Global Warming and Hurricanes
cmooney | July 14, 2007Sheril has already posted a recent picture of us featuring me in my trusty black Banana Republic shirt, comfortably toting a beer. It's the same shirt I've been wearing pretty much every night on my book tour, since I haven't had any luggage and, therefore, any other options.
This sartorial detail is mentioned by way of full disclosure: When you survey the pictures below--taken at the Seed-sponsored Storm World book party in NYC last Tuesday and finally posted here--be forewarned that it might appear that, like some cartoon character, I never change clothes.
Let me also acknowledge at the…
sheril | July 13, 2007Last night Chris hit Raleigh on his second stop of the Storm World tour so I caravaned over to Quail Ridge Books and Music with a couple carloads of friends to hear what he had to tell us about Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming. Now as I realize my review could seem suspect (conflict of interest and such), figured my overly critical friends would be able to provide an excellent unbiased perspective. As it turns out they're just as impressed as me because the book involves a subject that's topical, timely, and affects every one of us. Chris delivers his ideas in a…
sheril | July 12, 2007While Chris is on tour talking about Storm World, related global warming news right out of the state near and dear to my heart of mammoth proportions..
The Florida Climate Change Summit is about to kick off July 12-13 in Miami and I expect it will be a precedent setting event. State, regional, national and international leaders will explore opportunities for advancing the global climate change agenda which means serious discussions on combating greenhouse gas emissions and global warming pollution, creating cleaner car and efficiency standards, and promoting renewable energy. Governor…
cmooney | July 10, 2007
As I write this I'm stranded in Chicago, where I and many other people suffered travel upheaval yesterday due to severe thunderstorms in the area. But presumably at some point today I will get to New York, in time for the official Storm World book tour to kick off tomorrow with an appearance on Democracy Now. Tomorrow evening, I'll be speaking at this Barnes and Noble in NYC.
And then it really kicks into gear as I'm off to Raleigh on July 12th, Ft. Lauderdale July 13th, Miami July 14, Tampa July 15, Pass Christian, Mississippi July 16, New Orleans July 17, and Houston July 18. Eight talks…
cmooney | July 3, 2007The latest issue of Wired features The Transformers on the cover. And all I can say is, why did Hollywood wait so long to make this movie? Don't they know what I put my parents through when I was six years old and trying to keep pace with friends who'd collected more of these nifty bots than me?
The latest Wired also features a short item about Storm World. You can read it online here, but I vote for the PDF version (here), so you can see the truly awesome graphic design (the best I've seen from my clips so far on the new book).
And thus the question becomes: Which is tougher, bots that…
sheril | July 2, 2007I was going to comment on Chris' post, and then thought to myself, "Am I a co-blogger, or what?" So I'm sitting here in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, amid a whirlwind of conservation biologists with very little battery remaining on my laptop -- pausing to provide my perspective on the book that kept me in good company during a 15 hour flight here from DC.
Storm World is a thought-provoking piece of work. My co-blogger (there, conflict of interest disclosed!) has successfully managed to craft an interesting and honest account of the history of hurricanes and climate science, but what makes…
cmooney | July 1, 2007
The infamous "Thingamabobbercane" off the coast of Oregon last November.
I'm excited to say that my book is reviewed today in the Sunday Times Book Review, available online here. I think it would be fair to call the review itself lukewarm (not quite warm enough for storm formation, let's say). The reviewer, Lisa Margonelli of the New America Foundation, seemed to want a repeat of The Republican War on Science.
Most of the Times review attempts to recap the book, but because we don't blanch from it at the Intersection, here is the paragraph of criticism:
Mooney has written a well-researched…
cmooney | June 28, 2007There's some more new stuff on the book front:
* Andrew Freedman did a very thoughtful review of Storm World over at the Weather Channel website Forecast Earth.
* Next week, I am going to be guest blogging about the book--about global warming and related issues, really--over at Kevin Drum's Political Animal (which, just in case there are any science nerds here completely unfamilar with the political blogosphere, is also the homepage of the Washington Monthly).
