Christopher Cole Mooney (born September 20, 1977) is an American journalist and author of four books including The Republican War on Science (2005). Mooney's writing focuses on subjects such as climate change denialism and creationism in public schools, and he has been described as "one of the few journalists in the country who specialize in the now dangerous intersection of science and politics."[1] In 2020 he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on global warming published in The Washington Post.[2]
Early life and education
Mooney was born in Mesa, Arizona, and grew up with two siblings in New Orleans, Louisiana.[3][4] Both of his parents were college English professors. He attended Isidore Newman School before entering Yale University, where he graduated with a B.A. in English in 1999. His interest in the natural sciences was strongly influenced by his grandfather Gerald A. Cole, a professor at Arizona State University and author of Textbook of Limnology, a noted book in the field.[5]
Career
Chris Mooney at the University of Missouri in March 2014
Mooney helped establish Tapped, the group blog of American Prospect.[6]
From 2010 to 2013, Mooney served as one of the hosts of the Center for Inquiry podcast Point of Inquiry.[31] In June 2013, due to disagreement with Center for Inquiry president Ronald Lindsay over his remarks at a conference focused on women in secularism, Mooney, co-host Indre Viskontas, and producer Adam Isaak announced their resignation from the Point of Inquiry podcast.[32][33] Mooney, Viskontas, and Isaak started a new podcast at Mother Jones, titled Inquiring Minds, and the first episode of the new podcast was released in September 2013.[34][35] On October 10, 2014, Mooney announced his departure from the Inquiring Minds podcast, in order to pursue a new assignment with the Washington Post.[36]
In 2007 Mooney and co-author Matthew Nisbet wrote a paper for Science on the topic of "Framing Science".[41] They advocated that scientists and science communicators tailor their messages to account for how the general public filters information based on pre-existing beliefs. Practical examples of this filtering include the impact of fundamental religious beliefs on the topic of creationism and conservative political beliefs on the topic of climate change denialism. Mooney and Nesbit called out atheist activist and author Richard Dawkins, noting his criticism of religion was unlikely to change religious fundamentalist minds and in fact more likely to strengthen their doubt of the scientific data. The framing science proposal created a large, often contentious debate within the online scientific blogging community,[42] though research continues to study the influence of framing.[43]
In the book Unscientific America, Mooney and co-author Sheril Kirshenbaum expressed the concern that some science communicators were pressing the view that one must make a choice between accepting science or accepting religion. Mooney defended his position in a number of publications and podcasts by citing that ongoing scientific studies continues to support the hypothesis that people integrate new information based on their pre-existing worldviews, and that failure to account for this fact will lead to continued failures in science communication.[44][45][46]
The Republican War on Science received many positive reviews.[1][47][48][49][50] A review in Scientific American described it as well-researched and closely argued.[1]Michael Stebbins wrote in Nature Medicine that the book should be a wake-up call and stated, "Mooney's documentation of the willful manipulation of science on the part of conservatives to suit an agenda is well supported and nauseating."[48] It was featured on the cover of The New York Times Book Review and selected as an "Editors' Choice" by The New York Times.[51][failed verification]
Storm World was written after Mooney witnessed the devastation of his mother's house in Hurricane Katrina.[52]Tom Hayden wrote in the Los Angeles Times that Mooney deftly handled the complexity of the questions surrounding global warming and its effect on hurricanes while weaving an intriguing and important story.[53] A review in The New York Times Book Review called it "a well-researched, nuanced book" but criticized its organization and lack of "pizazz".[54]
Writing about The Republican Brain in The New York TimesPaul Krugman stated that Mooney makes a good point: the personality traits associated with modern conservatism, particularly a lack of openness, make the modern Republican Party hostile to the idea of objective inquiry.[60] The book sparked some controversy, with two science writers calling Mooney's argument eugenics.[27]
Kirshenbaum, S.R.; —; Otto, S.L.; Chapman, M.; et al. (11 April 2008). "Science and the candidates". Policy Forum: Science and Government. Science. 320 (5873): 182. doi:10.1126/science.1158281. PMID18403695.
^"Best selling science author Chris Mooney to present second lecture in University of Alabama Global Sustainability series" (Press release). US Fed News Service, Including US State News. 24 October 2007. ProQuest471005654.
^"About the Author". The Republican War on Science. Basic Books. Archived from the original on 29 January 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
^Tenenbaum, D. J. (2010). "Book Review: Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum. New York: Basic Books, 2009. 209 pp". Science Communication. 32: 132–135. doi:10.1177/1075547009359802. S2CID144619603.
