cmooney
Posts by this author
February 15, 2008
I'm not going to Boston this year for the AAAS meeting--Sheril will be my eyes and ears--but I didn't have to be there to hear about what Nobel laureate David Baltimore said during his president's address yesterday. He began by prominently highlighting ScienceDebate2008. Here is an excerpt from his…
February 11, 2008
For months, everyone has been asking us--on and off the blogosphere--when will there be an invitation for ScienceDebate 2008? Well, that day has come. See here for the press release (featuring Intel chairman Craig Barrett, who just joined the initiative), and here for the actual invite.
The latter…
February 11, 2008
...and I have read a lot of them, including Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe.
Nevertheless, the book I just reviewed in the latest New Scientist--Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King's The Hot Topic--trounces them all. This it does by being…
February 7, 2008
Clinton, Obama, and McCain have a lot in common on climate, but also perhaps a lot less than you might think. So, see here for what I think a race between two of them might mean for global warming policy. An excerpt:
Clinton's and Obama's cap and trade plans would auction off 100 percent of the…
February 7, 2008
..."not much," I'm afraid, is the answer to the question in the title of this post. In light of the recent, surprising tornado disasters in the South, I've done my latest Daily Green "Storm Pundit" item on the subject, and concluded the following: Given the data difficulties when it comes to…
February 6, 2008
Recently, my inbox has been filling up with emails about new online resources that bring you up to speed on the science policy positions of the candidates. The AAAS has a website, as does Popular Mechanics, Physics Today, and Scientists and Engineers for America (the SHARP Network, which also…
February 6, 2008
I've just written a column about this to be syndicated by Blue Ridge Press, so I won't tip my hand yet...but instead I'll ask: What do you think? If it's a McCain-Clinton or a McCain-Obama race--i.e., a race in which both candidates care about addressing climate change--is that good for the issue (…
February 4, 2008
Let us quote the source:
February 4 -- The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine are joining the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Carnegie Institution, the Council on Competitiveness, and several other organizations and…
February 4, 2008
Just like Hurricane Felix, 2007's Hurricane Dean has now also been upgraded by the National Hurricane Center. I have done my latest Storm Pundit item about the new official tropical cyclone report (PDF). Interesting facts:
* Both Dean and Felix had maximum sustained winds of 150 knots, or almost…
February 4, 2008
PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer has just done a wonderful online story about how Science Debate 2008 originally came about, and how far it has come since those early days. Reporter Jenny Marder didn't miss a point that I myself have been making in talks like this one--namely that if it weren't for…
February 1, 2008
I'm not quite sure what is up with people...but, they seem to be buying, already, copies of the paperback edition of Storm World on Amazon.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there's 5 % off on Amazon.com book preorders. I'm not sure.
In any event, given that I am devoting this weekend…
February 1, 2008
The entirely volunteer ScienceDebate2008 effort--owned by no one, and by everyone--continues to defy expecations.
Consider the "Science 57," a list of organizations and institutions that now endorse the effort:
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
American Economics Group, Inc…
January 31, 2008
Folks: Here's another old article I wrote that wasn't online. You could say this is the article that started it all...my 2001 report on how John Marburger had been marginalized in the Bush administration. We're talking old school....but at the same time, this kind of writing ultimately led to The…
January 30, 2008
I'm in New Orleans at the moment for this talk at Tulane University, so I can't blog much. But I wanted to note some more awesome developments as we continue to strengthen our SD08 coalition, in anticipation of finally inviting the remaining candidates after Super Tuesday.
The biggest news is this…
January 30, 2008
The winner of the Florida Republican primary has been the farthest thing from a straight talker lately.... but still, over at DeSmogBlog I argue that we should credit his record and realize that, while he's more moderate than the Dems, he definitely wants mandatory action to happen--and that's…
January 28, 2008
In his most prominent opportunities to speak to the nation over the past near-decade, our president hasn't exactly highlighted matters relating to science (or his administration's various assaults thereupon).
I wouldn't expect much of a change tonight, either.
Still, to prepare yourself to be…
January 28, 2008
I was pleased to learn that our North Carolina session has been by far the most watched online--see here--so I decided to post the video.
In addition, the chair of our session, the able Abel Pharmboy, has a long post summarizing what went down, which in turn prompted lots of follow up comments…
January 28, 2008
Folks: This is the first in a series of posts in which I am going to be republishing, to this blog, old articles of mine that I think are pretty good but that are no longer available online. I want to have a record of my work here, and this seems a reasonable way to do it. So, enjoy.
The Ring and…
January 25, 2008
So: I don't know if I said that I'm in New Orleans at the moment. Being busy and traveling, it has been hard to blog, as always.
I am here for the American Meteorological Society meeting, where on Wednesday I spoke on this panel about science communication. Audio should be available at some point…
January 24, 2008
My latest Science Progress column is now up. It's about, well...big stuff. Science, the humanities, their failure to intersect, how to save the world....
All I can say is that it starts like this:
Nearly ten years ago, to get myself officially clear of college, I wrote a senior English essay about…
January 24, 2008
[Hurricane Felix near peak intensity in early September.]
So finally, the National Hurricane Center has released its definitive report (PDF) on 2007's Hurricane Felix. Definitive reports on Hurricane Dean and Tropical Storm Erin still await. However, the news from the Felix report is quite…
January 23, 2008
If we can get the world of science to speak with one voice on the matter, it will become harder and harder for politicians to resist the call for a presidential science debate.
Today, that moves much closer to reality with the official news that the American Association for the Advancement of…
January 22, 2008
I'm pleased to say that my Columbia Journalism Review piece has started to make some ripples. It was discussed on Slashdot, which is always a big deal. And it was discussed by Andrew Sullivan, which is also always important.
I've also gotten some very thoughtful emails, too--although, alas, I feel…
January 20, 2008
So...Sheril and I had a long day yesterday at the N.C. Science Blogging Conference, the highlight of which--at least for us, given how much we practiced for it--was our panel (with Jennifer) on the framing and communication of science.
There have been a lot of reactions to the panel...for a…
January 18, 2008
So...there is talk that Lieberman-Warner will be coming up again soon in the Senate, which kinda baffles me.
There are a whole host of reasons why it would be far better to have a climate change bill pass Congress in 2009, rather than during this election year. In my latest Daily Green column, I…
January 17, 2008
There have been a number of interesting reads about ScienceDebate2008 lately--including this one from Columbia Journalism Review's Curtis Brainard, and another one from Greenwire/Environment & Energy Daily's Lauren Morello (which you can't read unless you're special and have a password).
Let's…
January 17, 2008
In the latest Columbia Journalism Review, I have an essay that builds upon some blogging I've done here over the past few months--which, in turn, was inspired by the writer's strike out here in LA.
In essence, in thinking about the strike, I have been inspired more and more to make the argument for…
January 16, 2008
We're proud to note the following additions to the cause:
Kurt Gottfried, Chair & cofounder, Union of Concerned Scientists; Professor Emeritus of Physics, Cornell University
Amy Gutmann, President, University Of Pennsylvania
Albert Karnig, President, California State University, San…
January 16, 2008
Well, so Romney won Michigan. Sigh.
I was a McCainiac in 2000, and I was just starting to feel a little bit of the buzz again.
But that's not what I wanted to say.
What's fascinating about Michigan, to me, is that the particular nature of the race in this state led to a focus on climate and energy…
January 14, 2008
Watch this (unfortunately, not embeddable). The equation seems hard to refute:
Worse and worse news from climate system + ongoing political inertia = more and more serious consideration of geoengineering schemes
I don't think there's anything wrong with my math here--unfortunately.
P.S.: Speaking…