cmooney
Posts by this author
January 17, 2007
Well, guess I'm going to go see the Alamo after all. Planes are grounded due to this insane winter ice storm. Apparently whenever the American Meteorological Society meets, bad weather follows. I wish someone had told me this in advance.
More blogging today in a bit...
P.S.: Jeff Masters has more…
January 16, 2007
Meteorologist Bill Proenza is the new director of the National Hurricane Center, having recently replaced Max Mayfield in that role. In other words, he's now our top coastal defender, the guy we're going to be seeing a lot of on TV the next time there's a storm threatening the U.S. Proenza has a…
January 16, 2007
Yesterday evening here in San Antonio, Kerry Emanuel gave his first of two presentations. Having seen Emanuel talk perhaps half a dozen times over the past year or more, I was particularly interested in seeing how this talk compared to others.
Emanuel began by explaining that we still remain…
January 15, 2007
I am quoted at length in this recent Boston Globe op-ed column by Cathy Young, entitled "Common sense in the warming debate." (Via Prometheus.) I really appreciate the attention from Young, but without necessarily intending to do so, she appears to have put me in a box that I don't wish to occupy.…
January 15, 2007
It's really amazing how many awards are being showered on MIT hurricane theorist Kerry Emanuel (image credit Donna Coveney, MIT News Office) at this year's American Meteorological Society meeting. Emanuel assuredly deserves it in a scientific sense, but I can't help but think that the timing of…
January 14, 2007
I just touched down here in Alamo country, and am looking forward to spending a few days at the 2007 American Meteorological Society meeting. The fact that the AMS is holding a special series of talks this year on "Climate Change Manifested by Changes in Weather" is, in my view, extremely important…
January 9, 2007
The new December/January issue of Seed is now out [it has been out for weeks now, where have you been? - ed] and I wanted to draw attention to a piece that I have in there. The article isn't online and so can't be linked yet, but it's a profile of NASA's James Hansen, who I had the pleasure of…
January 9, 2007
I've finally figured it out: This blog will be reborn circa Monday, January 15th, in San Antonio, TX, where I will be taking in the American Meteorological Society annual meeting, and focusing on the hurricane/global warming content presented there. There will be a whole series of talks focused on…
January 4, 2007
Cyclone Monica on April 24, 2006, possibly the strongest recorded hurricane in the Southern Hemisphere.
So: According to Jeff Masters, there were 21 Category 4 or 5 hurricanes globally in 2006. Zero of them were in the Atlantic, which makes the total number sound even more staggering.
I actually…
January 2, 2007
Gosh, I have so much work to do, I feel like blogging.....
A dialogue/debate is starting up over this whole concept of a "middle ground" on global warming, or the idea that one can be a "non-skeptic heretic." See here and here and just generally all over the place.
Labels are dangerous, so let me…
January 1, 2007
Some stuff I've noticed today:
1. Andrew Revkin had a recent New York Times piece about a "middle way" in the global warming debate--i.e., admit it's happening and we're causing it, but don't go overboard and be open minded about a wide range of solutions. Roger Pielke, Jr., calls those espousing…
December 29, 2006
Dear Readers: This blog has been sleepy for quite some time now, hosting only occasional updates on whatever the hell it is I'm doing at a particular time. That has been a very direct function of workload: I have had to crash like never before in my life to complete Storm World; such crashing has…
December 23, 2006
Cyclone Bondo has, for me, underscored just how far hurricane intensity prediction still has to go. It almost seems as though every time this storm is predicted to weaken it intensifies, and every time it's predicted to intensify it weakens.
Most recently, Bondo has jumped back up to 115 knots,…
December 19, 2006
This post is to introduce you to Cyclone Bondo, which now has 135 knot winds according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center as it approaches Magagascar and Mozambique. The storm is expected to become a Cat 5 with the next advisory. It's nearly as strong as 2004's Cyclone Gafilo was when it made a…
December 13, 2006
Cyclone Gaflio, South Indian Ocean, March 2004.
