cmooney | June 7, 2007We're starting to get some sense of what Cyclone Gonu did to Oman. The early reports seem to suggest that there were effective evacuations and thus relatively few fatalities (around 25 with a similar number missing). However, the capital city of Oman was swamped by water, as this AP report details:
- People dragged soaked bedding and carpets from homes Thursday after Cyclone Gonu's winds blew down trees and power lines and its rains sent torrents of water and mud surging through Oman's seaside capital, a city often called the Arab world's tidiest.
....Cleanup crews fanned out across Muscat.…
cmooney | June 6, 2007 Storm World has now been reviewed by many of the early bird pubs catering to bookstores, libraries, and the publishing industry. Reviews have appeared in: Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, and now finally Library Journal. I'm pleased to report that in its June 15 issue, this last publication has also given the book a star and a very positive review:
Mooney, Chris. Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming.
Mooney (The Republican War on Science) presents a captivating and comprehensive look at the debate--now raging among atmospheric scientists and…
cmooney | June 6, 2007The Mooney-Nisbet combo just returned from speaking in New York....and there have already been reactions to the latest talk from well-known science writer John Horgan (who was in the audience) as well as a write-up from Curtis Brainard of Columbia Journalism Review. In his article Brainard quotes celebrated NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt, of RealClimate.org, who also was kind enough to attend the talk and hang out afterwards.
I'd like to convince John Horgan, if I can, that framing is not tantamount to spin. I'm going to try to do that. Meanwhile, I appreciate Gavin's view as expressed in…
cmooney | June 6, 2007
Wikipedia now has a very informative entry on Cyclone Gonu, which has been by far the most surprising and frightening hurricane of 2007 thus far. Gonu's apparent records include:
1. Strongest storm ever recorded in the Arabian Sea (140 knot winds, making Gonu the first recorded Category 5 storm in this region).
2. Tied for strongest storm in the North Indian basin (Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal).
3. Lowest sea level pressure in the Arabian sea (this is my guess, and it will be estimated from satellite images rather than directly measured; but it stands to reason that Gonu, by far the most…
cmooney | June 5, 2007posted by Sheril R. Kirshenbaum
..back in the District that is, for Capitol Hill Oceans Week (CHOW). And the city is just as hot and sticky as ever while folks now bustle about Metro Center around me. I'm sitting in the Cosi on G street, where long ago I discovered that I do indeed enjoy hummus.
Though I no longer reside here, DC is still the same surreal town I remember - despite a few new buildings and the ever-expanding boundaries of gentrification in my old NW neighborhood. The soccer and kickball players have returned to the Mall and this week's protesters are already in full force on…
cmooney | June 5, 2007
Cyclone Gonu, in the Arabian Sea, was our first Category 5 storm of the year yesterday. Now, as I write this, it is still a very strong storm and is about to set an ominous record. As Margie Keiper puts it over at the Weather Underground:
An unusual event is happening over the next 48 hours, as the first tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds, and major hurricane-force winds at that, is approaching the Gulf of Oman, to strike the eastern coast of Oman, curve northward, and make landfall on the coast of Iran. In the tropical cyclone best tracks and the modern era of weather satellites,…
cmooney | June 4, 2007posted by Sheril R. Kirshenbaum
Tell people you're a marine biologist and they usually react one of two ways.. 'I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was little!' or 'You probably never hear this but, ever seen that episode of Seinfeld with George?' [Before I go on, for future reference, Yes, I've seen it. And on the Seinfeld note, please stop telling me I look like Elaine.]
It's encouraging that people remember something from pop culture relevant to what I do. I don't realistically expect friends to reference the 2003 Pew Oceans Report, so this collective interest in my field for…
cmooney | June 2, 2007 The Mooney-Nisbet combo act is heading to New York: We are doing a talk at the New York Academy of Sciences, sponsored by the Science Alliance, on Monday night. Click the icon for details. This should be our biggest event yet (we just got a nice mention from Darksyde over at Daily Kos), so if you're in the area, we hope you'll attend.
Blogging from the road is always difficult, of course, and I won't be back until Tuesday night late. We may be getting some posts from Sheril between now and then, though. She did such a great job tending the blog while I was away that I have asked her to stay…
cmooney | June 1, 2007
As if to announce today's June 1 date, Tropical Storm Barry just formed--unexpectedly--in the Gulf, and may now be intensifying over the infamous warm Loop Current. Neither Jeff Masters nor the official forecasters think Barry is going to become a hurricane before reaching Florida, however. The National Hurricane Center puts the storm's intensity at 40 knots, though Masters thinks it's stronger than that.
Masters also makes this interesting observation:
The hurricane season of 2007 is in second place for the earliest year that the second named storm occurred. The record is held by 1887, when…
cmooney | June 1, 2007It never ceases to amaze me how research may be portrayed through the lens of pop culture. Although I often argue that the right 'spin' in a science story allows it to appeal to broader audiences, certain efforts only leave me dizzy. Here's an example..
The Research:
Dr. Benjamin Hayden at the Centre for Neuroeconomic Studies at Duke's School of Medicine published an article with his team in this month's Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Findings were relatively inconsequential, suggesting what we already know: Men place higher value in looking at the opposite sex than the ladies do. […
cmooney | June 1, 2007PZ Myers has this to say about the YouTube video of our "Speaking Science 2.0" talk:
I tried to watch that video. I even made it to the 20 minute mark before I gave up. Please, oh please, I need some substance in order to keep me going through an hour-long lecture.
