When President Obama introduced the National Climate Assessment a couple of weeks ago, he asked eight special people to help him. They were national and local weather casters including Al Roker.
It was an interesting choice.
For more than a decade, climate scientists have regarded TV meteorologists as kind of an intellectual bottleneck. They have access to the eyes and ears of Americans but a lot of them, maybe even most of them, didn't embrace the established science that global temperatures are rising, that it's due primarily to increased greenhouse gasses, that if the human race doesn't cut down on its production of those gasses, there will be effects even more extreme than the ones we're already seeing.
So, we decided to talk to our local weather casters about climate change, about what they believe and what they feel comfortable saying on the air.
GUESTS:
- Andrew Revkin has been covering global warming since the 1980s. He teaches at Pace University and writes the “Dot Earth” blog for The New York Times. He’s also the author of several books including most recently, The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World
- Ryan Hanrahan is a meteorologist at NBC CT. His blog is “Way Too Much Weather”
- Bruce DePrest is a meteorologist with 36 years' experience and is the Chief Meteorologist at WFSB
- Garrett Argianas is a meteorologist at NBC CT and the founder of Weather Consulting Services
Listen to "Liberated Carbon," an original song by guest Andrew Revkin. Or, if you want to have a little fun with fossil fuels check out this version. He's been a songwriter for over 20 years, occasionally performing with Peter Seeger. You can link to his website here.
