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Science Tuesday - Climate Change, poaching, West Nile, and the War on Science
I don't know if it's surprising or obvious The Weather Channel has taken the lead in cable television coverage of climate change. For them there is no debate, just a responsibility - even an imperative - to report on it.
A Conversation With Heidi Cullen: Into the Limelight, and the Politics of Global Warming
By CLAUDIA DREIFUS, The New York Times, July 31, 2007
In June 2002, Heidi Cullen, a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., received a telephone call from an executive at the Weather Channel. Would she audition for a program on climate and global warming that producers at the Atlanta-based cable television network were contemplating?
Dr. Cullen, a climatologist with a doctorate from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, was dubious. A specialist in droughts, she had no broadcast experience. Moreover, she rarely watched television. She had never even seen the Weather Channel.
“My interests were in trying to find new ways to make climate forecasts practical for engineers and farmers,” Ms. Cullen, 37, said on a recent visit to New York. She had, she said, just gotten a grant from the National Science Foundation, “and I didn’t want to leave what I was doing.”
But the lure of a national audience won out. After a successful tryout, Dr. Cullen packed her clothes, furniture and dog and moved to Atlanta. Today, she is the only climatologist with a Ph.D. in the country who has her own weekly show, “Forecast Earth,” a half-hour-long video-magazine focused on climate and the environment.
Q: What were you studying when you got that call from the Weather Channel?
A: I was trying to understand the large-scale mechanisms that had caused a drought in Afghanistan from 1999 to 2001. I was also working with engineers in Brazil and Paraguay to apply climate forecasts to optimize water resource management at Itaipu Binacional, the largest operational hydropower facility in the world.
I hesitated when I got that call. Television was a world I couldn’t imagine. No one I knew had ever done anything like that.
Q: How did the Weather Channel executives know of you?
A: I think they’d been asking around. They were hunting for a Ph.D. scientist who could explain the science behind climate news. As it happened, my doctoral thesis has a lot of relevance to current affairs. Part of it involved looking at how to use climate information to manage water resources in the Middle East. It’s often said that the next war in the Middle East will be fought over water.
For my thesis, I studied droughts and the collapse of the first Mesopotamian empire — the Akkadian civilization. I was able to show that a megadrought at roughly 2200 B.C. played a role in its demise. I found the proof by examining the sediment cores of ancient mud. When one looked at the mud from the period around the Akkadian collapse, one found a huge spike in the mineral dolomite. That substance is an indicator of drought.
Q: What’s the point of knowing this?
A: Because until recently, historians, anthropologists and archaeologists were reluctant to say that civilizations could collapse because of nature. The prevailing theories were that civilizations collapsed because of political, military or medical reasons — plagues. Climate was often factored out.
And yet, indifference to the power of nature is civilization’s Achilles’ heel. I think the events around Hurricane Katrina reminded us that Mother Nature is something we haven’t yet conquered.
Q: Did you have to take lessons in broadcasting techniques?
A: Not at first. I’ve since done some voice training and have become obsessed with the craft of television. It’s important, for instance, to be very still when you’re on camera. My coach says that if you move around wildly, it erodes people’s faith in you. It’s been said to me that 9 times out of 10, the visual trumps what you say on television. I was floored. I had grown up among the cops and firemen of New York’s Staten Island, a world where your word is everything. So when I heard that, it was like, ‘Oh my God, why did I consciously choose to get into this?’
Q: O.K., why did you?
A: Because they were giving a chance to cover things people need to know more about: global warming, El Niño, energy policy.
Q: It has to be hard to put together a weekly magazine show on one subject. Where do you find your stories?
A: I’ve become a media junkie. I read far more widely now than when I was a researcher. Also, I watch a lot of TV, which means all the news programs, “Frontline,” even ESPN, which I watch to learn how to write punchy leads. I also listen to NPR, check out Greenwire and troll the scientific journals like Science, Nature and Geophysical Research Letters.