* A lively discussion of the book is going on over at the website Climate Audit, which tends to be critical of much climate science…
cmooney | June 26, 2007I just posted over at Huffington post--I'm not the first to pile on, but I thought it important to contribute to the utter dismantling of this truly clueless op-ed that ran in the Washington Post yesterday by Emily Yoffe. You can read my piece (with the same title as this post) here.
cmooney | June 23, 2007
One of my first interviews about the new book can now be heard online by clicking here (MPG). I recently spoke with Bob McDonald of the CBC's Quirks and Quarks about the science, politics, and policy implications of the hurricane-global warming debate, and the roughly 12 minute segment just aired today.
As this is one of my earliest live interviews on the subject, critical feedback is most welcome. In fact it will be of much help to me, since there will be many more such interviews, including an appearance on the Barometer Bob Show, a popular meteorology program broadcasting out of Florida…
cmooney | June 21, 2007Over at Real Climate, my necessarily cautious words about the relationship between hurricanes and global warming were being taken in the comments section as a suggestion that there's no "evidence" that anything is happening. I had to chime in with a longish comment setting things straight, which I'll reproduce here:
There is certainly evidence of global warming's impact on the intensity of the average hurricane. However, it is evidence that some contest based upon questions about the quality of the data. It would be fair to say there is no "consensus" about the evidence, but not at all fair…
cmooney | June 18, 2007
The longer form reviews of Storm World are starting to come out, even as the book is now shipping from Amazon (and presumably other sites). I'm excited that the first really meaty review has gone up today by Mike Mann at RealClimate.org. You can read it here.
The review is very positive but does include "minor quibbles" such as the following:
As we have remarked before, one should be very careful about giving too much weight to any one late-breaking paper. Where there are certainly exceptions where paradigms are dramatically broken on the strength of one groundbreaking paper, science rarely…
cmooney | June 11, 2007I've ben a bit tied up and unable to blog yet today. Thankfully Sheril has taken up some of the slack. I'll have an entry later, but in the meantime, definitely check out this cool post by frequent Intersection commenter Fred Bortz. Bortz is drawing on a recent article in American Scientist by two glacier experts (including Philip W. Mote who I've interviewed in the past about Pacific Northwestern snowpack loss) on how Mt. Kilimanjaro has been used as an inappropriate icon of global warming. The article argues that while many glaciers are melting, and while global glacial retreat has indeed…
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, 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 | 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 2, 2007
From Houston to New Orleans to Miami to Pass Christian, Mississippi... I'll be covering a lot of ground this summer to talk about the new book. I can now officially anounce the first dozen or so of what will hopefully be many more public presentations across the country--mostly in hurricane vulnerable regions of the Gulf and East Coasts.
The gory tour details are now available here (a stopgap location until the official Storm World website is ready to go). For the blog, meanwhile, I will merely list, in chronological order, the cities I'm currently scheduled to visit to talk about…
cmooney | April 24, 2007
My new book, Storm World, will not be out for another two months yet; it hits in early July. However, the early reviews are coming in from outlets serving the literary and publishing industry such as Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. And I'm now tremendously pleased to be able to report that both of these publications have singled out the book, giving it starred reviews.
The reviews themselves are reproduced in full below the fold; the Publisher's Weekly version is also available online without a password (search for my name or the title).
From Publishers Weekly:
(Starred Review)
Storm…
cmooney | March 23, 2007My apologizes for not writing yesterday...I was working hard on a big blog entry which I finally got up at HuffingtonPost. I felt there was a need to clarify my views on Al Gore's scientific accuracy--especially with respect to hurricanes--and I've taken the occasion of Gore's recent testimony to do so. My two cents: There are definitely things that you can critique about An Inconvenient Truth in this regard. But when you put Gore alongside critics like Joey Barton and Jimmy Inhofe, there's simply no doubt who takes the science seriously, and who doesn't.
cmooney | March 20, 2007
I had the fortune last night of seeing a really cool IMAX docu, Hurricane on the Bayou, at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. The film is not only visually spectacular; it's a powerful musing on the loss of coastal wetlands, and how that has, in turn, increased the vulnerability of the Louisiana Gulf Coast to hurricane destruction. Most of all, the film is suffused with local Louisiana music, culture--and plenty of cute shots of baby alligators to boot.
After the film ended, I helped out with the Q & A when a question came up on the subject of hurricanes and global warming. (Chris…