Easterbrook's journalistic style has been characterized as "hyper-logical" and he himself as "a thoughtful, deliberate, and precise journalist ... a polymath and a quick study." His main areas of interest are environmental policy, global warming; science; space policy; "well-being" research; Christian theology; and sports, most notably professional football.
Space program
Easterbrook has been a long time critic of the Space Shuttle program. His April 1980
Washington Monthly article "Beam Me Out Of This Death Trap, Scotty" accurately forecast many of the Shuttle's issues, including an overambitious launch schedule and the consequent higher-than-expected marginal cost per flight; the risks of depending on the Shuttle for all payloads, civilian and military; the lack of a survivable abort scenario if a Solid Rocket Booster were to fail; and the fragility of the Shuttle's thermal protection system. Following the
Challenger and
Columbia disasters Easterbrook received attention for his belief that the shuttle program should be canceled and replaced with a "modern system that would make space flight cheaper and safer."
More recently, he has harshly criticized NASA's plans to construct a lunar outpost on the Moon as a poor use of resources. He writes:
Although, of course, the base could yield a great discovery, its scientific value is likely to be small while its price is extremely high. Worse, moon-base nonsense may for decades divert NASA resources from the agency's legitimate missions, draining funding from real needs in order to construct human history's silliest white elephant.
According to Easterbrook, the billions of dollars that a lunar colony might cost should instead be devoted to environmental research on the Earth; reducing the costs of access to space; exploring the solar system with space probes; space observatories; and protecting the Earth from near-Earth asteroids, priorities that he repeated in a 2007
Wired article, "How NASA Screwed Up (And Four Ways to Fix It)".
He again focused on the lack of technology to protect the Earth against asteroid and comet impacts in a June 2008 cover story for
The Atlantic, in which he said nothing is presently being done despite as much as a 10% chance of a serious asteroid impact in the coming century. Instead, he claims that NASA is more interested in "keep[ing] money flowing to favored aerospace contractors and congressional districts."
A recurring theme in many of Easterbrook's space articles is a general opposition to human spaceflight. Easterbrook has criticized the International Space Station project, and is against a manned mission to Mars. In the
Atlantic article, he expressed opposition to the Apollo program:
Stung by criticism that the moon-base project has no real justification...37 years ago, President Richard Nixon canceled the final planned Apollo moon missions because the program was accomplishing little at great expense; as early as 1964, the communitarian theorist Amitai Etzioni was calling lunar obsession a “moondoggle”...NASA is selling the new plan as a second moon race, this time against Beijing.
Environment and global warming
Easterbrook published a 1995 book
A Moment on the Earth, subtitled "the coming age of environmental optimism," presagedBjørn Lomborg's book
The Skeptical Environmentalist, first published in Danish three years later, and argued that many environmental indicators, with the notable exception of greenhouse gas production, are positive. He called the environmental movement "among the most welcome social developments of the twentieth century," but criticized environmentalists who promoted what he saw as overly pessimistic views that did not accept signs of improvement and progress.
A Moment on the Earth proved to be very controversial, especially among environmentalists. Easterbrook was accused of mischaracterizing data concerning environmental health, using faulty logic, and being overly optimistic. Other reviewers, like Michael Specter in
The New York Times, had praise for the book's efforts to raise positive points in the debate over environmental policy.
Until recently, Easterbrook had argued that global warming was not happening, or at least that it was not a manmade problem. He pointed out several times that even the National Academy of Sciences had expressed skepticism that global warming was caused by humans and that further research was needed.
Easterbrook publicly modified his position in 2006 as a result of scientific developments, writing, "As an environmental commentator, I have a long record of opposing alarmism. But based on the data I'm now switching sides regarding global warming, from skeptic to convert." He said that "the science has changed from ambiguous to near-unanimous" concerning an artificial greenhouse effect and that greenhouse gas emissions must be curbed.
Easterbrook is also a big supporter and admirer of Norman Borlaug, one of the most important figures in the Green revolution. Easterbrook wrote an article devoted to him in 1997 entitled “Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity.” Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity - 97.01
Wellness and satisfaction
One of Easterbrook's books,
The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, published in December 2003, explores people's perception of their well being. The book focuses on statistical data indicating that Americans are better off in terms of material goods and amount of free time available but surveys show that they are not happier than before. Easterbrook argues that this has occurred due to choice anxiety and abundance denial.
He revisited these issues in a 2008 article for
The Wall Street Journal, "Life Is Good, So Why Do We Feel So Bad?" Despite negative public sentiment, he says the case for things being good is actually quite strong:
Unemployment is 5.5%, low by historical standards; income is rising slightly ahead of inflation; housing prices are down, but the typical house is still worth a third more than in 2000; 94% of Americans do not have threatened mortgages, and of those who do, most will keep their homes.
Inflation was up in 2007, but this stands out because the 16 previous years were close to inflation-free; living standards are the highest they have ever been, including living standards for the middle class and for the poor.
All forms of pollution other than greenhouse gases are in decline; cancer, heart disease and stroke incidence are declining; crime is in a long-term cycle of significant decline; education levels are at all-time highs.
He adds, "Since 1992, the percentage of Americans who tell pollsters of the Pew Research Center they 'can afford what they want' has risen steadily — from 39% in 1992 to 52% today, the highest ever. So why do we think the economy is failing?" He suggests that the modern news media is one reason for the disparity between improving conditions and decreasing satisfaction. "Whatever goes wrong in the country or around the world is telecast 24/7, making us think the world is falling to pieces — even when most things are getting better for most people, even in developing nations. If a factory closes, that's news. If a factory opens, that's not a story." He suggested a similar reason was partly responsible for people's perception that wars were becoming more common, when in fact they have become less so since 1991:
Television, especially, likes to emphasize war because pictures of fighting, soldiers, and military hardware are inherently more compelling to viewers than images of, say, water-purification projects. Reports of violence and destruction are rarely balanced with reports about the overwhelming majority of the Earth's population not being harmed.
Other work
Easterbrook has written two novels,
The Here and Now (2002) and
This Magic Moment (1986), along with works on a variety of other topics.
Tuesday Morning Quarterback (2001) was largely similar to his column of the same name, "using haiku and humor to dissect that most all-important of subjects — pro football." He published a work of Christian theology,
Beside Still Waters, in 1998. In it, he argues against God being omnipotent but as learning and developing as history progresses, a form of open theism.
