cmooney | May 29, 2007Back from Italy, that is. I had a great, relaxing time in Venice and, later, in Udine and the little town of Manzano, where I'd gone for an old friend's beautiful (and entirely secular!) wedding.
But no more on that, it's entirely non-science related.
This post is just to let you know of my return and, above all, to thank our guest bloggers: Norm Doering, Bryan Mignone, Mark Drapeau....and last but hardly least, Sheril, who I think has an incredible knack for this. I calculate that her posts from last week generated 96 comments! Not bad for a rookie.
So feel free to use the comments here to…
cmooney | May 27, 2007posted by Sheril R. Kirshenbaum
Anticlimactic perhaps, but then you knew my last post on Framing wouldn't provide closure on the topic. Hubris would be an understatement if I claimed to have a panacea of answers. Instead, what follows are a few musings to wrap up ideas from Thursday based on my adventures across the science, policy, and pop culture worlds..
Framing's not a one-size-fits-all concept. Furthermore, not everything 'science' need necessarily be 'Framed' - it's entirely case specific. Big, immediate global concerns traversing disciplines and stakeholders are where we should…
cmooney | May 26, 2007Hello, everyone. My name is Norman Doering. I'm your weather watcher for the week while Chris Mooney is away. You haven't heard from me until now because there haven't been any new hurricanes this week.
However, earlier today I was checking in on the weather sites that I promised to Chris Mooney that I would watch, there were no hurricanes anywhere on the planet -- but there was a tropical depression in the Pacific, off the coast of Acapulco, Mexico. It looked like this:
I checked back just recently, and it's now looking like a real storm:
I will check back later today to see what has…
cmooney | May 25, 2007I've had fun following comments and feedback from Wednesday's series on Framing Science. Many of you bring up excellent points and I particularly enjoy hearing from folks who do not wholeheartedly agree. It's also encouraging that other science bloggers including PZ Myers and Coturnix are open to re-examine the concept from a different perspective.
A special thanks to readers who challenge my ideas and in doing so, open up the discussion to new potential trajectories and dimensions. Thought-provoking remarks and debate are the best way to develop a broader understanding all around. And…
cmooney | May 25, 2007What are the appropriate roles of the defense and intelligence establishments in understanding and responding to global warming? In a recent op-ed, my colleague Mark Drapeau and I reviewed a study by the CNA Corp. that highlighted the natural security threats posed by unchecked climate change. The CNA report observed (rightly, in our view) that the predicted impacts of climate change - among them, critical shortages of food and water in some regions - could act as "threat multipliers" in some of the least developed, but strategically important parts of the world. In light of this, we argued…
cmooney | May 24, 2007Dr. Montgomery McFate, a noted anthropologist and Pentagon consultant currently based at the U.S. Institute for Peace, has pointed out an historical military role of her academic field in understanding the local populace during the Colonial period. Despite this intermingled history of anthropology and the military, however, modern-day defense policymakers and academic researchers rarely play well together in the proverbial sandbox. In general, a Cold War-era preoccupation with technological superiority, combined with the negative aftereffects of poor cultural understanding of opposing forces…
cmooney | May 24, 2007Today at 2:22 pm, I'll have circumnavigated our sun exactly 27 times. I love discussions revolving around that spectacular star of ours, because it's capable of altering all sorts of perspectives and intimately tied to the future of our home planet. Fast forward about 3.5 billion years and the sun's luminosity is expected to increase by 40%. Like Paris Hilton *didn't* coin, "That's Hot!" By then, does the cause of climate change matter? Unlikely we're still emitting CO2 anyway. And computer models even suggest the loss of the oceans. Hard to imagine that version of our world, but I expect I'…
cmooney | May 23, 2007Imagine you're a legislative staffer on Capitol Hill..
Short on time would be an understatement.
In comes Joe scientist carrying charts and referencing stats and p-values. 'Let's talk Global Warming!' Again?! He's the fourth PhD this afternoon. Kind of seems like old news. Today's topic is how Iran ignored the U.N. Security Council and your boss needs to make a statement on CNN's The Situation Room in 2 hours. Thanks for the information Joe, glad you stopped in.
Wait.. WHAT?!
Allow me to take this opportunity to discuss linguistics. First and foremost, a change in terminology is in order…
cmooney | May 23, 2007Much emphasis in traditional conservation is paced on 'charismatic megafauna,' meaning the species that we all know and love. The heroes of the big screen. Save the Oceans for Flipper and Free Willy. Keep those penguins marching and the polar bears drinking Coca-Cola. Market the smiling dolphins, the majestic blue whales, and those adorable baby seals. 'Save the Sea Cucumber' just doesn't have the same clout. Package your landscape or region of choice under the umbrella of huggable marine mammal and everyone's on board to clean up the next oil spill and protest dynamite fishing. All in…
cmooney | May 23, 2007There's not a one size fits all approach to getting a message across that resonates with the public and policymakers. The idea is to 'Frame Science' in a language that turns people on with the goal of engaging a targeted audience to think and care about a critical issue. The magic recipe is in finding the right "Frame" that fits.
