Essay by Eric Worrall
“… what most people want to know is, is it going to be hot? …”
‘You don’t want to waste time on climate change’: TV weather’s big problem with the environmental crisis
Stuart Jeffries Sat 26 Oct 2024 01.00 AEDT
Lack of time, difficulties with scientific rigour, an uninterested public … television meteorologists open up about why they’re so quiet about the reasons for extreme conditions
…
Met Office forecaster and presenter Alex Burkill does not agree that climate denialism is rife among meteorologists. “I think the reason we don’t do it very often is twofold. One is timings. We don’t always have a huge amount of time to talk, particularly on TV. If there’s important weather to be discussing, you don’t really want to waste time talking about climate change. You’d much rather get the information the public need to make sure they stay safe.”
…
Andrew Charlton-Perez, professor of meteorology at Reading University, several of whose students have gone on to be weather forecasters, says it’s hard to strike the right balance. “It’s a bit of a Trojan horse. If you possibly can, you squeeze in some meteorology to explain something, but actually what most people want to know is, is it going to be hot?”
The second reason Burkill cites is more surprising. It is hard, he says, to demonstrate with scientific rigour that looming extreme weather definitely is caused by the climate crisis. “We’ve always had high temperatures, we’ve always had low temperatures, we’ve always had heavy rain, we’ve always had strong winds,” he says. “Obviously, a changing climate is making extreme high temperatures and rain more common and they’re likely to be down to climate change, but it’s hard to show that.”
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/oct/25/tv-weather-climate-crisis
Of course, these responses refer to weather forecasters polluting their TV news weather segment with climate rhetoric. Anthony is a meteorologist, and his WUWT website is pretty popular.
Why is it OK to discuss climate change on a website like WUWT, but not OK to discuss climate change in the weather segment?
I believe the answer is, when people watch the weather forecast, they just want to know the weather.
People choose to visit websites like WUWT when they have the time and inclination to do so.
Visiting a website is voluntary.
Being force fed loads of climate propaganda while you are rushing to get the kids to school and trying to figure out if they need warm clothes is an abuse of people’s precious time.
In my opinion, greens pushing weather people to abuse their audience’s patience by cluttering weather forecasts with climate propaganda is a sign of desperation, a sign they are losing their audience.
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re: “Guardian: Public “Uninterested” in Weather Forecasters Discussing Climate Change”
.
Is the term “worrywart” in the Lexicon anymore?
.
If not, it should be …
.
Optional; Background, origin of term: https://idiomorigins.org/origin/worry-wart
I think the fashionable term these days is “bed-wetter”.
“… what most people want to know is, is it going to be hot? …
____________________________________________________________________________
No, they want to know if it’s going to rain or snow. Hot is down the list
Especially in the UK over the next 6-8 months !!
With their electricity supply in tatters, how many people will die??
Prepare For Blackouts, Say Energy Networks | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
I think that it is much more along the lines of the numerous failed predictions being presented on the mass media. Crying “wolf” so many times without the “wolf” appearing, tends to make many quite skeptical. If the audience finds something wrong with a part of the forecast, it tends to make the other parts less believable.
Having spent well over most of my life in the frigid north, outside working in sub zero temperatures often, I relish the warmth where I am now. It’s also why I tend to spend much more time outdoors without the layers upon layers of clothing needed to be somewhat comfortable.
“Crying “wolf” so many times without the “wolf” appearing, tends to make many quite skeptical.”
Not the Grauniad, no siree. They’re full-on propagandists for the “climate crisis”.
No this is more little chicken who thinks the sky is falling down,
weather forecasters mistakably consider themselves Cassandras (the greek profetess who was not believed)
a boy cried wolf ends that a real wolf shows up…
Particularly when it’s an adorable black Labrador that turns up instead.
Survey after survey shows when asked Climate Change is a concern but well down the list. Ask a few extra questions and you find hardly anyone is prepared to personally pay for any action or change their behaviour. The insistent badgering is lowering the support, just today the UK Climate Change Committee says the UK needs to reduce meat consumption by 50% by 2035.
I suppose that at my age there’s a strong likelihood that I’ll reduce my meat consumption to zero by 2035 but I hope not.
One day we all shall be meat consumption – those worms get very hungry down there.
But the wealthy elites don’t need to reduce meat consumption by 50% by 2035. Nor are they going to reduce taking private jets to future COP events and to different confabs at luxury resorts around the globe.
“Obviously, a changing climate is making extreme high temperatures and rain more common and they’re likely to be down to climate change, but it’s hard to show that.”
If it seems hard to show, then it is not “obvious” at all, is it?
Meteorologists ought to be the foremost technical discipline to reject the attribution of reported warming to the minor incremental radiative effect of rising CO2 concentrations. Why? Because they know perfectly well that the dynamic nature of atmospheric circulation completely obscures any attempt to isolate that static effect for proper study.