My problem is that I think everything climate-related is interesting. In my four years on the job, I’ve learned that just because I think something is interesting doesn’t mean it’ll make for good television. It’s often a challenge to make climate issues visual. When I first began, all we had was a little stock video of droughts in the Sahara with dead animal carcasses, and glaciers falling into the sea. We ran them over and over again. My father, who’s a retired New York City policeman, kept phoning me: “Heidi, are those same glaciers falling again?”
Q: Your coverage of global warming has been controversial. Are you surprised?
A: In a way, yes. To me, global warming isn’t a political issue, it’s a scientific one. But a lot of people out there think you’re being an advocate when you talk climate science.
Last December, I wrote a blog about how reticent some broadcast meteorologists are about reporting on climate change. Meteorologists — they are the forecasters — have training in atmospheric science. Many are certified by the American Meteorological Society. I suggested there’s a disconnect when they use their A.M.S. seal for on-camera credibility and refuse to give viewers accurate information on climate. The society has a very clear statement saying that global warming is largely due to the burning of fossil fuels.
The next thing I knew, I was being denounced on the Web sites of Senator James Inhofe, Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh. The Weather Channel’s own Web site got about 4,000 e-mails in one day, mostly angry. Some went, ‘Listen here, weather girl, just give me my five-day forecast and shut up.’
Q: Rush Limbaugh accused you of Stalinism. Did you suggest that meteorologists who doubt global warming should be fired?
A: I didn’t exactly say that. I was talking about the American Meteorological Society’s seal of approval. I was saying the A.M.S. should test applicants on climate change as part of their certification process. They test on other aspects of weather science.
A lot of viewers want to know about climate change. They are experiencing events they perceive as unusual and they want to know if there’s a connection to global warming. Certainly when Katrina hit, they wanted to know if it was global warming or not. Most Americans get their daily dose of science through their televised weather report. Given that fact, I think it’s the responsibility of broadcast meteorologists to provide viewers with scientific answers.
Q: What do your ex-colleagues from academia think of your new career?
A: Oh, they’re so funny. Some of them claim that they haven’t seen me on television because they don’t own one. But when I was being denounced by Matt Drudge, they were all, ‘Hey, saw you on Drudge!’
Actually, a lot of my friends are relieved that there’s at least one scientist out there doing this.
This is an interesting program - I would say it's a bit of the "eco-narcissism" that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gov_moonbeam has talked about - but at least their is a sustainable program behind it.
Making Necklaces to Change Lifestyles and Preserve Wildlife
By SANA KHALID, The New York Times, July 31, 2007
In a bid to help poachers lead greener lifestyles, conservation officials in Zambia have turned to a novel trend in jewelry making — snarewear, in which snares once used for poaching are transformed into handmade necklaces, bracelets and other decorative items.
More than 40,000 former poachers have joined a co-op called Community Markets for Conservation, or Comaco, which allows them to exchange snares for training in organic farming, beekeeping, gardening and carpentry, said Dr. Dale Lewis of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The program has collected more than 40,000 snares since 2002 and grossed more than $350,000 last year; the proceeds are shared by the former poachers and Comaco, Dr. Lewis said.
Rise in Cases of West Nile May Portend an Epidemic
By DENISE GRADY, The New York Times, July 26, 2007
The number of West Nile virus cases in the United States is nearly four times what it was a year ago, meaning that a large epidemic may be in store, government researchers are reporting.
“It’s certainly a warning sign that we need to be extremely vigilant,” Dr. Lyle Petersen, the director of the division of vector-borne infections at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said yesterday. “The worst is yet to come.”
The virus, carried by mosquitoes, causes a mild, flu-like illness in 20 percent of those infected, and no symptoms in about 80 percent. In about 1 percent of cases, the illness progresses to a brain infection that can be fatal.
Last year, 4,269 cases were reported in the United States, including 1,495 brain infections, and 177 people died. The risk of severe illnesses increases with age.
