From Julian Simon, University of Maryland
Your coverage of the wagers involving Paul Ehrlich, Stephen Schneider and myself is mostly very accurate and unusually fair (This Week and Comment, 3 June). There are, however, two errors of fact that I think worth correcting.
You say that I “accept that the [ocean fish] catch will decrease”. Based on the evidence of the past, I think it likely that the ocean fish catch will continue to increase. But I feel no need to make a prediction because this quantity is not the relevant issue.
What is relevant is the total fish available for human consumption, and that includes fish farming.
You refer to me as a “right-wing economist”. This label, and the label “conservative”, are frequently applied to me despite the fact that I have explicitly written many times that I do not consider myself conservative and never have been involved in any way in right-wing political activities or organisations.
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Furthermore, I do not understand why a right-left label is applied to me, but no such label is applied to Ehrlich and Schneider, who almost certainly have been involved in such activities.
