Earth News from the Chronicles

face graphic

On truth

Astute piece in the Chronicle Review about the opportunism of disputing the truth that actually grew out of the academy: It’s not just garden-variety ignorance that periodically appears in public-opinion polls that makes us cringe or laugh. A 2009 survey by the California Academy of…

Marshall Shepherd talks climate

UGA Research magazine and now the UGA homepage feature this terrific article on atmospheric sciences hero, Marshall Shepherd: The bogeymen he faces aren't humanoid, however, but the misinformation he calls "zombie theories" — the litany of benighted arguments that human activities are not, after…
map of Georgia

Climate change vulnerability assessment

Yesterday, The Guardian and ABC News quoted geography professor Marshall Shepherd about a study showing population concentrating into areas facing significant temperature rises. Today, we released news about a study authored by Shepherd and his colleagues about vulnerable populations in…
plane over Gulf of Mexico

Use of dispersants in oil spills

The complexity of what happened in the Deepwater Horizon/BP drilling platform explosion and resulting sea-floor oil gusher that flowed for 87 days is only dwarfed by what has happened in the time since. The clean-up, which began immediately, has been a Herculean effort that continues to this day.…
storm on radar

Shepherd in WAPO

Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geography J. Marshall Shepherd addressed the debate (and political gamesmanship) surrounding cuts to NASA's earth science budget in the Washington Post last week: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, one of the few people that…