cmooney
Posts by this author
October 8, 2007
Without necessarily intending to, in her speech last week Hillary Clinton demonstrated just how irrelevant some criticisms of the "framing science" thesis have been.
Consider: Hillary is a politician, and she wants to deliver a message about science--a vastly complex subject with many diverse…
October 8, 2007
So: Sheril and I have decided to do something special this week.
You see, as the author of a recent Seed cover story on how the presidential candidates need to demonstrate scientific leadership, I was pleasantly surprised to find Hillary Clinton seize this very issue last week, with an inspiring…
October 5, 2007
On the fifty year anniversary of Sputnik yesterday, the Center for American Progress launched "Science Progress," a new web and print publication dedicated to science policy. The editor in chief is Jonathan Moreno, a Senior Fellow at CAP and the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor and…
October 4, 2007
From conservative science writer Michael Fumento we note the following series of compliments and high praises:
Chris Mooney is a left-wing writer who specializes in injecting politics into practically any scientific subject you can name. Mooney could make a case that there would be no cavities but…
October 4, 2007
[Words heard round the world on October 4, 1957: "Beep. Beep."]
Fifty years ago today, the Soviet launch of Sputnik changed the United States forever--propelling science to the center of policymaking and launching a tradition of well-informed governance that, unfortunately, has since been in a…
October 3, 2007
Listen up, y'all: Nisbet has just teamed up with Dietram Scheufele, a colleague from UW-Madison, to pen a lengthy cover story for The Scientist that fleshes out the now uncontroversial framing science argument. Furthermore, Scientist editor Richard Gallagher strongly endorses the argument in his…
October 2, 2007
So: If there's one thing I never tire of doing....it's beating up on George W. Bush's record on global warming--which usually involves exposing the ridiculous lies and deceptions the administration has cooked up over the past six years so as to misrepresent either a) the science; or b) what the…
October 2, 2007
...either that, or Greenpeace is much more clever than M. Night Shyamalan.
Hmm...given these two possibilities, I think the choice is an obvious one.
P.S.: Michael Crichton would have had us believe that aliens cause global warming. Nonsense. Don't listen to him. The aliens were always on our…
October 2, 2007
Yesterday I did an interview with comedian/radio host Faith Salie of the new NPR show "Fair Game" about my Seed cover story calling for a science president in 2008.
Listen here.
It's a good fun conversation--especially when we talk about how to equip the candidates with hi tech science devices,…
October 1, 2007
[The rapidly intensifying Hurricane Lorenzo makes landfall.]
I've done my latest Daily Green "Storm Pundit" post, about how this hurricane season is in some ways a lion, in others a lamb. Excerpt:
In short, not even a third of the named storms have attained hurricane strength this year, whereas…
September 29, 2007
You probably aren't going to believe this. But not only was the battle at the Bell Museum in Minneapolis last night pretty un-warlike; the participants actually seemed to find plenty of common ground. Both Greg Laden and, yes, even PZ Myers agreed that the framing of science can be a useful tool…
September 28, 2007
My latest DeSmogBlog entry is up--it's a reaction to the recent Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger piece in the New Republic, which in turn is an excerpt/adaptation from their new book Break Through. You'll recall that these guys are the stylish authors of the famed "Death of Environmentalism…
September 27, 2007
Karen, possibly a hurricane for something like three hours, maybe.
My latest "Storm Pundit" post just went up--it's about Tropical Storm Karen, which was probably a hurricane yesterday for a very brief period and may be officially named one in post-season reanalysis (assuming the now-highly…
September 27, 2007
While Sheril continues to blog up a storm, I merely have a few updates between my various plane flights....the latest of which, today, takes me to Minnesota for the big debate (tomorrow night) between Mooney-Nisbet and Laden-Myers. More on that when I get a second, but first, some updates:
The…
September 25, 2007
Tropical Storm Karen has formed in the open Atlantic, and it's simply gigantic. Accordingly, I've done my latest "Storm Pundit" post about Karen, hurricane size, and what this storm--our eleventh of the year--says about the accuracy of some of the pre-season forecasts. You can read the piece here.…
September 24, 2007
My Cornell University Provost's series lecture given on September 20 was quite a memorable one. I was only waiting for video to go online to provide more information about the event, and now it has.