Well, my first hurricane-related presentation, at the Exploratorium here in San Francisco, can now be watched here...Here for Real Player, here for Windows Media Player....I think it came off pretty well. Lotsa slides, hurricane pictures, and even a…
December 12, 2006
I'm here in San Francisco--just arrived--and tomorrow will be doing a webcast at a fantastic museum called the Exploratorium. This is an open-to-the-public webcast--i.e., you can come see me in person or you can see me through your computer. The webcast starts at 1 pm PST on Wednesday, the 13th. I…
December 4, 2006
Harcourt Books now has a description up, so no need for secrecy any longer:
Chris Mooney delves into a red-hot debate in meteorology: whether the increasing ferocity of hurricanes is connected to global warming. In the wake of Katrina, Mooney follows the careers of leading scientists on either…
December 2, 2006
Typhoon/Supertyphoon Durian was apparently the deadliest tropical cyclone event in the world this year, due to heavy rains that created mudslides from the slopes of the Mayon Volcano, in turn burying a large number of villages. Jeff Masters has more. This is now a major humanitarian disaster and…
November 30, 2006
From an AP article on the Washington Post website:
About 20 typhoons and tropical storms hit the Philippines each year.
Yeah, right....almost as bad a science blooper as Scalia's!
[By the way, here's the 2004 Northwest Pacific storm tracks, looks like about 3-5 hit the Philippines in that year.]…
November 29, 2006
This is just too much...so I'm taking time out from working on the book to bring you more. I've now seen the Supreme Court transcript and can provide actual passages of what Scalia said. It's even worse than the previous post made it seem. To wit:
JUSTICE SCALIA: Mr. Milkey, I had -- my problem is…
November 29, 2006
From my friend Eli Kintisch, reporting on today's Supreme Court global warming hearing:
"We are not asking the court to pass judgment on the science of climate change," said Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General James Milkey in his opening arguments. That may be fortunate for some justices,…
November 28, 2006
In 2004, as we all remember too well, four hurricanes--Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne--struck Florida in fairly rapid succession.
In early 2005 (as relatively few Americans know), the Cook Islands had to deal with four extremely intense tropical cyclones--Meena, Nancy, Olaf, and Percy--in the…
November 20, 2006
Well, I guess there's no point hiding it any more. My new book, due out in June 2007, will be entitled Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming. It now has a cover image and everything.
You should not judge from this fact that the book's completely finished, however;…
November 15, 2006
From the National Hurricane Center:
THIS SPECIAL ADVISORY IS BEING ISSUED TO REFLECT THAT SERGIO HAS INTENSIFIED TO 85 KNOTS. THIS IS BASED ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PINHOLE EYE AND OBJECTIVE DVORAK-T-NUMBERS. THE INTENSITY FORECAST HAS BEEN A CONSERVATIVELY ADJUSTED ACCORDINGLY AND THE INITIAL AND…
November 9, 2006
With the Dems now about to assume control of both houses of Congress, science policy is going to change. Big time. Indeed, in The Republican War on Science I pointed out that one reason the Reagan administration never messed with science as much as the current administration was because the…
November 8, 2006
From CNN:
Republican Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri early Wednesday conceded defeat to Democrat Claire McCaskill after a hard-fought race, telling supporters that "the headwind was just very, very strong this year."
McCaskill was backed by actor and stem-cell-research advocate Michael J. Fox.
I leave…
November 6, 2006
Once again, I'm speaking on election day, hopefully after the results are in, in Coral Gables, and then in Orlando two days later. These are the last two public speeches for a while--perhaps until 2007. Not sure yet. Again, these are the details:
Tuesday, November 7
8:00-9:00 PM
BOOKS & BOOKS…
November 2, 2006
I have either been holed up writing somewhere, or on the road speaking, for quite a while now--and the speaking side of things doesn't let up until November 9. Here are the remaining public events:
Tuesday, November 7
8:00-9:00 PM
BOOKS & BOOKS
265 Aragon Ave
Coral Gables, FL 33134
Thursday,…
November 1, 2006
From the transcript of the October 30th show; "INGRAHAM" is Laura Ingraham:
KING: Laura, would you agree that more than 50 percent of the public would support stem cell research?
INGRAHAM: I think more than 50 percent of the public would probably approve of public executions of child molesters but…
October 30, 2006
I've just finished up a fun whirlwind tour of the Raleigh-Durham area, which included three talks and lots of meetings with scientists and fellow science bloggers. Abel Pharmboy was my thoughtful and accommodating host, and as far as science bloggers go, I also got to meet Coturnix of A Blog Aound…