cmooney
Posts by this author
According to the latest advisory from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, this storm, currently passing south of Madagascar and entering the Mozambique Channel, is a strong Category 3 (105 knot or roughly 120 mph winds) possibly on its way to Category 4. What's troubling about that is the projected…
Since the release earlier this month of the new IPCC Summary for Policymakers (PDF), I have been watching closely to see if the document sparks any prominent quarrels between scientists over the relationship between hurricanes and global warming. Frankly, I thought the IPCC's claim that global…
Dear Friends: I've been having a massively fun time blogging like hell these past few weeks. It feels like old times. However, I now have to go (kicking and screaming) back to work for a bit, to put finishing touches on Storm World. The idea is to be at least mostly done with various editing…
It's Darwin Day, and while I'm not closely involved in any of the stuff taking place around the country this year, I do have a very strong recommendation about how to celebrate: Go and check out one of the many Flock of Dodos screenings that are occurring. And watch the trailer on YouTube to get…
This is absolutely outrageous. It seems that hurricane research flights using NOAA's two P-3 "hurricane hunter" planes (pictured at left, image courtesy of NOAA) are set to be grounded due to a lack of federal funding. As Jeff Masters observes: "With zero money allocated to fund one of the most…
Last week I got pretty exercised about how the White House was trying to rewrite history to pretend that Bush had always endorsed the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming. Well, now an L.A. Times news analysis piece by Maura Reynolds and James Gerstenzang goes over Bush's record,…
I don't know if I ever disclosed this, but...back before I knew I was doing Storm World, I was seriously contemplating writing a narrative account of the Dover evolution trial for my second book. Now, well, I'm kinda glad I didn't. You see, there are not one, not two, but three books in the hopper…
So: I am hitting the road again this Thursday for about a week. The first stop: the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in San Francisco, where I won't be working on anything in particular, but just taking in the talks and talking to the people. If you're going to…
Is someone in the White House Press Corps reading this blog, and in particular, did someone in the press corps read this entry? If you read the following exchange from the gaggle yesterday, you have to wonder...
Q And also, the White House yesterday issued an open letter on climate change --
MR.…
Matt Nisbet has a post you should really read that's a reaction to Ellen Goodman's latest Boston Globe column (which relied heavily on Nisbet's work). Goodman really gets it: Yes the globe is warming, but if we (scientists and science advocates) don't learn how to strategically communicate on this…
Jonathan Adler replies to my reply, and I am now replying. Or something.
Because Adler is keeping things civil, I am going to strive to do so also--but I still don't get his take on the stem cell issue. Adler says he stands by his statment that I claim "the number of cell lines, rather than…
Why do House global warming hearings draw so many more people than Senate hearings? I don't know, but I arrived late today to Capitol Hill and so spent half of my time listening to the House Science and Technology Committee hearing on the new IPCC report in an overflow room. (I didn't try at…
There was an absolutely incredible letter from the White House yesterday concerning Bush's record on climate change. It is signed by Office of Science and Technology Policy director John Marburger and Council on Environmental Quality chair James Connaugton, both of whom, with this letter, are…
I've been extremely gratified by the huge response to the Mooney-Sokal op-ed in the L.A. Times, and there's been still more response since last I posted. In particular, sci-fi novelist David Brin, whose books I read as a kid, posted a very strong endorsement at Daily Kos. I don't agree with…
Click here, and go to around minute 2:14:45. Then watch for about 15 minutes. I think it's quite a display, and a strong suggestion that the new Congress is really going to get serious on the climate issue, as well as the science integrity issue.
P.S.: Make sure to watch also the bit around minute…
Well, I just got back from the Hill, where I attended the Senate Commerce Committee's hearing on Climate Change Research and Scientific Integrity. You are supposed to be able to get a Webcast of the hearing from the link above, but I haven't gotten it to work yet. [UPDATE: Now it works, click here…
Jonathan Adler, a specialist in environmental law at Case Western who contributes to the Volokh Conspiracy blog, has written a lengthy and thorough, if pretty critical, review of The Republican War on Science for the journal Regulation.
I am here posting a reply to Adler's review, but first, a…
Looks like, as Seed's Washington correspondent, I'm going to be spending a lot of time on the Hill this week. Look what we've got coming up:
1. Senate Commerce Committee: Climate Change Research and Scientific Integrity, Wednesday, February 7, 10 am. Looks like we'll be hearing not only from…
Okay, explain to me again why there's no "Republican war on science" when 84 percent of a sample of congressional Republicans polled by National Journal questioned anthropogenic global warming, whereas 95 percent of congressional Democrats affirmed it....
Meanwhile, if you want to know how such a…
I'm told that some of the strongest reactions to our article have not been published...more on that at the end.
First, since Sunday's piece in the L.A. Times generated quite a lot of blog commentary, let me provide a brief (and necessarily incomplete) rundown--and have a little fun with it by…
Following the incredible recent destruction from tornadoes in Florida, it seems appropriate to do a brief post about whether there's any significant global warming-tornado relationship, or at least, any relationship that we can confidently discuss at this point in time. I particularly want to…
From one of the press briefings:
But no administration in American history, and none on the face of the Earth, has been more aggressive in trying to do sound science on [global warming] than this administration.
Those of us who know what "sound science" actually means couldn't agree more.
P.S.:…
There's a picture of a very unshaven yours truly, hanging out in my favorite coffee shop (Tryst), in the latest issue of Washingtonian. The magazine dropped by one day to see who was working at Tryst, and thus I wound up in the story. If anyone gets a copy of this mag and can scan it (p. 10),…
Tim Lambert blogs about my recent op-ed with Alan Sokal, and notes that Norman Levitt--co-author of Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science, another key contribution to the old "science wars"--also seems more concerned today about rightwing abuses than left wing attacks…
Folks: Today I have a joint Los Angeles Times op-ed with New York University physicist Alan Sokal, of "Sokal hoax" fame, about the left, the right, and the misuse of science. The piece can be read here.
What's significant about this, I think, is that Sokal is very well known for his criticisms of…
Thanks to the Navy Research Lab for the image. Dora is a weak Cat 4, 115 knots according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, and expected to weaken by the next advisory. It is certainly no Hurricane/Typhoon Ioke. Still, for those keeping stats on global Cat 4s and 5s--myself included--it now…
The final book, which will be out in July, is entitled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Nerd that I am, I already pre-ordered mine on Amazon.com. So did about a zillion other people so the book is number one over there right now. Anyway, check it out if you are one of the many hapless…
An impressive satellite picture, no? The storm has jumped up in intensity far more than expected; it's now at 110 knots. Still no immediate threat to land, though.
From the White House's statement on the new IPCC report:
"This Summary for Policymakers captures and summarizes the current state of climate science research and will serve as a valuable source of information for policymakers," said Dr. Sharon Hays, the leader of the U.S. delegation at the meeting…
Following the back-and-forth on this subject yesterday, there's much more to say today now that the IPCC Summary for Policymakers (PDF) is actually out. (My apologies, incidentally, for not posting earlier--I've had a cold and tried sleeping in to deal with it; then when I woke up the Internet was…