E
Eeyore
Cleveland-area TV meteorologists disagree with prevailing attitude about
climate change
Posted by Michael Scott/Cleveland Plain Dealer Reporter
December 02, 2008 22:35PM Categories: Environment, Real Time News
They will tell you when the skies might rain or snow in fickle Northeast
Ohio, when to bundle up the kids in a cold snap and when to make weekend
plans if steady sunshine spans the five-day forecast. They also will
tell you that human-caused global warming is hogwash. They’re your
local TV meteorologists.
“This cry that ‘We’re all going to die’ is an overreaction and just not
good science,” said Andre Bernier, a meteorologist at WJW Channel 8. “I
don’t think I personally know any meteorologists — here in Cleveland or
anywhere else I’ve worked — who agree with the hype over human-induced
warming.”
The local TV weatherscape is indeed populated with on-air personalities
who are pushing hard against the prevailing winds of climate science.
That prevailing thought — supported by the United Nations’ 1,200-member
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National Academy of
Sciences, the American Meteorological Society and others — is this:
The Earth’s climate overall is warming and the human burning of fossil
fuels in cars and industry — which release carbon dioxide — is helping
to accelerate that change. Further, climate experts say, there could be
dire consequences if humanity doesn’t quickly lessen the accumulation of
greenhouse gases and adequately adapt to a warming globe.
The American Meteorological Society has strongly affirmed that stance,
but accredits even the on-air meteorologists who rail against it.
“Our stance is pretty clear on this and we’re in agreement with the
global warming scenario as set out by the international panel,” said
Keith Seitter, AMS executive director.
“Still, we think they should research all that they can,” he said. “And
really, there should be less and less skepticism out there as the
science improves each year — not more.”
Prime-time doubters
But, there are doubters — all AMS certified — in prominent on-air
positions at each of the four Cleveland television stations.
Bernier and Dick Goddard — the patriarch of Cleveland weather
forecasters — predict the weather at WJW Channel 8. Both cite natural
fluctuations in the Earth’s climate and dismiss the industrialization of
the 20th century and the subsequent spike in atmospheric carbon dioxide
as the cause for warming.
Goddard compared the current anxiety over warming with the global
cooling concerns of the 1970s, which have since dissipated. He and
Bernier both point to solar cycles as the key ingredient in climate
change. Bernier also said he believes the climate is no longer warming
— but, rather, cooling again. “I have a hunch that in 10 years we’re
all going to be longing for global warming because it will be so cold,”
Bernier said. His Web site, andrebernier.com, links to a Canadian
documentary that suggests the same. Others in the skeptic camp include
meteorologists Jon Loufman at WOIO Channel 19, Mark Johnson at WEWS
Channel 5 and Mark Nolan at WKYC Channel 3. Nolan has since moved to the
news desk, but he said he still gets questions about his skeptic’s
stance.
“Climate records also show that long before industrialization, the
Vikings had settled in Greenland because it was warm enough,” said
Loufman, who has taught meteorology courses at both Case Western Reserve
University and Lakeland Community College. “I think the jury is still
out on this.” So what in the name of the National Weather Service is
going on here?
Do the local weather guys know more than an international committee of
several thousand climate scientists? Or are they too blinded by
lake-effect snow squalls to see the big picture?
Widening rift?
For starters, the drift away from global warming among TV weather
forecasters is hardly limited to Cleveland. “This is nationwide,” said
Stu Ostro, meteorologist and director of weather communications for the
Weather Channel in Atlanta. AMS chief Seitter agreed: “I’ve seen the
trend, too,” he said. “But I still don’t understand why there would be
more skepticism among the TV meteorologists than in the field overall —
but there is.”
The most notable example of dissent among meteorologists has been the
Weather Channel’s founder, John Coleman, now a TV forecaster in San
Diego. Coleman — whom Seitter quickly points out remained with the
Weather Channel for only a year in the early 1980s — has said
human-induced warming is “the greatest scam in history.”
There have been others, from the longtime director of the National
Hurricane Center to Accu-Weather.com’s long-range forecaster, who told
The Plain Dealer that “global warming is being forced down the throats
of the public.”
Source of dissent
So what’s behind all of this? Dick Goddard said the answer is that
weather forecasters appreciate better the lack of reliable records.
“There’s only one constant, and that’s change,” he said. “We’ve only got
accurate weather records back to 1874 and things have been changing back
and forth since long before that.” Bernier said local meteorologists
“are just more practical” and not swayed by the opportunity for more
grant money to do more research proving climate change.
But Seitter, a former skeptic himself, said meteorologists who make
daily weather calls have a natural rivalry with climatologists who look
at longer-range trends. “Those of us in weather are used to seeing
extremes all the time,” he said. “Why should we think that anything is
different today just because one day is hot, another day has heavy
rains? Meteorologists often see those things as natural variability.”
Seitter said many meteorologists also don’t trust models — “because
we’ve seen how wrong they can be in predicting weather” — and that most
don’t interact with other scientists beyond other meteorologists. “We
sort of live in our own world and haven’t been exposed to the same
volumes of research that the climatologists have,” he said. “And that
can sometimes lead to a rivalry among the two groups — where some
meteorologists are defensive and some climatologists might be
condescending, or at least come off that way.”
