Saturday May 11th … Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Showing Carbon Readings During Weather Presentations
I’ve often thought that if I ever were an on camera meteorologist I would twist my producer’s arm, and convince the powers that be to allow me to briefly use a graphic, showing the current carbon level in the atmosphere from Mauna Loa and part of the Keeling Curve showing upward trends. This would only take a few seconds away from the typical two minutes allowed for local weather presentations. In the past I’ve often heard that presentations should not be controversial, not mixing weather with politics. Well, true science isn’t political, and any fallacies exposed by science with time fall out of favor with society in general. Unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of much time to convince all that carbon pollution is ruining the environment.
Now is the time as of 2019 that some courageous on camera meteorologists are getting blow back for doing so, but climate material is becoming part of local weather presentations, which is today’s highlighted subject. I’m taking the liberty of reposting this Mashable piece:
https://mashable.com/article/weather-forecasters-tv-climate-change/
Fearless TV weather forecasters air the planet’s soaring carbon levels
Weather forecaster Mike Nelson providing stormy updates on May 7, 2019.Image: The Denver Channel via youtube
By Mark Kaufman. 2 days ago
Mike Nelson’s weather forecasts on May 7, 2019 included more than powerful storm fronts, thick fog, and flurries of snow. The veteran meteorologist’s Denver television broadcasts, delivered three times a day, flashed the planet’s current level of carbon dioxide — a potent heat-trapping gas — on the screen. This number, which is now flirting with a historically unprecedented 415 parts per million (ppm), is easily the highest it has been on Earth in at least 800,000 years, though it’s likely carbon levels are now the highest they’ve been in millions of years.
Unable to avoid the atmospheric realities they scrutinize each day, a growing contingent of meteorologists are now looking well beyond the 10-day forecast, to Earth’s troubling climate trends. They hold a powerful audience, as over half of Americans receive their news from television. But these forecasters are not simply referencing climate change; they’re regularly providing viewers with the cold, hard, and perhaps unpleasant facts, like record CO2 numbers.
“It’s important for us to get the right science out there,” said Denver 7’s Nelson, who then paused, and considered another reason why he’s presenting CO2 levels. “I’ve been doing it, increasingly, since the birth of my grandchildren.”
Just last month, another veteran forecaster, Miami’s John Morales, started presenting carbon dioxide numbers on air, too. Like Nelson, it’s not something he constantly drills during live broadcasts, at least not vocally. But Morales now shows the numbers each day, and references them when he can.
“The most important thing is that it stays front and center in people’s minds on a daily basis,” said Morales, between weather forecasts on NBC 6 in Miami.
Though TV veterans, Morales and Nelson have altered their live reporting as they adapt to the changing climes. “Mike’s been on the air for a long time,” mused Morales. “We think similarly. We’re old school. But we’ve just taken it upon ourselves.”
These veteran, and to some legendary, forecasters have an advantage that many climate communicators don’t. They have profoundly reliable, trustworthy, recognizable faces that people have counted on for decades, through historic storms, drought, and flooding. “We are the scientists that the TV public sees,” said Bob Lindmeier, a Wisconsin forecaster for over 30 years. “For most of them, we’re the only scientists they have any connection with,” added Lindmeier, of ABC’s 27 News.
Like Nelson, Lindmeier has another poignant reason — beyond being a responsible weather communicator — for educating his viewers and the local community about the planet’s historically high carbon emissions. It’s his granddaughter.
“I’m concerned whether she’s going to be in a livable world,” said Lindmeier, who started speaking about climate implications on the air about three years ago. “I couldn’t look her in the face 20 years from now if I didn’t do everything possible to help make this a livable world.”
The up and coming forecasters
As Morales emphasized, it’s not just the seasoned forecasters like Lindmeier who are connecting the dots between carbon emissions and weather for their devoted viewers. There’s a younger breed of forecasters who can’t ignore today’s unfolding scientific and environmental realities, especially when they hit home in the form of worsening floods and long-term drought. It’s these newer forecasters, who have been on the air for a relatively junior five years or so, that have the strongest spines when speaking about climate science that — while nearly mathematically indisputable — still stirs tensions in many U.S. communities, explained Morales. “Doing something like this takes courage. Kudos to them,” he said, noting that it’s easier for a veteran forecaster to broach topics like climate change.