So far this year, 122 cases have been reported, with the most in California and the Dakotas. At this time last year, there had been only 33.
The reported cases are just the tip of the iceberg, researchers say. Many infections are never diagnosed because they were mild and the patient did not see a doctor, or was not tested for the virus.
This year, there have already been 42 brain infections and 3 deaths. This is early in the season, since 90 percent of the cases usually occur in August and early September. It is impossible to predict whether the trend will continue, Dr. Petersen said, adding that it may be related to “a lot of weird weather events,” including both the heat waves in the West and unusual storm patterns in the Midwest.
If people keep getting infected at the current rate, he said, “we could see the largest epidemic ever.”
The first known case of the disease in the United States occurred in New York City in 1999, and since then the virus has spread to every state.
In cases in the past, the virus was transmitted by transfusions and organ transplants, but tests are now done to protect the blood supply. This year, the tests have found 23 potential blood donors who were infected.
File under: Bush Administration's war on science...
U.S. Agency May Reverse 8 Decisions on Wildlife
By JOHN M. BRODER, The New York Times, July 21, 2007
WASHINGTON, July 20 — The Interior Department said Friday that it would review and probably overturn eight decisions on wildlife and land-use issues made by a senior political appointee who has been found to have improperly favored industry and landowners over agency scientists.
The appointee, Julie A. MacDonald, resigned on May 1 as a deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, after an internal review found that she had violated federal rules by giving government documents to lobbyists for industry. The agency’s inspector general also found several instances in which Ms. MacDonald browbeat department biologists and habitat specialists and overruled their recommendations to protect a variety of rare and threatened species.
H. Dale Hall, the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said he had asked the agency’s regional managers to submit for review cases in which Ms. MacDonald might have inappropriately bent the process to fit her political agenda. Mr. Hall winnowed the list to eight instances in which he said he expected that her actions would be reversed.
“We wouldn’t be doing them if we didn’t suspect the decision would be different,” Mr. Hall said in a telephone conference with journalists. “It’s a blemish on the scientific integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior.”
The species that could receive additional protection are the white-tailed prairie dog, Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, 12 species of Hawaiian picture-wing flies, the arroyo toad, the Southwestern willow flycatcher, the California red-legged frog and the Canada lynx. The extent of Rocky Mountain habitat protection for the jumping mouse is also under review.
Ms. MacDonald did not return a call seeking comment.
Ms. MacDonald’s actions had sparked an outcry among agency biologists and environmental advocates and led to a series of hearings in Congress on whether the Bush administration was politicizing science.
Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, said he was pleased that the agency was taking steps to address what he called political meddling in decisions that should be based on impartial scientific study.
“I am heartened to hear that the Department of the Interior is stepping up to the plate to beginning address the ‘politics trumps science’ ploy endemic throughout this administration,” Mr. Rahall said. “What we have learned to date raises concerns about political tinkering with science that has affected many endangered-species-related decisions — and goodness knows what else — that deserve further scrutiny.”
The conflict between science and political ideology has been a recurrent theme in Washington in recent years, with complaints arising from inside and outside the administration about decisions on oil exploration, timber rights, global warming and public health. Just last week, the former surgeon general Richard H. Carmona said top Bush administration officials had repeatedly tried to water down or suppress important public health reports for political considerations.
Environmental advocates said numerous cases of potential political interference by Ms. MacDonald or others in the department were left off the list of decisions to be reviewed. They cited as examples decisions affecting the status of the marbled murrelet, a small sea bird found in the Pacific Northwest; a plan to help speed the spotted owl’s recovery; and the habitat of the bull trout.
A Conversation With Heidi Cullen: Into the Limelight, and the Politics of Global Warming
By CLAUDIA DREIFUS, The New York Times, July 31, 2007
In June 2002, Heidi Cullen, a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., received a telephone call from an executive at the Weather Channel. Would she audition for a program on climate and global warming that producers at the Atlanta-based cable television network were contemplating?
