Home

Joanna Szurmak M.A.Sc. M.I.St.

joannaszurmak@gmail.com

Google Scholar  |  ResearchGate  |  Scopus Author ID: 6506601382

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0970-9983



Publication Highlights (for complete list please see the Publications tab):

Desrochers, P., & Szurmak, J. (2021). “Opinion: Food ‘self-sufficiency’ is a recipe for disaster.” Financial Post (August 18).

Desrochers, P., & Szurmak, J. (2021). “Opinion: Don’t ban plastics. They help green the Earth.” Financial Post (June 30) (More detailed original version available at Fraser Institute).

Szurmak, J. (2021). Accentuating the Negative: Why Eco-pessimism Has Become Elite Religion. Breakthrough Journal 13 (Winter 2021).

Desrochers, P., Geloso, V., & Szurmak, J. (2021). Care to Wager Again? An Appraisal of Paul Ehrlich’s Counter-wager Offer to Julian Simon, Part 2: Critical Analysis. Social Science Quarterly. vol. 102, no. 2 (2021), pp. 808-829. doi: 10.1111/ssqu.12928 

Desrochers, P., Geloso, V., & Szurmak, J. (2021). “Care to Wager Again? An Appraisal of Paul Ehrlich’s Counter-bet Offer to Julian Simon, Part 1: Outcomes.” Social Science Quarterly. vol. 102, no. 2 (2021), pp. 786-807. doi: 10.1111/ssqu.12920 

Desrochers, P., & Szurmak, J. (2020). Population growth and the governance of complex institutions: People are more than mouths to feed. In Jenkins, M. E., Simmons, R, & Wardle, C. H. (Eds.), The Environmental Optimism of Elinor Ostrom (Ch. 4, 91-148 pp.). Logan, UT: The Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University. Retrieved from www.thecgo.org 

Desrochers, P., & Szurmak, J. (2020). The Environmental Benefits of Long-Distance Trade: Insights from the History of By-Product Development. In Jenkins, M. E., Simmons, R, & Wardle, C. H. (Eds.), The Environmental Optimism of Elinor Ostrom (Ch. 6, 173-210 pp.). Logan, UT: The Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University. Retrieved from www.thecgo.org

Desrochers, P., & Szurmak, J. (2020). “Seven Billion Solutions Strong: Why Markets, Growth, and Innovation Are the Antidote to Eco-Pessimism.” Breakthrough Journal (Vol. 12, Winter 2020). Retrieved from thebreakthrough.org/journal/no-12-winter-2020/seven-billion-solutions 

Desrochers, P., & Szurmak, J. (2019). “The Long History of Eco-Pessimism.” Spiked! (October 25).  (reposted on several websites; translated and posted on a Swedish website)

Szurmak, J., & Desrochers, P. (2019). “Eco-Pessimism versus Techno-Optimism.” Areo (August 6). 

Desrochers, P., & Szurmak, J. (2019).“Population Density and Resource Abundance: Turning the Malthusian Logic on its Head.” New Geography (July 10).

Desrochers, P., & Szurmak, J. (2019).“The More the Green Crusade Changes, the More It Remains the Same.” New Geography (May 15). 

Thuna, M., & Szurmak, J. (2019). Telling their stories: A study of librarians’ use of narrative in instruction. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 45(5). Retrieved from doi.org

Szurmak, J., Laflamme, M., Thuna, M., Ahmed, M., & Dhillon, K. (2019). A qualitative interview-based pilot study of discipline selection narratives by undergraduate science students: in search of “aha” moments and “bottlenecks”. Discussions on University Science Teaching: Proceedings of the Western Conference on Science Education, 2(1). Retrieved from ojs.lib.uwo.ca

Szurmak, J. (2019). The science loop: How cognitive biases contribute to the intellectual entrenchment at the root of junk science. The Financial Post (June 20).

Szurmak, J., & Desrochers, P. (2018). The one-sided worldview of eco-pessimists. Quillette (3 December, 2018). This was a response to Dr. Christian Berggren’s Quillette review of the Roslings’ book Factfulness.

Desrochers, P., & Szurmak, J. (2018). Population bombed! Exploding the link between overpopulation and climate change. London, UK: Global Warming Policy Foundation. (258 pp.).

Population Bombed! was short-listed for the 2018-2019 Donner Prize. Please see the reviews and the op-eds.


 “You think you meet people by chance, but when you look back on your life you realise there was nothing random going on at all.”  ― Jerome Bruner, 2007 interview.