How weathercasters helped change public opinion on climate change

[Uncle Joe]

President Bill Clinton (R) and Vice President Al Gore (L) at an East Room round table event discussing climate change at the White House in July, 1997. STEPHEN JAFFE / AFP via Getty Images.

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Weathercasting and climate change communication. By late in the 20th century, broader efforts to keep Americans confused on the subject of global warming were already in full display. A deliberate disinformation campaign by special economic interest groups, their lobbyists, and the politicians that benefited from their political contributions had effectively fooled American news media into serving as an unknowing accomplice in disseminating climate disinformation.

Instead of presenting peer-reviewed scientific findings as the consensus on global warming, news outlets framed the subject as controversial. The science of climate change became politicized, a phenomenon confined mostly to the United States along with Canada and Australia.

Cable news programs provided a platform on equal footing to fringe or outlying views on global warming. In the journalistic zeal to provide “balance” to the climate change story, newsrooms presented global warming as a he-said-she-said debate—often having to seek high and low for anyone with a Ph.D. who sounded credible enough to cast doubt on the state of the science of climate change. Special interest think tanks were eager to help.

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Using local weather presenters, the White House aimed to circumvent the national media at a time when the administration, despite winning a second term, was on the defensive.

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https://thebulletin.org/2022/10/how-weathercasters-helped-change-public-opinion-on-climate-change/

[Shermann]

1. I've noticed a shift in the local news

The meteorologists down here in the Southeast have had to address the regular heat waves and record high temperatures. However, they never seemed to broach the subject of anthropogenic climate change. Recently, they are ever so gently starting to go there.

This has been theorized since the 19th century. If you or your political party have been behind on this issue, you have to live with the fact that progressive thinkers from over a hundred years ago are ahead of you.