– Only 4% trust politicians on climate change information.
In January and February 2010, using a web-based method, we surveyed all broadcast TV members of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the National Weather Association (NWA) using member email lists provided by the two professional associations. All participants were offered $30 to complete the approximately 20-minute survey. Of the 1,408 names and email addresses provided by AMS and NWA, 35 people were ineligible because we determined that they no longer worked as TV meteorologists, and 44 email addresses proved to be incorrect (and despite an active search, correct email addresses could not be located).
Therefore, the valid initial denominator of our sample was 1,373. Fifty-nine of these people refused to participate, 743 did not respond, and 571 completed at least some portion of the survey, yielding a minimum response rate of 41.6% (which assumes that all non-respondents were eligible to participate).
…
Selected excerpts:
Summary of Findings and Interpretation
This study was the largest and most representative survey of television weathercasters conducted to date. The on-line survey of broadcast television members of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and National Weather Association (NWA) was intended to be a census of the nation’s TV weathercasters. A total of 571 respondents completed at least some portion of the survey, a minimum response rate of 42%, and an adjusted response rate of 52%.
While consultant research on TV weather and weathercasters abounds, most of that research is proprietary and often the weathercasters themselves don’t know the results of that research. Our top-line findings are being distributed directly to survey respondents and their professional associations, and additional detailed analyses are being prepared for submission to peer-reviewed journals and conferences.
Our findings confirm that TV weathercasters play – or can play – an important role as informal science educators. Nearly all of our respondents (94%) said they work at stations that do not have anyone else covering science or environmental issues full-time. This number verifies other research showing that only about 10% of TV stations have a dedicated specialist to cover these topics. By default, and in many cases by choice, science stories become the domain of the only scientifically trained person in the newsroom—weathercasters.
Two-thirds of our respondents report on science issues once per month or more frequently and one-third would like to report on science issues more frequently. Topics they cover range from astronomy to zoology, and many weathercasters have become the point person for expertise on plate tectonics in local TV newsrooms on the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.
TV weathercasters embrace the idea of expanding their role beyond forecasting to becoming “station scientists,” a proposal advanced by the AMS to make the weathercasters the “go to” person in a TV newsroom on a variety of science topics. Four out of five of our respondents (79%) indicated they were comfortable serving in this role and only 9% indicated they weren’t. In many cases this means weathercasters will need to seek out more resources and training in order to cover issues outside their own specialty of meteorology.
Climate change is already one of the most common science topics TV weathercasters discuss. Nearly all of our respondents (87%) had in some way discussed climate change as part of their duties. The most common venue in which they discuss climate change is in community speaking
events (87%), which is also the venue they say is the most appropriate place for them to do so (82%). The second most common way weathercasters discuss the topic is in anchor “chit-chat” (49%), usually going into or out of the on-air weather segment.
Often a news producer stacks another weather related story before or after the weather forecast and this is a place weathercasters can face climate change questions or comments from an anchor. Only about a third of weathercasters say they discuss climate change during the on-air weathercast (37%), or in reporter packages (33%), the most important reason being lack of time (79% and 75%, respectively). Only about two-thirds felt that it is appropriate to discuss climate change on-air (62%), and approximately three-quarters felt it appropriate on-line (72%), as many report a concern about audience “backlash.” Many weathercasters also use other avenues to discuss climate change including the news station’s blog (31%) and station’s web site (28%), on the radio (29%), in personal blogs (25%), and in newspaper columns (14%).
…
Weathercasters hold a wide range of beliefs about global warming.
Survey participants responded to a variety of questions assessing their beliefs in and attitudes about “global warming,” questions that have been used previously in our public opinion research.2 More than half of our respondent (54%) indicated that global warming is happening, 25% indicated it isn’t, and 21% say they don’t know yet. About one-third (31%) reported that global warming is caused mostly by human activities, while almost two-thirds (63%) reported it is caused mostly by natural changes in
the environment. Half indicated that they have thought “a lot” about global warming, and a large majority said they are fairly or very well informed about the causes of global warming (93%), the consequences of global warming (89%), and the ways to reduce global warming (86%)—numbers that are much higher than public responses to the same questions. Over half of weathercasters indicated that humans could reduce global warming (58%), and that the U.S. should reduce greenhouse gas emissions regardless of what other countries do (63%). Almost half (47%) felt they needed some or a lot more information before forming a firm opinion about global warming, and almost one-third (30%) said they could easily change their mind about global warming.