So: Follow the link to view my talk (30 minutes plus) and then the responses from expert panelists…
September 24, 2007
Dear readers: I'm working on something and could use some research help from any intrepid minds. It seems to me almost indisputable that John Marburger, who assumed his post in 2001 and has continued it now into late 2007, is the longest serving presidential science adviser in history. A quick…
September 22, 2007
Apologies for my disappearance, folks...Sheril did a great job in my absence, and I enjoyed being Obi-Wan for a day. Although it wasn't exactly like battling with lightsabers: I spent the week largely hunkered down in hotel rooms, preparing talks. Especially on my 30th birthday, and surrounded by…
September 18, 2007
Drum roll please...
We are now officially able to announce that Andrew Binder, a graduate student in life sciences communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has won our "Crash the Intersection" banner contest.
Andrew's successful banner--which I've taken to calling the Sign & Cross-…
September 17, 2007
It was tough, but Sheril and I have now selected the winner of the Crash the Intersection banner art contest. We'll be announcing the name soon and showing you the artwork. And then finally--perhaps as soon as by week's end--we'll actually have the work on display up there.
At which point the…
September 17, 2007
During the doldrums of August, Sheril and I were both around and posting repeatedly every day--which probably had something to do with our traffic record.
Alas, it's fall now, students are back on campuses, and we're on the road again more than ever, which really interrupts posting frequency. We'…
September 17, 2007
My latest "Storm Pundit" column on this subject, which has come to seem fairly pressing in the wakes of Hurricanes Felix and Humberto, is now up. Upshot: I want to know more about the mechanism by which climate change would presumably affect storm intensification rates. Still, it stands to reason…
September 15, 2007
Jeez, I go on vacation to New Orleans and all hell breaks loose between PZ and Matt over framing science stuff.
I feel less and less like a participant in this debate and more and more like a referee.
Folks, we're going to publicly debate all this in, as I count it, two weeks in Minneapolis. It's…
September 13, 2007
From forecaster James Franklin:
BASED ON OPERATIONAL ESTIMATES...HUMBERTO STRENGTHENED FROM A 30 KT DEPRESSION AT 15Z YESTERDAY TO A 75 KT HURRICANE AT 09Z THIS
MORNING...AN INCREASE OF 45 KT IN 18 HOURS. TO PUT THIS DEVELOPMENT IN PERSPECTIVE...NO TROPICAL CYCLONE IN THE HISTORICAL RECORD HAS…
September 13, 2007
Leave it to The Onion:
MIAMI--South Florida residents were overcome with fear, confusion, and an unnerving sense of dread Tuesday when they learned that an unidentified hurricane is heading for their area--its origin uncertain, its intentions unclear, and perhaps most frightening, its name unknown…
September 13, 2007
Jeez, Humberto came out of nowhere yesterday, eh?
And now I'm worried: I'm supposed to be celebrating my thirtieth birthday (technically Sept. 20) with family and friends and a trip to the hometown of New Orleans tomorrow. The idea was to kick back and hopefully achieve some acceptance of how I…
September 12, 2007
Here's a picture of the Caribbean and Central Atlantic this morning. A tropical wave that came off of Africa a while back--and that the National Hurricane Center is designating 91L--looks much more organized than it did yesterday, as you can plainly see.
I'm not a forecaster, though I pay attention…
September 11, 2007
I am heading up north a bit today in anticipation of a talk about Storm World tomorrow at the Stevens Institute of Technology's Center for Science Writings. My host is center director John Horgan, the author of The End of Science. Being on the road should cut down my posting frequency a bit, so…
September 11, 2007
My weekly post at DeSmogBlog is now up. It's about the latest Naomi Oreskes brouhaha, which I've been trying not to watch too closely. That's what the piece is about. And if that's too mysterious--well, read it.
September 11, 2007
We have now gotten some good entries, but we still need more to make a completely, er, informed decision...and we're afraid some real Picassos out there are still holding back. So with just days left, Sheril and I want to remind everyone one last time about the The 1st Annual CRASH THE INTERSECTION…