Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

Kate Marvel spends her days playing with climate models, which she says are “like a very expensive version of The Sims.” As a physicist she gets tired of being asked to weigh in on economics, geopolitics, and despair — but she still defends the right of scientists to have strong feelings about the planet.

  • SOURCES:
    • Kate Marvel, climate scientist and science writer.
  • RESOURCES:
    • Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet, by Kate Marvel (2025).
    • "Are Americans Concerned About Global Warming?" (Gallup, 2024).
    • "Can clouds buy us more time to solve climate change?" by Kate Marvel (TED, 2017).
    • SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, by Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt (2011).
    • "Global Warming’s Six Americas," (Yale Program on Climate Change Communication).
    • "Fred Rogers: Look for the Helpers."

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