Just over one quarter (27%) agreed with the statement by a prominent TV weathercaster: “global warming is a scam.”
…
Only one third of TV weathercasters believe that there is a scientific consensus on climate change.
Despite the strong scientific consensus among climate scientists, almost two-thirds (61%) of TV weathercasters think there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening. Perhaps partly as a result, 79% of our respondents indicated that coverage of climate change science must reflect a “balance” of viewpoints just as coverage of political or social issues are covered. Prior research conducted by others, however, has shown that “balanced” news coverage about climate change is misleading in that it tends to give audience members the false impression that there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening.
Weathercasters express varying degrees of trust in sources of climate change information.
Overall the most trusted sources of climate change information are state climatologists (85%), the NWA (83%), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service (82%), peer-reviewed journals (80%), the AMS (79%) and climate scientists (73%).
The least trusted climate sources were politicians (4%), religious leaders (11%), mainstream news media (18%), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (44%), and other TV weathercasters (53%).
Full report here as PDF file: TV_Meteorologists_Survey_Findings_(March_2010)
h/t to Mark Johnson
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“We wish to find the truth, no matter where it lies. But to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact.”
– Carl Sagan (May 24-28)
Should the respondents that filled out responses that fit the hypotheses be counted more times?
Joe Romm on climate progress is begging his 12 regulars to vote for him every day so he can win the award for best science/climate blog (tree hugger is running the poll)
Convergence. People that spring for 30 bucks also sprung for the notion that global warming is natural.
I still think it is a strong response rate.
Should we give this study more weight than that one tree up north in Siberia? That tree let out some heavy duty inferences.
Off topic. Would the Catlin troubadors be elgible to be classified as “weathercasters” since they are cutting edge new media bloggers. They had all these hair raising encounters with frostbite and all the cold stuff including rapido melting under their feet at 75 below wind chill.
Another important question I have: Why did 800+ TV Mets NOT participate in the survey? If there are any TV Mets reading this who did NOT answer the survey, please tell us why in a sentence or less.
Mark Johnson
Heidi Cullen is freaking right now!
Sorry, off topic but… this story from The Guardian is posted at Climatedepot.
A watermelon finally admits what promoting crises is about:
“Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades. This is the stark conclusion of James Lovelock, the globally respected environmental thinker and independent scientist who developed the Gaia theory…
“I don’t think we’re yet evolved to the point where we’re clever enough to handle a complex a situation as climate change,” said Lovelock in his first in-depth interview since the theft of the UEA emails last November. “The inertia of humans is so huge that you can’t really do anything meaningful.”
One of the main obstructions to meaningful action is “modern democracy”, he added. “Even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.”
A:) “More than half of our respondent (54%) indicated that global warming is happening”
B:) “Over half of weathercasters indicated that humans could reduce global warming (58%)”
C:) “About one-third (31%) reported that global warming is caused mostly by human activities”
A net 4% of weathermen believe we can slow global warming, and also believe that it is not happening. (It does not exist, but I can control it)
A net 27% of weathermen believe we can slow global warming, and also that we are not causing it. (Humans are not driving it, but we could if we wanted to)
Very strange indeed.
“Despite the strong scientific consensus among climate scientists, almost two-thirds (61%) of TV weathercasters think there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening. ”
No, there’s no bias at all in the survey itself and its analysis…
Got to believe or lose their jobs….
…recently recruited by pink novels’ writer Patchy the choo-choo train driver.
The bias of the poll is shown in this sentence:
“Despite the strong scientific consensus among climate scientists, almost two-thirds (61%) of TV weathercasters think there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening.”
The writer of the poll summary seems to think that science is amenable to consensus, or maybe is confused by the difference between statistics and consensus.
Well I am not at all surprised to see such a study come from the halls of that great Institution.
If you don’t like the climate change center lectures; you can always drop in on some words of wisdom (if you can get in) from Professor Walter E. Williams; one of the great voices of sanity in the 20th Century; and now moving on to his second century of wisdom.
Besides he’s a very handsome man too. And did I say bloody smart.
The agenda
I respond to some of this stuff and then the later responses I dig a little deeper.
This school is merely all about evangelizing for the cause. It is NOT about studying if there is climate change. It is about measuring how much people are buying the spin.
http://www.climatechangecommunication.org/mission.cfm
The word Joe Romm uses is “NArrative”
Like the one “trooo Scottsman falacy”
The only reason any one may possibly not gobble up the dogma is because of shortcomings in the narrative or subnormal intelligence.
