Category Archives: Climate Change

For Weather Freaks & Geeks: the NOAA El Nino Page

Posted on December 9, 2011 by williamjcobb

So if there’s one positive spinoff outcome of our collective Climate Change fears, it’s a greater understanding and respect for the science behind understanding climate and weather. {All Republican presidential candidates can now leave the room (like they’d be here … Continue reading →

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On the Climate Change Front, a Good News/Bad News Day

Posted on December 6, 2011 by williamjcobb

So the latest hubbub on the Climate Change front is that global emissions spiked last year to a record high increase, while obviously we should be making those numbers go down (and they did, briefly, from the effects of the … Continue reading →

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On Thomas Friedman's "Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0": A Disturbing Vision of the Future

Posted on November 15, 2011 by williamjcobb

So I must first confess that I am NOT a Thomas Friedman fan, which I think makes my enthusiasm more authentic for his nonfiction book Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution—And How It Can Renew … Continue reading →

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On Paul Gilding's "The Great Disruption," With a Nod to Eugene Linden's "The Future in Plain Sight"

Posted on November 2, 2011 by williamjcobb

So I’m a sucker for ‘big vision’ books about the future and the myriad problems we face with climate change and resource depletion, and right now I’m reading Paul Gilding’s The Great Disruption. It manages to be at once peppy … Continue reading →

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A Great Divide: Attitudes About Climate Change Remarkably Different Around the U.S., With Sharp Divide Along East/West

Posted on October 30, 2011 by williamjcobb

So one thing I’ve noticed the last few years in my peripatetic life of inhabiting both the Eastern and the Western U.S. is a noticeable division in attitudes about Climate Change. In a nutshell, it seems as though the West … Continue reading →

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On Prophecies in "The Bird Saviors": Dust Storms in Texas

Posted on October 18, 2011 by williamjcobb

So my forthcoming novel, The Bird Saviors—due out in (what’s left of) bookstores in May/June—opens with a dust storm in southern Colorado, and when I began writing it some five years ago, I imagined it set in a fuzzy ‘near … Continue reading →

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Seven Billion Humans & Jared Diamond's "Collapse"

Posted on October 18, 2011 by williamjcobb

So various news organizations are reporting that our planet is now home to this mythical number of seven billion humans, mythical in that we don’t know that for sure, but it’s a good guess, and all its implications. I still … Continue reading →

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Reading Daniel Yergin's "The Quest" & a Witty Post About Truthiness

Posted on September 27, 2011 by williamjcobb

So I’m reading the much-talked-about new tome on energy and the future, Daniel Yergin’s The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, just published. So far I’m not particularly impressed, especially after Dwight Garner’s rave review in … Continue reading →

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Climate Change Coverage in the NY Times

Posted on September 8, 2011 by williamjcobb

So I have decidedly mixed feelings about most of our media, no matter how much I read or watch it, as I imagine most of us do. (I make a point to read CNN just to see the latest blather … Continue reading →

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The Know Nothing Party Defies Gravity, Wins Elections?

Posted on September 1, 2011 by williamjcobb

So it’s driving me (slightly) crazy to read the idiocy coming out of Rick Perry’s mouth, echoed by a chorus of other Republican presidential contenders. Paul Krugman in the NY Times sums up their anti-science idiocy well here: What strikes … Continue reading →

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