Tag Archives: Climate Change

The Year Without a Winter (in the Southwest): 2025-2026

Posted on January 16, 2026 by williamjcobb

So here’s a story that hasn’t been featured much in the news media: The Southwest has had a pitiful winter so far—parched and warm. It’s drier than a tumbleweed here in south-central Colorado. And it’s worse elsewhere south and west … Continue reading →

Posted in 2025-26 Drought, Climate Change, Michael Mann's The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, The West, The Year Without a Summer, Uncategorized, Weird Weather | Tagged 2025-26 Drought, Climate Change, Michael Mann's The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, The West, The Year Without a Summer | Leave a comment

How To Write a Book About the Wind: On Simon Winchester’s “The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind”

Posted on January 14, 2026 by williamjcobb

So I have to begin with a confession: I’m most definitely a fan of the much-acclaimed nonfiction writer Simon Winchester. One of my first Winchester reads and still one of his finest (and my favorite) was Krakatoa: The Day the … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Climate Change, Simon Winchester, Simon Winchester's "The Breath of the Gods", Uncategorized, Weird Weather, writing | Tagged Book Reviewing, Climate Change, Simon Winchester, Simon Winchester's The Breath of the Gods | Leave a comment

"Ad Astra" Review: Killer Baboons, Moon Buggy War Zones, and Space Travel as a Walk in the Park

Posted on September 25, 2019 by williamjcobb

So I caught the new Ad Astra film last night, and in my best snarky Bill-Murray-as-Film-Critic-on-SNL mode I’ll quip: It’s like Apocalypse Now meets 2001: A Space Odyssey with a spritz of Alien. I’ll confess I’ve never been a big … Continue reading →

Posted in books/film, Climate Change | Tagged Ad Astra, Climate Change, Space Movies | Leave a comment

Shocking Bird Population Decline as in The Bird Saviors

Posted on September 20, 2019 by williamjcobb

So for years I’ve been reading about and studying Climate Change (though I do find Global Weirding to be witty and accurate), for various reasons, some of them personal of course: I have a daughter who will live in this … Continue reading →

Posted in Birding, books/film, Climate Change, The West, writing | Tagged Birding, Climate Change, Fiction Writing, Good Fiction, The Bird Saviors, The West, Wildfires | Leave a comment

Imagining Storm & Fire: Hurricane Harvey, "Goodnight Texas," and The Prediction of Fiction

Posted on August 27, 2018 by williamjcobb

So a year ago, on August 24th-25th, Hurricane Harvey crashed into the Texas coast, roughly equaling, in monetary damage, the destruction of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. Based on my novel Goodnight, Texas, you could say I predicted it: I … Continue reading →

Posted in books, books/film, Climate Change, The West | Tagged Book Reviewing, Climate Change, Cormac McCarthy, Fiction Writing, Good Fiction, Goodnight Texas | Leave a comment

The West Is Burning: On Michael Kodas's "Megafire: The Race to Extinguish a Deadly Epidemic of Flame"

Posted on January 28, 2018 by williamjcobb

So after having owned a home in Custer County, Colorado (Go Wildcats!) for fifteen years and having been a frequent visitor to the Rockies since 1978—the year of my first trip to Yellowstone—I’m both fascinated by and have a fear … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, The West, Weird Weather | Tagged Book Reviewing, Climate Change, Drought, Michael Kodas's Megafire, The West, Wildfires | Leave a comment

Hurricane Harvey Hits Home Town, Like I Predicted in "Goodnight, Texas"

Posted on August 26, 2017 by williamjcobb

So my misspent years in high school were dithered away in the Texas coastal town of Rockport, which appears to have been the epicenter of Hurricane Harvey’s landfall last night. Back in 2006 Unbridled Books published my novel Goodnight, Texas … Continue reading →

Posted in books, books/film, Climate Change, The West | Tagged Climate Change, Fiction Writing, Goodnight, Texas, The Bird Saviors, The West | Leave a comment

Review of Jack E. Davis's "The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea" in the Dallas Morning News

Posted on March 29, 2017 by williamjcobb

So last Sunday my review of Jack E. Davis’s The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea appeared in the Dallas Morning News, and can be found here. It’s a terrific book about the Gulf of Mexico, on the shores … Continue reading →

Posted in Birding, books, Climate Change, The West | Tagged Birding, Book Reviewing, Climate Change, Goodnight, Simon Winchester, Texas, The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea, The West | Leave a comment

Slouching Toward Bethlehem (While Walking Across Campus, Staring at Their Phones)

Posted on October 9, 2016 by williamjcobb

So for many months now I’ve watched (along with most other people) the rise of Donald Trump with a mixture of bafflement and dismay, contemplating the scary possibility that he could actually be Leader of the Free World (seems bizarre, yes) in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Climate Change, College World 2016, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Millennials, U.S. Presidential Election | Leave a comment

On Sonia Shah's "Pandemic" and Antarctica's Looming Meltdown: Drowning in a Sea Full of Germs

Posted on March 31, 2016 by williamjcobb

So a few years back I often wrote about Climate Change and its slo-mo catastrophe, especially when it seemed that we had the chance to alter our Titanic-like course toward that (melting) iceberg, but of late I’ve been more reticent, … Continue reading →

Posted in Birding, books, books/film, Climate Change, Uncategorized | Tagged Book Reviewing, Climate Change, David Quammen's Spillover, Gwyneth Paltrow, Horror Movies, Sonia Shah's Pandemic, Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, The Bird Saviors, The Great Influenza, The Great Mortality, Viruses | Leave a comment