More baloney:
So it appears these zealots take this little survey as a call to arms to “educate” and convert these poor weathercasters.
Surely Mann and his models and James Hansen and his feelings/fears must know more than a Weathercaster” that watches a blizzard bearing down with a large amount of moisture.
http://www.climatechangecommunication.org/team.cfm
Brainwashing is now a methods course.
I would guess the results are somewhat biased by the participants having been heavily involved in trying to predict their regional weather on a daily basis. Follow that with several thousand people grading them on a daily to weekly basis on those predictions.
Do you recon they understand the problems with weather prediction?
More from their propaganda site
Force new “social norms?”
Indoctrinate the kids?
So should parents lose custody of their children to the State if they drive a SUV, van or old pick up trucK? This is why my great grand parents left Russia.We knew real conservation.
willis –
thanx for clearing up my misunderstanding re carbon = development. funny how words confuse us sometimes.
funny how the MSM, apart from BBC, are not picking up this story so far!
29 March: BBC: Struggling to survive Mongolia’s freezing winter
It is supposed to be spring in Mongolia, but you would not know it.,,
Mongolia is suffering the worst winter most people here can remember…
The government says more than four-and-a-half million livestock have died…
The harsh conditions have been affecting 19 of Mongolia’s 21 provinces since last December…
He admits the authorities did not see this coming. They did not do enough to prepare for the severe winter. ..
Dr Orkhon Gonchigdorj runs the facility. “We’ve never seen a winter like this,” she says. “So many sick people – there’s not enough room to look after them.”..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8592408.stm
George E. Smith (13:52:07) :
Are you Walter Williams in disguise? He speaks like that… :p I say this lovingly, love both hearing and reading him.
OT, but can we have an update on the amusing Catlin jollyboys outing? I have tried finding it myself on their site, but the ‘Google Earth Plugin’ doesn’t work (and no, my firewall isn’t the problem).
‘Technology’ – the name given to something that doesn’t work properly yet.
““Despite the strong scientific consensus among climate scientists, almost two-thirds (61%) of TV weathercasters think there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening.””
This reads wrong, on purpose.
Says two-thirds of weathercasters are stupid.
So how many of these “weatherpersons” actually have university training in meteorology or climatology, or for that matter any other earth sciences?
From my experience, most (but not all) TV weathercasters do not understand weather or climate particularly well, as evidenced by the odd things they say from time to time. Rather their expertise seem to lie in public speaking /presentation skills, physical appearance or just plain charisma.
So the implied authority of these people is likely just not there at all, and the results would therefore be reflective of public opinion much more than of scientific credibility.
In fact I’d go so far as to suggest that the primary conclusion of this study ought to be completely reframed. What it actually shows is how amazingly unrepresentative TV weathercasters are of scientific consensus.
It was 45 below zero, wind chill 75 below and ice melting rapidly
There may not be enough ice to do this on foot ever again. Maybe their laptop computors were soaked in the seawater.
More seriously, they may be in trouble. That means they relied on proven models that were peer reviewed and not on “weathercasters” like as have doubts about this warming craziness. It seems I recall they had a full time worker in the base camp that performed “communication” for them. Buzz word generators come in handy like “flip/flop” ice.
“The least trusted climate sources were politicians (4%), religious leaders (11%), ”
Would that distrust include apocalyptic and quasi-religious former politicians who are now the owners of global warming financial firms where 16 of the 20 partners come from Goldman Sachs, and who by the way also burn 20 times the national average for electricity consumption in their personal homes?
I am referring, of course, to Manbearpig.
Too many statistics, my brain just can’t cope.
I did meet a radio journalist last week though in Oz and was very impressed with his attitude.
@KevinM (13:39:21)
“Humans are not driving it, but we could if we wanted to”
I don’t find this concept very strange in the least. Regardless of whether we control the weather or not I feel quite confident that we could cool the planet if we really wanted to. The consequences might be terrible but it doesn’t stop it being within our capability. I would suggest that the context of the questions have been poorly defined as is the case in many questionares.
Richard Black ends this piece in a somewhat bizarre fashion!
29 March: BBC: Richard Black: Gulf Stream ‘is not slowing down’
Confirming work by other scientists using different methodologies, they found dramatic short-term variability but no longer-term trend.
A slow-down – dramatised in the movie The Day After Tomorrow – is projected by some models of climate change.
The research is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8589512.stm
Isn’t it true that 63% of all weather people work for big oil??