Chris C. Mooney

Climate change, the energy crisis, nuclear proliferation—many of the most urgent problems of twenty-first century require scientific solutions. And yet Americans are paying less and less attention to scientists. For every five hours of cable news, less than a minute is devoted to science; 46 percent of Americans believe that God, not evolution, created life on earth; the number of newspapers with science sections has shrunk from ninety-five to thirty-three since 1989. The disconnect between the scientific community and American culture grows wider every day. In Unscientific America, journalist and best-selling author Chris Mooney and scientist Sheril Kirshenbaum explain how corporate interests, a weak education system, science-phobic politicians, and hyperspecialized scientists have created this dangerous state of affairs. They also propose a broad array of initiatives that could reverse the current trend and lead to the greater integration of science into our national discourse—before it is too late.

One of the leading science journalists and commentators working today, Chris Mooney delves into a red-hot debate in meteorology: whether the increasing ferocity of hurricanes is connected to global warming. In the wake of Katrina, Mooney follows the careers of leading scientists on either side of the argument through the 2006 hurricane season, tracing how the media, special interests, politics, and the weather itself have skewed and amplified what was already a fraught scientific debate. As Mooney puts it: ʺScientists, like hurricanes, do extraordinary things at high wind speeds.ʺ Mooney - a native of New Orleans - has written a fascinating and urgently compelling book that calls into question the great inconvenient truth of our day: Are we responsible for making hurricanes even bigger monsters than they already are? Also includes information on Hurricane Andrew, Australia, blogs, George W. Bush, carbon dioxide, Tropical Cyclone Catarina, Hurricane Charley, Jule Gregory Charney, Judith Curry, cyclones, El Nino, Kerry Emanuel, ExxonMobil, global climate models (GCMs), Al Gore, William Gray, Greg Holland, Hurricane Ivan, Japan, Hurricane Katrina, Thomas Knutson, Chris Landsea, latent heat, theories of maximum potential intensity, maximum sustained wind speeds, National Hurricane Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), oil and gas industry, William Redfield, Herbert Riehl, Hurricane Rita, typhoons, water vapor, weather forecasting, Peter Webster, Tropical Storm Zeta, etc.