The Rational Optimist_ How Prosperity Evolves - Matt Ridley [220]
Vanderbilt, Cornelius 17, 23, 24
vCJD (mad-cow disease) 280, 308
Veblen, Thorstein 102
Veenhoven, Ruut 28
vegetarianism 83, 126, 147, 376
Venezuela 31, 61, 238
Venice 115, 178–9
venture capitalists 223, 258, 259
Veron, Charlie 339–40
Victoria, Lake 250
Victoria, Queen 322
Vienna exhibition (1873) 233–4
Vietnam 15, 183, 188
Vikings 176
violence: decline in 14, 106, 201; homicide 14, 20, 85, 88, 106, 118, 201; in pre-industrial societies 44–5, 136, 137–9; random 104
Visby, Gotland 180
vitamin A 353
vitamin C 258
vitamin D 129
Vivaldi, Antonio 115
Vladimir, Russia 71
Vogel, Orville 142
Vogelherd, Germany 70
voles 97
Voltaire 96, 103, 104, 256
Wagner, Charles 288
Wal-Mart (retail corporation) 21, 112–14, 263
Wales 132
Wall Street (film) 101
Walton, Sam 112–13, 263
Wambugu, Florence 154
war: in Africa 316; in hunter-gatherer societies 44–5; threat of nuclear war 280, 290, 299–300; twentieth-century world wars 289, 309; unilateral declarations of 104
water: contaminated 338, 353, 429; pricing of 148; supplies 147, 280, 281, 324, 334–5; see also droughts; irrigation
water snakes 17
watermills 176, 194, 198, 215, 216–17, 234
Watson, Thomas 282
Watt, James 221, 244, 256, 271, 411, 413–14
wave and tidal power 246, 343, 344
weather forecasting 3, 4, 335
weather-related death rates 335–6
Wedgwood, Josiah 105, 114, 225, 256
Wedgwood, Sarah 105
weed control 145, 152
Weiss, George David 349
Weitzman, Martin 332–3
Welch, Jack 261
welfare benefits 16, 106
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of 89
Wells, H.G. 65, 313, 352, 354
West Germany 289–90
West Indies 202, 216, 310
Western Union (company) 261
Westinghouse, George 234
whales 6, 281, 302
whaling 87, 185, 281
wheat 42, 71, 124, 125, 129, 139, 140, 146–7, 149, 153, 156, 158, 161, 167, 300–301; new varieties 141–3
Wheeler, Sir Mortimer 162
wheels, invention of 176, 274
Whitehead, Alfred North 255
Wikipedia (online encyclopedia) 99, 115, 273, 356
Wilberforce, William 105, 214
Wilder, Thornton 359
wilderness land, expansion of 144, 147, 148, 239, 337–8, 347, 359
wildlife conservation 324, 329
William III, King 223
Williams, Anthony 262
Williams, Joseph 254
Williams, Rowan, Archbishop of Canterbury 102
Wilson, Bart 90, 324
Wilson, E.O. 243, 293
Wiltshire 194
wind power 239, 246, 343–4, 346, 408
wolves 87, 137
women’s liberation 108–9
wool 37, 149, 158, 167, 178, 179, 194, 224
working conditions, improvements in 106–7, 114, 115, 188, 219–20, 227, 285
World Bank 117, 203, 317
World Health Organisation 336–7, 421
World Wide Web 273, 356
World3 (computer model) 302–3
Wrangham, Richard 59, 60
Wright brothers 261, 264
Wright, Robert 101, 175
Wrigley, Tony 231
Y2K computer bug 280, 290, 341
Yahgan Indians 62
Yahoo (corporation) 268
Yangtze river 181, 199, 230
Yeats, W.B. 289
yellow fever 310
Yellow river 161, 167
Yemen 207, 209
Yir Yoront aborigines 90–91
Yong-Le, Chinese emperor 183, 184, 185
Yorkshire 285
Young, Allyn 276
young people, pessimism about 292
Young, Thomas 221
Younger Dryas (climatic period) 125
Yucatan 335
Zak, Paul 94–5, 97
Zambia 28, 154, 316, 317, 318, 331
zero, invention of 173, 251
zero-sum thinking 101
Zimbabwe 14, 28, 117, 302, 316
zinc 213, 303
Zuckerberg, Mark 262
Acknowledgements
It is one of the central arguments of this book that the special feature of human intelligence is that it is collective, not individual – thanks to the invention of exchange and specialisation. The same is true of the ideas in this book. I have done no more in writing it than try to open my mind to the free flow and exchange of ideas of others and hope that those ideas will mate furiously within my own cortex. The writing of the book has been a sort of continuous conversation, therefore, with friends, experts, mentors and strangers, carried on in person, by email, by exchange of papers and references, in person and by telephone. The internet is truly a great gift to authors, providing boundless access to sources of knowledge on which to draw, a virtual library of unlimited