cmooney | November 6, 2007It seems I am barely settled in L.A. before I leave again. Tomorrow, I am off to the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, where I will be giving the second lecture in the newly launched "Alabama Perspectives on Sustainability and Climate Change" lecture series. The press release announcing the event is here.
In addition, the book, which has been assigned to a number of UA students, will be discussed in a seminar before the lecture with the following professors:
Dr. Lynne Adrian, professor of American studies
Dr. Fred Andrus, assistant professor of geological sciences
Dr. Walter Misiolek,…
cmooney | November 6, 2007[This post is for sci-fi fantasy geeks only. If you're not a sci-fi fantasy geek, read no further.]
So anyways, there's something of a paradox in my life right now. Even as I'm supposed to be supporting the Writers' Guild strike, I'm also anxiously awaiting the November 16 release of Paramount Pictures' blockbuster version of Beowulf. I mean, sure, I may boycott some entertainment industry products as the Hollywood labor conflict rages on. But this just ain't one of them. I've been in Lord of the Rings withdrawal since...well, since 2003 or so. And now, we get the motherlode that inspired…
sheril | November 6, 2007You may have been hearing all the hullabaloo over 'ocean acidification.' Sure sounds frightening [visions of a melting Wicked Witch of the West], but no CAP, the oceans are not turning to acid. Still, it is a very scary possibility nonetheless... So what's really going on just beneath the surface?
Ocean acidification means that the pH of oceans is becoming less basic because of us. Really. Now I know what you're thinking and sure... oceans are pretty big. But the truth is, yes, our actions do indeed have a real impact in the marine realm.
My post is now up over at Correlations explaining…
cmooney | November 5, 2007
I've already had much to say about this year's puzzling Atlantic hurricane season. Indeed, I've called the year "schizophrenic." But now, the Houston Chronicle's crack science reporter Eric Berger has done an entire story on what the season does and doesn't mean. I'm quoted in there several times, and I also have my reaction to the Berger piece up at the newly relaunched and revamped Daily Green.
In essence, I argue this: As we move further and further away from the dramatic 2005 hurricane season, the science actually seems to get more murky...but that's no excuse for not protecting…
sheril | November 5, 2007They did.
When a person's cornea - the transparent surface layer at the front of the eye - becomes damaged, it can be replaced using tissue from an organ donor. But there is a big shortage of corneal donors, as there are for every other type of organ.
An ideal solution would be to develop an artificial cornea, but is has proved very hard to design and manufacture a structure so that it is optically clear in the middle and biocompatible at the edges.
Now Garret Matthews, a biophysicist at the University of South Florida in Tampa, US, and his colleagues have come up with a design for artificial…
cmooney | November 5, 2007Last week, Sheril got amazing and (to me) unprecedented blogospheric results when she directly took on a troublesome commenter. While I doubt I'll get the same reaction, this post is in response to the same kind of thing.
Last week I wrote about the Hollywood screenwriters' strike and, as a fellow writer, voiced my support. I was really disappointed by some of the resulting comments from folks who didn't seem to understand why unions are important--and most of all, with a comment from "Bi-Liberal." The comment was not only off point, but meanly so:
Uh, no offense, Chris and girlfriend named…
cmooney | November 5, 2007See here. Storm World made a list of 150 books in total, 25 of which are "nonfiction" entries. I'm honored.
sheril | November 5, 2007
Over at Cephalopodcast, check out Carnival of the Blue VI. It's a synthesis of the best ocean-related blogging and, as Jason explains, does represent the other 70% of our planet! You'll find a couple of my posts from October and recognize some other familiar sciblings who have made interesting contributions as well.
sheril | November 2, 2007I'm publicly responding to a particular reader's provocative comments because women-in-science is a topic that needs to be settled. Finally. After which, I'll be moving away from the great gender divide for a while and back to science and policy next week. Here goes.
November 2, 2007
Hello there Gabe,
You may be wondering why I'm addressing you in this forum. Well, since you visited both blogs and stirred up quite a response, I figured you deserve to be in the spotlight.
To begin, I'm glad you read our blog and take enough of an interest to participate. My favorite aspect of The…
cmooney | November 1, 2007
[Big Media? Or the antidote to it?]
