Storm World

I'm never really sure when the best time to post about people's books is, but since the book party for Chris Mooney's Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming is beginning very soon, I figure this is as good a time as any. When Chris' first book, The Republican War on Science, came out one common line of response was "well, aren't liberals just as bad." The new book is, in a sense, a rebuttal to that. This isn't, in short, a prolemic about how global warming is causing massive hurricanes and coal interests are responsible for the destruction of New Orleans.

Instead, it's a very serious, measured, thoughtful, interesting look at complicated issues in play here, where the science isn't always perfectly clear nor is it always clear how scientists ought to behave when a pressing political issue impinges on an area where scientists know something about the issue, but there's also a great deal of uncertainty. Personally, I like reading science books more than I like reading political books (in part, obviously, because I read and talk about politics all day anyway), but Chris' book combines genres in the best possible way.