As scientists, our first step is choosing content carefully and presenting it from a united academic stance. Too often we are at odds over the nuances of one concept. We have been trained to be critical, seeking the holes in others' research by pointing out…
cmooney | May 23, 2007That's right, I said it.
Dare I broach the topic sans Chris? Is it fair to discuss Framing when he's not here at The Intersection to reply? I think YES. Just be aware everything that follows is 'according to Sheril' and none of this necessarily reflects the opinions of our two favorite Framers. That said, I'll forge on..
Unless you've fallen off the blogosphere since April, you're likely familiar with the concept of Framing Science which Mooney and Nisbet recently published an article about in the journal Science. My perspective, although similar in many respects, has been influenced…
cmooney | May 22, 2007The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released their 2007 Hurricane Forecast today predicting a 75 percent chance that the Atlantic Hurricane Season will be 'above normal' for this year. The season officially begins June 1 and NOAA scientists predict 13 to 17 named storms. Seven to 10 are expected to become hurricanes, of which three to five could reach Category 3 or higher.
For the full story, click here
posted by Sheril R. Kirshenbaum
cmooney | May 22, 2007The International Energy Outlook 2007 (IEO2007) was released yesterday with an assessment by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the projection for international energy markets through 2030. This includes the details on everyone's favorite element with 6 protons - the very topic keeping many of us blogging as we debate its significance with regard to global warming. In this most recent report, we learn that atmospheric concentrations of C have been increasing at about 0.5 percent annually. What's more.. well, check out these figures:
World carbon dioxide emissions (let's just…
cmooney | May 21, 2007Exciting news out of my very own little North Carolina town..
Last week, Dr. Peter Agre announced he'll evaluate a run for the Senate in 2008 as a Democrat from Minnesota. (The seat is currently held by Republican Senator Norm Coleman).
Well everyone loves a Renaissance man and Dr. Agre has that 'IT' factor! He won me over by being outspoken on the need to improve science and math education and advance and strengthen science. After more than 25 years at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, he became Vice Chancellor for Science and Technology and James B. Duke Professor of…
cmooney | May 21, 2007posted by Sheril R. Kirshenbaum
In the first installment of Intersection-ing sans Chris, I've decided to address all this hullabaloo on Global Warming.. Is it real? More and more, scientists are criticized as alarmists jumping on the apocalyptic panic bandwagon while the rest of us have more important things to worry about. War, growing national debt, nuclear proliferation, and K-Fed's attempt at a hiphop career to name a few. So how dramatically has the state of the world shifted since humans came onto the scene? Can it be we just have an ego problem - bragging our species has had a…
cmooney | May 20, 2007
Typhoon Yutu in the West Pacific, currently recurving and heading towards Iwo Jima. Image credit: Naval Research Laboratory.
Over the past day or so, the second Pacific typhoon of the year--Yutu, or Amang--has rapidly intensified. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center now puts the storm's strength at 125 knots (mid-range Category 4) based upon satellite imagery; while the folks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, using the Advanced Dvorak Technique, have Yutu as our first Category 5 storm of the year. They estimate 137 knots as I write this.
Either way, Yutu is an extremely powerful typhoon…
cmooney | May 19, 2007 Not that it hasn't been noticed already...but I was fortunate enough to contribute to the latest issue of Harper's magazine, for a feature section entitled "Undoing Bush."
In the piece, I lay out some suggestions for what the next president can do to restore scientific integrity to the apparatus of the U.S. government (assuming that is indeed a priority for the new administration). The piece isn't online unless you're a subscriber, but the Cliff Notes version is that the approach to reform on this issue must be guided from the top--and facilitated by a strong presidential science adviser--…
cmooney | May 18, 2007POLITICS Where are we headed? Do party loyalties mean much in the big picture?
SCIENCE Will science solve our problems? Perhaps the very nature of all conflict is a necessary aspect of humanity? Is it true environmentalists are a dying breed?
POP Does public opinion matter? Do films with a message like An Inconvenient Truth and Flock of Dodos open the dialog or are progressive ideas as fickle as the latest pop culture marriage?
COCKTAIL Who really influences our beliefs, actions, and ideals? What is moral obligation and does religion have a role? How might scientists inform policy to…
cmooney | May 17, 2007Well, it was a tough decision. There were a lot of great ideas, suggestions, and proposals about who to have blog here next week in my absence. In fact, there were so many good ideas that I'm going to invite some folks who are not stepping up to the plate this time around to come back and do it the next time I go off on some wild vacation somewhere.
But for the current opening, a theme was clearly emerging among the possible bloggers I considered: the "third culture," a concept of John Brockman's. When I think "third culture," I think of people who are involved in science but not just…
cmooney | May 17, 2007On May 3, former House Science Committee chair Sherwood Boehlert gave the distinguished AAAS Carey Lecture (PDF). It recently came to our attention that Boehlert spent a significant chunk of the talk commenting on the Nisbet-Mooney "framing science" article in Science.
We've now posted a reply to Boehlert over at "Speaking Science 2.0." Check it out.