Dr. Cullen, a climatologist with a doctorate from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, was dubious. A specialist in droughts, she had no broadcast experience. Moreover, she rarely watched television. She had never even seen the Weather Channel.
“My interests were in trying to find new ways to make climate forecasts practical for engineers and farmers,” Ms. Cullen, 37, said on a recent visit to New York. She had, she said, just gotten a grant from the National Science Foundation, “and I didn’t want to leave what I was doing.”
But the lure of a national audience won out. After a successful tryout, Dr. Cullen packed her clothes, furniture and dog and moved to Atlanta. Today, she is the only climatologist with a Ph.D. in the country who has her own weekly show, “Forecast Earth,” a half-hour-long video-magazine focused on climate and the environment.
Q: What were you studying when you got that call from the Weather Channel?
A: I was trying to understand the large-scale mechanisms that had caused a drought in Afghanistan from 1999 to 2001. I was also working with engineers in Brazil and Paraguay to apply climate forecasts to optimize water resource management at Itaipu Binacional, the largest operational hydropower facility in the world.
I hesitated when I got that call. Television was a world I couldn’t imagine. No one I knew had ever done anything like that.
Q: How did the Weather Channel executives know of you?
A: I think they’d been asking around. They were hunting for a Ph.D. scientist who could explain the science behind climate news. As it happened, my doctoral thesis has a lot of relevance to current affairs. Part of it involved looking at how to use climate information to manage water resources in the Middle East. It’s often said that the next war in the Middle East will be fought over water.
For my thesis, I studied droughts and the collapse of the first Mesopotamian empire — the Akkadian civilization. I was able to show that a megadrought at roughly 2200 B.C. played a role in its demise. I found the proof by examining the sediment cores of ancient mud. When one looked at the mud from the period around the Akkadian collapse, one found a huge spike in the mineral dolomite. That substance is an indicator of drought.
Q: What’s the point of knowing this?
A: Because until recently, historians, anthropologists and archaeologists were reluctant to say that civilizations could collapse because of nature. The prevailing theories were that civilizations collapsed because of political, military or medical reasons — plagues. Climate was often factored out.
And yet, indifference to the power of nature is civilization’s Achilles’ heel. I think the events around Hurricane Katrina reminded us that Mother Nature is something we haven’t yet conquered.
Q: Did you have to take lessons in broadcasting techniques?
A: Not at first. I’ve since done some voice training and have become obsessed with the craft of television. It’s important, for instance, to be very still when you’re on camera. My coach says that if you move around wildly, it erodes people’s faith in you. It’s been said to me that 9 times out of 10, the visual trumps what you say on television. I was floored. I had grown up among the cops and firemen of New York’s Staten Island, a world where your word is everything. So when I heard that, it was like, ‘Oh my God, why did I consciously choose to get into this?’
Q: O.K., why did you?
A: Because they were giving a chance to cover things people need to know more about: global warming, El Niño, energy policy.
Q: It has to be hard to put together a weekly magazine show on one subject. Where do you find your stories?
A: I’ve become a media junkie. I read far more widely now than when I was a researcher. Also, I watch a lot of TV, which means all the news programs, “Frontline,” even ESPN, which I watch to learn how to write punchy leads. I also listen to NPR, check out Greenwire and troll the scientific journals like Science, Nature and Geophysical Research Letters.
My problem is that I think everything climate-related is interesting. In my four years on the job, I’ve learned that just because I think something is interesting doesn’t mean it’ll make for good television. It’s often a challenge to make climate issues visual. When I first began, all we had was a little stock video of droughts in the Sahara with dead animal carcasses, and glaciers falling into the sea. We ran them over and over again. My father, who’s a retired New York City policeman, kept phoning me: “Heidi, are those same glaciers falling again?”
