Four U.S. Senators are objecting to that teaches TV weathercasters about the science of climate change. As the Mountain West region deals with record high temperatures, that鈥檚 left meteorologists here figuring out how to report on the science of the weather.
Mike Nelson adjusted his earpiece and lapel mic and strode onto a small black stage in front of a bright green screen.
He spoke to the cameras as he pointed to footage of smoke from a wildfire in western Colorado. And then the backdrop changed to a chart with a red background and the words 鈥淢ore hot summer days鈥� at the top. It showed in a graph that on average over the last 50 years temperatures keep going up.
He connected the dots between the wildfire and more hot days in our region.
Nelson has been in the weather business for four decades and is chief meteorologist at . He鈥檚 part of a growing trend in TV: putting daily weather forecasts in the context of global warming. The he just used was from a nonprofit group called .
Nelson said he could draw a graphic like that himself, 鈥渂ut you鈥檙e busy. You got a lot of stuff going on,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 great when you can go to their library, find something that you just drop in.鈥�
Climate Central also holds regular workshops and webinars to train TV weathercasters, like Nelson, in the science of climate change and in the art of communicating about it.
Bernadette Woods Placky directs Climate Central鈥檚 broadcaster training program called .
She said they give TV weathercasters the data and scientific information on how climate change is impacting their specific communities.
Since 2012, she said, their network has grown from 30 broadcasters to more than 500. That鈥檚 nearly a quarter of the total number of TV weathercasters in the country.
鈥淲hat I have learned in my career,鈥� said Woods Placky, a veteran TV meteorologist, 鈥渋s that we are informing our public about what鈥檚 going to happen to them. We are preparing them.鈥�
But there鈥檚 a different take out there on what Climate Matters is up to. In a recent , Republican U.S. Senators Rand Paul, James Inhofe, Ted Cruz and James Lankford argued that the non-profit is engaging in partisan activity or 鈥渃limate-action-oriented opinion鈥� and shouldn鈥檛 get federal funding because of it.
Inhofe is a well-known climate change skeptic. Several years ago he famously stood on the Senate floor and he鈥檇 taken from outside toward the Senate President. Before he tossed it, he said, 鈥渋t鈥檚 very very cold out.鈥�
Inhofe and the other senators are calling on the National Science Foundation鈥檚 Inspector General to open an investigation. They鈥檙e arguing that the NSF grant that helps fund Climate Matters violates the which prohibits federal employees from getting involved in political activities.
None of the four senators were available for comment, except to say that their letter speaks for itself.
But Woods Placky doesn鈥檛 buy it. 鈥淪cience is science is science,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he scientific evidence of climate change is not political.鈥�
agreed, as does The American Meteorological Society.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like we don鈥檛 deny the science of how a rocket is launched,鈥� said Mike Nelson, the chief meteorologist for the Denver TV station. 鈥淭he science is that every molecule of carbon dioxide acts like a feather in a down comforter and is warming up the planet. Physics doesn鈥檛 care about the politics.鈥�
Still, he knows there is a political war raging over the words 鈥渃limate change鈥� and what they represent. So it鈥檚 a fine line. One that Nelson said he has no trouble walking. But he said his 40 years in the business gives him some cover.
But, Nelson acknowledged, 鈥渋f you're a 30-year-old weathercaster with a couple little kids and you've been in the market for two years, you're like jeez, I better back off. I got to keep my job.鈥�
Justin Roth, a 28-year-old-TV-meteorologist at a local station in Casper, Wyoming, said it is a fine line he has to walk, especially for someone so new in his field.
He said he recently reported a about wildfires in Wyoming and how they may be getting worse.
鈥淭hat got certainly some pushback,鈥� Roth said. 鈥淧eople basically saying, 鈥極h you can鈥檛 predict the weather in the next week. How are you going to predict the weather in 20 years?鈥欌��
Roth said he occasionally checks the Climate Matters website so he can keep up professionally with the science on global warming. But he added, 鈥淚鈥檓 not going to go out of my way to talk about climate change on air here in Wyoming than maybe I would in another part of the country just because of the conservative mindset of this audience.鈥�
That鈥檚 something Denver meteorologist, Mike Nelson, wants to help his colleagues figure out. Because he believes this is a solvable crisis.
鈥淲e can do this,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut you don鈥檛 solve very many problems without admitting you have one.鈥�
The National Science Foundation鈥檚 Inspector General said they will be assessing the issues the senators raised in their letter this fall.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and 萝莉少女 in Colorado.
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