I'm going to try not to get annoyed or snippy about this. Instead, I'll "frame" my response this way: It's funny that others don't share this perspective, isn't it?
We have given the talk so far to two serious groups populated by many, many scientists: At the Stowers Institute in Kansas City, and at the annual meeting of the…
cmooney | May 31, 2007 The last of the pre-season hurricane forecasts--from Colorado State University's Phil Klotzbach and Bill Gray, the latter of whom happens to be a chief character in my new book--is now out (PDF). It is unchanged from the previous Klotzbach/Gray forecast: 17 named storms, 9 hurricanes, and 5 intense hurricanes. Why this prediction? These are the key factors: Warm sea surface temperatures, ENSO-neutral to La Nina conditions expected in the Pacific, and relatively weak trade winds over the Atlantic (meaning less surface evaporation, and thus less heat getting out of the ocean).
The always…
cmooney | May 31, 2007After thinking about NASA administrator Michael Griffin's ridiculous recent statement--he's not sure global warming is a "problem"--I decided to do a full entry at HuffingtonPost about it.
That entry, entitled "Of Idiocy and Optimal Climates," is readable here.
cmooney | May 31, 2007My new Seed column, with the same title as this post, is now online. It's about how to convey the "perfect moral storm" that is the global warming problem to an American public that remains deeply confused and even ambivalent about the issue....as epitomized by NASA administrator Michael Griffith's recent bonehead statement to the effect that global warming isn't a problem. Is he trying to massively over-correct for James Hansen or something?
Prometheus has more.
cmooney | May 30, 2007
Well, we've got a second named storm in the Northeast Pacific. As NHC forecaster James Franklin notes, this is an unusual (although not un-heard of) occurrence:
THE DEPRESSION IS UPGRADED TO A 35 KT TROPICAL STORM. ONLY TWICE BEFORE...IN 1956 AND 1984...HAVE THERE BEEN TWO EASTERN NORTH PACIFIC NAMED STORMS IN MAY.
Barbara is apparently steadily intensifying--the Wisconsin folks estimate the intensity at 45 knots by now. Because this storm could become a hurricane before striking Mexico, it is going to be watched very closely.
Meanwhile, what is the point of a storm like Barbara, or any…
cmooney_2 | May 30, 2007It's official: The "Speaking Science 2.0" talk is now viewable in its entirety on YouTube:
The presentation above is the one given by Matt and myself at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Biological Sciences a few weeks back. Unfortunately, you can't see the PowerPoint slides; you can only see us talking. So not everything will make absolutely perfect sense, especially in my parts of the talk, because I don't always describe in words what I'm showing on the screen.
Still, this is a far fuller explication of our ideas than exists anywhere else; and I flatter myself in thinking…
cmooney | May 30, 2007It's official: The "Speaking Science 2.0" talk is now viewable in its entirety on YouTube:
The presentation above is the one that we gave at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Biological Sciences a few weeks back. Unfortunately, you can't see the PowerPoint slides; you can only see us talking. So not everything will make absolutely perfect sense, especially in my parts of the talk, because I don't always describe in words what I'm showing on the screen.
Still, this is a far fuller explication of our ideas than exists anywhere else; and I flatter myself in thinking that it's even…
cmooney | May 29, 2007
It's not even June yet, but a second storm seems to be forming in the Northeast Pacific off the western coast of Mexico, as seen in the image above from the National Hurricane Center. The center's first forecast discussion says this:
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS FAVOR STRENGTHENING. THE DEPRESSION IS OVER WATERS WARMER THAN 30C...AND THE DEEP-LAYER SHEAR IS VERY LIGHT. THE UPPER FLOW OVER THE DEPRESSION IS ALREADY HIGHLY DIVERGENT... AND COULD BE ENHANCED BY THE EXPECTED TROUGHING OVER THE GULF OF MEXICO. BOTH THE SHIPS AND GFDL GUIDANCE TAKE THE CYCLONE TO 80 KT OR HIGHER...AND THE SHIPS…
cmooney | May 29, 2007In anticipation of the start of hurricane season, today's Science Times had a pair of great articles on hurricanes, global warming, and coastal defenses in the U.S. I have just put up a post at Huffington Post, entitled Risky Scenarios, that comments on the latest Times package. You can read it here.
Meanwhile, my forthcomig book about all of this, Storm World, has gotten another positive early review--this time from Booklist, which is published by the American Library Association. Here's what gets said:
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming.
Mooney, Chris (…
cmooney | May 29, 2007FAITH
Several folks have emailed asking why I've yet to write about RELIGION. Simply put, what I believe is that faith has no place in science. Will someone please stand up and explain the circular argument, the rhetoric, the tomfoolery and fiddlesticks that is the age old debate on how these two worlds converge? Convince me, and I'm ready and waiting at my laptop to jump in.
I admit I'm no expert here. Although I studied religion as a Classics major, my perspectives are predominantly influenced by an inundation of our own cultural norms, societal movements, American education, and the…