In his book Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming, Mooney takes on “hurricanes, politics, and the battle over Global Warming” with great enthusiasm and alacrity. He painstakingly paints the details of all the scientific bickering, media frenzy and lack of political amidst a backdrop of climate-aggravated storms that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
By focusing on the people, as well as the inevitable record breaking storms Chris Mooney has crafted an intriguing story. He introduces us to the people behind the news, like including MIT’s original climate modeler Kerry Emanuel and climate converts Peter Webster and Greg Holland. Webster and Holland set out to prove disprove the relationship between hurricanes and greenhouse gases but became campaigners for the for the ‘climate camp’.
One of his most memorable characters is the likeable, if slightly nutty, Bill Gray, a cowboy scientist who has spent his life flying in and around hurricanes. No one can predict a hurricane season quite like Bill—he’s considered the best empiricist. But these days Gray refuses to submit anymore papers for peer review, choosing instead to go on Fox News to tell us there is no link between climate change and hurricanes, even denying there is climate change. Gray is now barred from speaking at most Meteorology and Climate conferences these days.
Mooney’s explanation of how all the characters fit together is both entertaining and educational. You’ll never read anything on climate change and hurricanes again without knowing exactly where each person’s loyalties lie.
Mooney also trace how starting with the Clinton presidency there has been a concerted effort by the Oil and Gas industry to throw what he calls “manufactured uncertainty” into the whole climate debate. Thereby slowing down any regulations dealing with greenhouse gases. Mooney tracks how under the Bush regime, this strategy has been co-opted by many of the very scientific organizations that are supposed to be telling us what is happening with the weather.
In painstaking details, he outlines the strategies employed by various spin-doctors and PR specialists to convert or muzzle the truth. Mooney also points the finger at the media’s desire for quickies and salacious comments that managed to cloud the issue further. It’s almost comical to see how as the 2005 climate change debates heated up with plenty of denials, worldwide hurricane records were smashed with seven major hits that included Katrina, Emily, Rita and Wilma, 15 smaller hurricanes and 28 named tropical storms. As Mooney puts it; “If the 2005 hurricane season had been an Olympics race, it would have been the one in which multiple runners set world records.”
Storm World is intended to educate the general public about climate change issues so we can push our governments into making policies that will help us through the coming transitions. But he is also admonishing the scientific community to stop hiding behind their façade of objectivity and take on greater roles as communicators and leaders. Mooney warns that while scientific bickering can be amusing, ultimately it distracts the media and the general public from dealing what Storm World is warning us about. We need to pay attention and take action.
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming, by Chris Mooney, Harcourt, ISBN-10: 0151012873, ISBN-13: 978-0151012879 $26.
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