 183
bald eagles 17, 299
Bali 66
Baltic Sea 71, 128–9, 180, 185
Bamako 326
bananas 92, 126, 149, 154, 392
Bangladesh 204, 210, 426
Banks, Sir Joseph 221
Barigaza (Bharuch) 174
barley 32, 124, 151
barrels 176
bartering vii, 56–60, 65, 84, 91–2, 163, 356
Basalla, George 272
Basra 177
battery farming 104, 145–6
BBC 295
beads 53, 70, 71, 73, 81, 93, 162
beef 186, 224, 308; see also cattle bees, killer 280
Beijing 17
Beinhocker, Eric 112
Bell, Alexander Graham 38
Bengal famine (1943) 141
benzene 257
Berlin 299
Berlin, Sir Isaiah 288
Bernard of Clairvaux, St 358
Berners-Lee, Sir Tim 38, 273
Berra, Yogi 354
Besant, Annie 208
Bhutan 25–6
Bible 138, 168, 396
bicycles 248–9, 263, 269–70
bin Laden, Osama 110
biofuels 149, 236, 238, 239, 240–43, 246, 300, 339, 343, 344, 346, 393
Bird, Isabella 197–8
birds: effects of pollution on 17, 299; killed by wind turbines 239, 409; nests 51; sexual differences 64; songbirds 55; see also individual species
bireme galleys 167
Birmingham 223
birth control see contraception
birth rates: declining 204–212; and food supply 192, 208–9; and industrialisation 202; measurement of 205, 403; population control policies 202–4, 208; pre-industrial societies 135, 137; and television 234; and wealth 200–201, 204, 205–6, 209, 211, 212; see also population growth
Black Death 181, 195–6, 197, 380
Black Sea 71, 128, 129, 170, 176, 180
blogging 257
Blombos Cave, South Africa 53, 83
blood circulation, discovery of 258
Blunt, John 29
boat-building 167, 168, 177; see also canoes; ship-building
Boers 321, 322
Bohemia 222
Bolivia 315, 324
Bolsheviks 324
Borlaug, Norman 142–3, 146
Borneo 339
Bosch, Carl 140, 412
Botswana 15, 316, 320–22, 326
Bottger, Johann Friedrich 184–5
Boudreaux, Don 21, 214
Boulton, Matthew 221, 256, 413–14
bows and arrows 43, 62, 70, 82, 137, 251, 274
Boxgrove hominids 48, 50
Boyer, Stanley 222, 405
Boyle, Robert 256
Bradlaugh, Charles 208