Q: Your coverage of global warming has been controversial. Are you surprised?
A: In a way, yes. To me, global warming isn’t a political issue, it’s a scientific one. But a lot of people out there think you’re being an advocate when you talk climate science.
Last December, I wrote a blog about how reticent some broadcast meteorologists are about reporting on climate change. Meteorologists — they are the forecasters — have training in atmospheric science. Many are certified by the American Meteorological Society. I suggested there’s a disconnect when they use their A.M.S. seal for on-camera credibility and refuse to give viewers accurate information on climate. The society has a very clear statement saying that global warming is largely due to the burning of fossil fuels.
The next thing I knew, I was being denounced on the Web sites of Senator James Inhofe, Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh. The Weather Channel’s own Web site got about 4,000 e-mails in one day, mostly angry. Some went, ‘Listen here, weather girl, just give me my five-day forecast and shut up.’
Q: Rush Limbaugh accused you of Stalinism. Did you suggest that meteorologists who doubt global warming should be fired?
A: I didn’t exactly say that. I was talking about the American Meteorological Society’s seal of approval. I was saying the A.M.S. should test applicants on climate change as part of their certification process. They test on other aspects of weather science.
A lot of viewers want to know about climate change. They are experiencing events they perceive as unusual and they want to know if there’s a connection to global warming. Certainly when Katrina hit, they wanted to know if it was global warming or not. Most Americans get their daily dose of science through their televised weather report. Given that fact, I think it’s the responsibility of broadcast meteorologists to provide viewers with scientific answers.
Q: What do your ex-colleagues from academia think of your new career?
A: Oh, they’re so funny. Some of them claim that they haven’t seen me on television because they don’t own one. But when I was being denounced by Matt Drudge, they were all, ‘Hey, saw you on Drudge!’
Actually, a lot of my friends are relieved that there’s at least one scientist out there doing this.
This is an interesting program - I would say it's a bit of the "eco-narcissism" that
gov_moonbeam has talked about - but at least their is a sustainable program behind it.Making Necklaces to Change Lifestyles and Preserve Wildlife
By SANA KHALID, The New York Times, July 31, 2007
In a bid to help poachers lead greener lifestyles, conservation officials in Zambia have turned to a novel trend in jewelry making — snarewear, in which snares once used for poaching are transformed into handmade necklaces, bracelets and other decorative items.
More than 40,000 former poachers have joined a co-op called Community Markets for Conservation, or Comaco, which allows them to exchange snares for training in organic farming, beekeeping, gardening and carpentry, said Dr. Dale Lewis of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The program has collected more than 40,000 snares since 2002 and grossed more than $350,000 last year; the proceeds are shared by the former poachers and Comaco, Dr. Lewis said.
Rise in Cases of West Nile May Portend an Epidemic
By DENISE GRADY, The New York Times, July 26, 2007
The number of West Nile virus cases in the United States is nearly four times what it was a year ago, meaning that a large epidemic may be in store, government researchers are reporting.
“It’s certainly a warning sign that we need to be extremely vigilant,” Dr. Lyle Petersen, the director of the division of vector-borne infections at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said yesterday. “The worst is yet to come.”
The virus, carried by mosquitoes, causes a mild, flu-like illness in 20 percent of those infected, and no symptoms in about 80 percent. In about 1 percent of cases, the illness progresses to a brain infection that can be fatal.
Last year, 4,269 cases were reported in the United States, including 1,495 brain infections, and 177 people died. The risk of severe illnesses increases with age.
So far this year, 122 cases have been reported, with the most in California and the Dakotas. At this time last year, there had been only 33.
The reported cases are just the tip of the iceberg, researchers say. Many infections are never diagnosed because they were mild and the patient did not see a doctor, or was not tested for the virus.
This year, there have already been 42 brain infections and 3 deaths. This is early in the season, since 90 percent of the cases usually occur in August and early September. It is impossible to predict whether the trend will continue, Dr. Petersen said, adding that it may be related to “a lot of weird weather events,” including both the heat waves in the West and unusual storm patterns in the Midwest.
