These are fraught times for supporters in academia of economic development. Prodevelopment folk are viewed by many as being tainted by a number—and perhaps a majority—of the seven deadly sins, and for attempting to worsen one or another “existential” environmental problem. Thanks to luminaries such as Amitav Ghosh and Bill McKibben, they are seen as deluded, if not deranged, and chastised for striving to push the pace, even as the human race “falters.” In days of yore, one could expect some corners of academia—economics departments, engineering schools, programs in the history of technology—to offer robust support to proponents of development, to “have their backs,” as it were. Now, not so much, as the precautionary principle, safety-ism, and belief in Ghosh's “nutmeg's curse” course through academia, trumping the fact that in 2022 around 700 million people—over 9 percent of the world's population—still live in extreme poverty ($1.90 or less a day),...
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