Author Archives: William Hooke

This past week and over the next, those worldwide who are alarmed (and many of the merely concerned) by climate change are riveted on the daily news from COP-26, the latest in a multi-year series of global summits on that … Continue reading →

The October 23-29 print edition of The Economist features a cover story entitled Instant Economics: the real time revolution. The story is good news for the Weather (Water, and Climate) Enterprise, and good news for the larger world. (To grossly … Continue reading →

stream of consciousness: a narrative mode or method that attempts “to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which [sic] pass through the mind” of a narrator. When I was in high school, my English teachers introduced me to this notion and terminology, … Continue reading →

The Earth sciences community lost one of its most luminous, influential lights on June 27th, with the passing of Francis Bretherton. The Webster-Kirkwood Times, a newspaper from the area near St. Louis where he had lived out his final years, … Continue reading →

[a great societal] â€œchallenge, a development problem, is the widening gap between advancing scientific knowledge and technology and society’s ability to capture and use them.” – The International Council for Science[1]. A year ago a friend, Ryan Baker, earned his doctorate … Continue reading →

“We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” – Benjamin Franklin (on occasion of the signing of the Declaration of Independence) The hot dogs, burgers, and potato salads, and ice cream have been consumed. So … Continue reading →

“Lastly, I would address one general admonition to all — that they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, … Continue reading →

The recent NASEM report on geoengineering prompted some discussion yesterday on our daily AMS Policy Program call. One of my office mates made a couple of observations: Re “geo-engineering-has-always-been-with-us:” Bill, if that’s true, then in addition to looking at solar … Continue reading →

“The U.S. solar geoengineering research program should be all about helping society make more informed decisions.” – Christopher Field Reflection is a uniquely human trait, or nearly so; some might say it is one of our species’ best and most … Continue reading →

“Leaders spend 80% of their time on problems, and 20% of their time on opportunities. They should reverse that ratio.” [1] The Pareto principle (or more informally, “the 80-20 rule”) has been around for a long time, though not always … Continue reading →