The U.S. Federal government under the current administration is purging any discussion of climate change and global warming from its websites and trying to cut support for scientific research on climate. But public understanding is slowly improving, with the aid of many TV weathercasters (NBC, March 18, 2018). Eight years ago, the New York Times (March 29, 2010) described widespread opposition to the idea of global warming among forecasters on local television, based on a survey from George Mason University and the University of Texas. At that time, fewer than a third of these forecasters believed that warming was real and largely caused by humans, and a quarter agreed with the statement “Global warming is a scam.” Almost none of them mentioned climate change in their daily weather reports. But times are changing.
As described in the new NBC report, many of the “friendly neighborhood meteorologists have rapidly evolved to not only accept climate change but to share the news with audiences in hundreds of U.S. television markets.” This change is credited in part to Climate Central, a nonprofit organization that sponsors classes for meteorologists and provides climate graphics to TV stations. A George Mason University study reports a fifteen-fold increase in the number of stories on global warming on local television over the past five years. In a 2017 survey of weather broadcasters, it found that 95 percent agreed that climate was changing.
Many still hesitate to mention global warming in their weather reports, but this resistance is changing too. According to the NBC story, those who have discussed the links between extreme weather and global warming have had no pushback from the management of their local TV stations. The many examples in the past few years of drought-related wildfires in California, widespread floods in Texas, and increased frequency of large hurricanes have provided opportunities for these weather forecasters to link extreme weather with climate change.