Elisa Raffa, a KOLR Channel 10 meteorologist in Springfield, Missouri, is one of these forecasters.
Raffa, though, has adopted a much different approach to on-air climate communication. Rather than regular CO2 numbers or climate signals, she has created entirely separate, in-depth news programs, delving into how changing climes have altered the local Springfield community. She reported a story, for instance, on how black vultures have crept northward as average temperatures have edged up. These voracious birds are now eating up liveyoung cattle, and costing farmers. “I find people are interested and eager to learn about climate change, especially when it has some local ties,” said Raffa, underscoring that these changes are unfolding now. “People think about polar bears and ice caps and problems for generations far from now, but we’re learning that’s not true.”
Image: scripps institution of oceanography
Today, researchers measure carbon dioxide levels in real time. These are the regularly updated numbers broadcast by Nelson and Morales. Beginning in 1958, a young scientist named Charles Keeling began to take CO2 measurements from the lofty, pure air atop Hawaii’s towering Mauna Loa. Carbon dioxide concentrations have been assiduously recorded ever since, and Keeling’s son, climate scientist Ralph Keeling, now heads the carbon dioxide recording program at the Scripps Institution for Oceanography. He’s pleased the continually rising CO2 numbers are getting prime time, weekday broadcasting.
“It’s great to educate people about the numbers — the numbers matter,” said Keeling, noting how truly out-of-the-ordinary today’s CO2 levels have grown, and continue apace. “There is something alarming about the incessant aspect of this. It’s pretty unusual in the course of history and the course of human civilization — it’s pretty weird.”
“And the consequences are not small,” Keeling added.
These consequences are now visible in local U.S. communities, like Denver, Miami, Springfield, and Madison.
“[Climate change] makes things that much worse,” said Nelson, referencing the well-predicted extremes to the hydrological, or water, cycle. “Your drought is going to be drier, your flash flood is going to be wetter.”
Wisconsin, for example, was recently hit with some “staggering,” rains and record flooding. This isn’t surprising, as a warmer atmosphere holds more water. It’s simple physics. For every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming, the air can hold 7 percent more water. “That has led to an increase in extreme weather events,” said Madison’s Lindmeier.
Both the nation and greater planet are expected to experience an increase in pummeling weather. The planet, while certainly growing warmer, hasn’t nearly caught up with the exceptional amount of carbon saturating the skies. Significantly more heating is already locked and loaded. (The last time CO2 was this high some 3 million years ago, the seas were likely well over 30 feet higher). What’s more, modern civilization will almost certainly blow through its most important climate goal — to curb warming at under 3.6 degrees F above 19th-century levels. And global society probably won’t even hit its peak carbon emissions for another decade.
While a dour reality, it could be all the more reason for people to grow increasingly climate savvy, and supportive of efforts to slash society’s carbon emissions. “Ignoring the problem is certainly not going to be the right thing to do,” said Nelson.
Some respected meteorologists, at least, are doing their part. “There’s been a switch in broadcast meteorologists accepting the science and being willing to speak out,” said Lindmeier.
George Mason’s Maibach noted that, since 2012, there’s been a 33-fold increase in the ratio TV forecasters’ reporting on climate change — though it’s likely even more. “We’re pretty sure we’re undercounting — we’re quite impressed with the increase in on-air reporting,” he said.
Still, Nelson encourages more weather forecasters to spread the scientific word, perhaps by displaying the planet’s skyrocketing carbon dioxide levels on the air. Or whatever means they choose.
“Embrace the fact that you’re a scientist,” he said.
I am very encouraged by what I see, but just hope that it is not too late to sway audiences, convincing some to demand that the U.S. adheres to the Paris Accords and passes a Green New Deal after the 2020 election. The stakes are extremely high.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
Here is some more climate and weather news from Saturday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article.)
(If you like these posts and my work please contribute via the PayPal widget, which has recently been added to this site. Thanks in advance for any support.)
Guy Walton- “The Climate Guy”