Out here in LA, you can't miss the news that the Writer's Guild of America is on the verge of striking. I'm getting pretty into the drama--reading blogs like Artful Writer (kinda middle ground) and the newly launched United Hollywood (pro-union), for example. Full disclosure: The central reason I'm living every minute of this (or at least, a few minutes out of every hour) is because my girlfriend Molly works for the Writer's Guild. So I understandably have a side in this one.
Not that you can blame me: I'm a writer too, and though I've never tried writing…
cmooney | November 1, 2007Last week I published a detailed critique of Maryland-based climate activist and writer Mike Tidwell's book The Ravaging Tide. This week, I have followed up with Part II: My explanation of why it is that I'm going after Tidwell even though he's on my own "team," so to speak.
An excerpt:
In my view, what we need on global warming is not merely to energize the base of people who already agree with us, but to reach across the aisle and move conservatives as well. But the way that Tidwell frames the issue won't do that. To Tidwell, global warming is repeatedly depicted as a "Pandora's Box," set…
cmooney | October 31, 2007
[Marbled Murrelet: "Hey, over here! Look how cute I am! Forget the CDC scandal, focus on me!"]
Okay: We all know about the forced editing of the CDC testimony. Outrageous stuff--and the kind of misbehavior that just makes the White House look silly and lame. But ask yourself: How much harm resulted here? What was at stake, other than the White House's (and John Marburger's) already very damaged credibility?
In a less publicized, but also recently exposed, misuse of science case study, the consequences could be much more dramatic. As this Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial notes, a rather…
cmooney | October 31, 2007
My latest Science Progress column just went up. It's about what we can and can't say about global warming and the California wildfires--and the strong parallels between the climate-wildfire debate and the climate-hurricane debate. A quotation:
...an important generalization about climate change and disasters: Even as we must be cautious not to attribute any single disaster to climate change, and even as we must acknowledge the societal factors that make us more vulnerable, we still have every right to fear the double whammy of a societal trend superimposed atop a climatic trend. In both the…
sheril | October 31, 2007Halloween 2007 finds me dressed as a pirate doing my part to combat global warming!
And now a reader poll on this 31st day of October...
Which of the following do you find scariest and why? (answer in comments)
a) Global Warming
b) Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards
c) Iron Fertilization
d) Lack of funding for Education and Research Innovation
e) My favorite co-blogger's question for 2008 presidential candidates
* Alternative frightening submissions of your own are also encouraged *
And of course, would it really be Halloween without Michael Jackson's…
cmooney | October 30, 2007The paper arrived for the first time at our place here in Silverlake today. Something about getting your local rag really makes you feel like you're rooted in a new location.
But though that observation might sound uplifting--and hey, this piece in the Times today was particularly great--it also inspires me to reflect critically upon my media consumption habits over the past several years.
I'm not of my parents' generation--reading the newspaper daily is not an ingrained routine for me. As a result, I stopped getting the Washington Post in, like, 2003. More generally, the diversity of my…
sheril | October 30, 2007
Yesterday, I mentioned iron fertilization and more than one email found my inbox inquiring exactly what that means. So with readers in mind, I've composed a blog post over at CORRELATIONS explaining Iron Fertilization 101.
Phytoplankton take up CO2 in oceans and then go on to die and sink, and drum roll please.... we've got a natural process that helps mitigate lots of the pesky CO2 that's been mucking up planet earth! You see, iron is a limiting factor for phytoplankton growth, so if we were to, say, dump a lot of Fe into the sea - phytoplankton will bloom and carbon would be sequestrated…
cmooney | October 29, 2007Just when you thought hurricane season was over...Nope. Here's Tropical Storm Noel. Probably not going to get very intense...but a major rainfall risk in the Caribbean.
I had gotten fond of saying that this Atlantic hurricane season came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. Let's hope the lion isn't returning...
sheril | October 29, 2007It's nice to wake up in The District again. Today I'm headed over to the Hill to talk about the interface between climate and oceans. Iron fertilization and U.N. Law of the Sea are among the myriad of topics to be discussed.
And being back is also reason to share one of my very favorite legends from this town...
Last year, a Lieutenant Colonel friend in the Department of Defense took me out to the Pentagon - an interesting and impressive place. The building is enormous and it's quite easy to get lost. Still, among all of the facts and figures, the most memorable thing I learned had to do…