Jay Hobgood, head of the Atmospheric Sciences Department at Ohio State
University, agreed. He said the university teaches the IPCC findings on
global warming, but allows for debate. “The day-to-day meteorologists
are seeing anecdotal evidence, but not the research that goes back
thousands of years,” he said. “The two disciplines are very related, but
the time span being looked at is very different. “Looking at the daily
weather doesn’t necessarily tell you the climate is changing.”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/12/...ith-prevailing-attitude-about-climate-change/
Graham
climate change
Posted by Michael Scott/Cleveland Plain Dealer Reporter
December 02, 2008 22:35PM Categories: Environment, Real Time News
They will tell you when the skies might rain or snow in fickle Northeast
Ohio, when to bundle up the kids in a cold snap and when to make weekend
plans if steady sunshine spans the five-day forecast. They also will
tell you that human-caused global warming is hogwash. They’re your
local TV meteorologists.
“This cry that ‘We’re all going to die’ is an overreaction and just not
good science,” said Andre Bernier, a meteorologist at WJW Channel 8. “I
don’t think I personally know any meteorologists — here in Cleveland or
anywhere else I’ve worked — who agree with the hype over human-induced
warming.”
The local TV weatherscape is indeed populated with on-air personalities
who are pushing hard against the prevailing winds of climate science.
That prevailing thought — supported by the United Nations’ 1,200-member
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National Academy of
Sciences, the American Meteorological Society and others — is this:
The Earth’s climate overall is warming and the human burning of fossil
fuels in cars and industry — which release carbon dioxide — is helping
to accelerate that change. Further, climate experts say, there could be
dire consequences if humanity doesn’t quickly lessen the accumulation of
greenhouse gases and adequately adapt to a warming globe.
The American Meteorological Society has strongly affirmed that stance,
but accredits even the on-air meteorologists who rail against it.
“Our stance is pretty clear on this and we’re in agreement with the
global warming scenario as set out by the international panel,” said
Keith Seitter, AMS executive director.
“Still, we think they should research all that they can,” he said. “And
really, there should be less and less skepticism out there as the
science improves each year — not more.”
Prime-time doubters
But, there are doubters — all AMS certified — in prominent on-air
positions at each of the four Cleveland television stations.
Bernier and Dick Goddard — the patriarch of Cleveland weather
forecasters — predict the weather at WJW Channel 8. Both cite natural
fluctuations in the Earth’s climate and dismiss the industrialization of
the 20th century and the subsequent spike in atmospheric carbon dioxide
as the cause for warming.
Goddard compared the current anxiety over warming with the global
cooling concerns of the 1970s, which have since dissipated. He and
Bernier both point to solar cycles as the key ingredient in climate
change. Bernier also said he believes the climate is no longer warming
— but, rather, cooling again. “I have a hunch that in 10 years we’re
all going to be longing for global warming because it will be so cold,”
Bernier said. His Web site, andrebernier.com, links to a Canadian
documentary that suggests the same. Others in the skeptic camp include
meteorologists Jon Loufman at WOIO Channel 19, Mark Johnson at WEWS
Channel 5 and Mark Nolan at WKYC Channel 3. Nolan has since moved to the
news desk, but he said he still gets questions about his skeptic’s
stance.
“Climate records also show that long before industrialization, the
Vikings had settled in Greenland because it was warm enough,” said
Loufman, who has taught meteorology courses at both Case Western Reserve
University and Lakeland Community College. “I think the jury is still
out on this.” So what in the name of the National Weather Service is
going on here?
Do the local weather guys know more than an international committee of
several thousand climate scientists? Or are they too blinded by
lake-effect snow squalls to see the big picture?
Widening rift?
For starters, the drift away from global warming among TV weather
forecasters is hardly limited to Cleveland. “This is nationwide,” said
Stu Ostro, meteorologist and director of weather communications for the
Weather Channel in Atlanta. AMS chief Seitter agreed: “I’ve seen the
trend, too,” he said. “But I still don’t understand why there would be
more skepticism among the TV meteorologists than in the field overall —
but there is.”
The most notable example of dissent among meteorologists has been the
Weather Channel’s founder, John Coleman, now a TV forecaster in San
Diego. Coleman — whom Seitter quickly points out remained with the
Weather Channel for only a year in the early 1980s — has said
human-induced warming is “the greatest scam in history.”
There have been others, from the longtime director of the National
Hurricane Center to Accu-Weather.com’s long-range forecaster, who told
The Plain Dealer that “global warming is being forced down the throats
of the public.”
Source of dissent
So what’s behind all of this? Dick Goddard said the answer is that
weather forecasters appreciate better the lack of reliable records.
“There’s only one constant, and that’s change,” he said. “We’ve only got
accurate weather records back to 1874 and things have been changing back
and forth since long before that.” Bernier said local meteorologists
“are just more practical” and not swayed by the opportunity for more
grant money to do more research proving climate change.
But Seitter, a former skeptic himself, said meteorologists who make
daily weather calls have a natural rivalry with climatologists who look
at longer-range trends. “Those of us in weather are used to seeing
extremes all the time,” he said. “Why should we think that anything is
different today just because one day is hot, another day has heavy
rains? Meteorologists often see those things as natural variability.”
Seitter said many meteorologists also don’t trust models — “because
we’ve seen how wrong they can be in predicting weather” — and that most
don’t interact with other scientists beyond other meteorologists. “We
sort of live in our own world and haven’t been exposed to the same
volumes of research that the climatologists have,” he said. “And that
can sometimes lead to a rivalry among the two groups — where some
meteorologists are defensive and some climatologists might be
condescending, or at least come off that way.”
Jay Hobgood, head of the Atmospheric Sciences Department at Ohio State
University, agreed. He said the university teaches the IPCC findings on
global warming, but allows for debate. “The day-to-day meteorologists
are seeing anecdotal evidence, but not the research that goes back
thousands of years,” he said. “The two disciplines are very related, but
the time span being looked at is very different. “Looking at the daily
weather doesn’t necessarily tell you the climate is changing.”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/12/...ith-prevailing-attitude-about-climate-change/
Graham