If people keep getting infected at the current rate, he said, “we could see the largest epidemic ever.”
The first known case of the disease in the United States occurred in New York City in 1999, and since then the virus has spread to every state.
In cases in the past, the virus was transmitted by transfusions and organ transplants, but tests are now done to protect the blood supply. This year, the tests have found 23 potential blood donors who were infected.
File under: Bush Administration's war on science...
U.S. Agency May Reverse 8 Decisions on Wildlife
By JOHN M. BRODER, The New York Times, July 21, 2007
WASHINGTON, July 20 — The Interior Department said Friday that it would review and probably overturn eight decisions on wildlife and land-use issues made by a senior political appointee who has been found to have improperly favored industry and landowners over agency scientists.
The appointee, Julie A. MacDonald, resigned on May 1 as a deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, after an internal review found that she had violated federal rules by giving government documents to lobbyists for industry. The agency’s inspector general also found several instances in which Ms. MacDonald browbeat department biologists and habitat specialists and overruled their recommendations to protect a variety of rare and threatened species.
H. Dale Hall, the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said he had asked the agency’s regional managers to submit for review cases in which Ms. MacDonald might have inappropriately bent the process to fit her political agenda. Mr. Hall winnowed the list to eight instances in which he said he expected that her actions would be reversed.
“We wouldn’t be doing them if we didn’t suspect the decision would be different,” Mr. Hall said in a telephone conference with journalists. “It’s a blemish on the scientific integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior.”
The species that could receive additional protection are the white-tailed prairie dog, Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, 12 species of Hawaiian picture-wing flies, the arroyo toad, the Southwestern willow flycatcher, the California red-legged frog and the Canada lynx. The extent of Rocky Mountain habitat protection for the jumping mouse is also under review.
Ms. MacDonald did not return a call seeking comment.
Ms. MacDonald’s actions had sparked an outcry among agency biologists and environmental advocates and led to a series of hearings in Congress on whether the Bush administration was politicizing science.
Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, said he was pleased that the agency was taking steps to address what he called political meddling in decisions that should be based on impartial scientific study.
“I am heartened to hear that the Department of the Interior is stepping up to the plate to beginning address the ‘politics trumps science’ ploy endemic throughout this administration,” Mr. Rahall said. “What we have learned to date raises concerns about political tinkering with science that has affected many endangered-species-related decisions — and goodness knows what else — that deserve further scrutiny.”
The conflict between science and political ideology has been a recurrent theme in Washington in recent years, with complaints arising from inside and outside the administration about decisions on oil exploration, timber rights, global warming and public health. Just last week, the former surgeon general Richard H. Carmona said top Bush administration officials had repeatedly tried to water down or suppress important public health reports for political considerations.
Environmental advocates said numerous cases of potential political interference by Ms. MacDonald or others in the department were left off the list of decisions to be reviewed. They cited as examples decisions affecting the status of the marbled murrelet, a small sea bird found in the Pacific Northwest; a plan to help speed the spotted owl’s recovery; and the habitat of the bull trout.
no subject
She's got a blog post here (http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/8_11392.html) on the Weather Channel that is just inundated by skeptics. It's absolutely amazing how many people are out there, trolling the forums with the exact same skeptic/denier rhetoric. And then, of course, the pro-climate folks avoid those venues, so it looks like the majority of people believe that socialist greenies want to tear down big business, and that's the end of that!
/rant
language geekery
This is a random thing I noticed: "troll" appears in the interview when it should be, perhaps, trawl. She is trawling for information. ...and troll the scientific journals like Science, Nature and Geophysical Research Letters. But I've seen it used this way before, so...
You use "troll" to indicate internet trolls? Which is the proper usage according to OED.
OK, language geekery over.
Re: language geekery