The supposed changes are so very small, that if we weren’t constantly force-fed the “climate crisis”, no one would know.
“…no one would know” – exactly!
I leave the final word to former IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri who said “If the IPCC wasn’t there, why would anyone be worried about climate change”
Exactly….
DD.. you have just indicated why “words have meaning”.
“Obviously, a changing climate is making extreme high temperatures and rain more common and they’re likely to be down to climate change, but it’s hard to show that.”
It’s hard to show because it probably isn’t real.
And it’s hard to separate noise from signal.
What better way to start than with than a picture of the Hurricane Meister, himself, Michael Fish.
I will always remember him as I was on night shift (22:00 – 06:00) at the time (I hadn’t seen the broadcast at the time) and it really was quite an experience. I gave up working at around 2am when the power went down, penned my log handover for the morning shift and decided to set off for home. It took quite a long time, many streets were impassable due to fallen trees etc.
Most of the staff at the Guardian will have no memory of that event, and certainly not of the summer of 1976 – in the middle of the global cooling scare – see Leonard Nimoy.
The Guardian does student politics, 6th form at best.
People have other serious things to worry about – like a mad, lunatic Labour government and Ed Miliband et al
My wife and I were living in East Finchley, North London, at the time. I feared that some of our windows particularly in the downstairs bay were going to be blown in. Fortunately they were not but a couple of houses on the other side of the road were not so lucky.
Several of the magnificent old trees on East End Road (Oak, IIRC) were blown over and the road totally impassable.
Everybody got on to the roof [tile/slate) scam. The insurance companies did not do well.
I was at Mortlake South West London – near Richmond
At that time I was living in Broadstairs, East Kent, which was hit by the most intense winds of the storm. That night was unforgettable and terrifying. My street was lined by mature flowering cherry trees with trunks 30-40cm in diameter, which were bent through 90 degrees as though they were saplings, with their branches streaming like flags.
Too many people are in positions of power, influence, control who are only recently out of nappies who think history started when they were born
“Obviously, a changing climate is making extreme high temperatures and rain more
common and they’re likely to be down to climate change, but it’s hard to show that.”
_______________________________________________________________________________
Pretty much the money quote. The response is, “Because it really isn’t happening.”
Depends on the channel, but in the UK BBC and Ch5 most certainly do mention climate change. Sometimes there’s hardly any actual UK forecast at all if there is a climate change headliner somewhere else in the world
Not only that, the weather bods frequently present a series of dedicated climate change segments on national and local news and entire extreme weather programs, and they frequently crop up in other programs that habitually exaggerate climate change – like Country file.
The weather people on the BBC rarely, if ever mention climate change in their daily forecasts. I think there forecasts no longer come from the Met Office. However similarly it is never mentioned on the Met Office internet daily forecasts
“”Depends on the channel, but in the UK BBC and Ch5 most certainly do mention climate change.””
Mention it? Mention it? They bore us all to bloody death with it. At every opportunity. His holiness, Justin Rowlatt has been working overtime these last few days
There must be a CoP coming up…
Almost every nature program.
I gave up on Country File a long time ago. I prefer to spell it without the ‘o’.
An other issue is that legacy media reporters are generally rather ignorant of the issues about claims of climate change, and come across like beauty pageant contestants dealing with the issues.
Weathermen and weatherwomen are being pressured to included Climate Crisis in their weather reports by their unions (WMO, American Meteorological Society, Royal Meteorological Society), climate crisis activists, and the climate crisis news cabals.
They don’t want to. Weatherpeople report the weather — today tomorrow, the coming weekend. That’s what people want to know — is it going to rain? going to freeze? going to be hot hot hot?
The general public does not want to be propagandized to. Despite years of that sort of thing, the public knows full-well that it is propaganda and they are tired of it.
Just give me the weather report, please!
____________________________________________________________________________
The general public should know full-well that governments are spending
Billions on Climate Change and Trillions are in the pipeline. They should
be up in arms about that. They aren’t. Why they aren’t is the issue.
Steve ==> The American Public has a very poor record of objecting strenuously to government spending of any type, except when it comes to unpopular wars, such as VietNam.
Honestly, the American Public is so illiterate and innumerate that those budget numbers are just “funny money” to them.
Remember when the welfare class claimed their free smartphones came from “Obama Bucks?”
Most voters are too thick to realise that nothing the State gives you is free.
If I’d gone on TV (regularly) during my career (I did regular multiple local radio b/cs), I’d have not wanted to talk about CC/GW.
It’s a no-win scenario.
Besides the fact that you are beholding on the media company for the time they give you.
The BBC presenters are counted down to the second.
As this place demonstrates (as does the state of politics in the US) peeps are polarised now into one tribe or the other. And evidence will only change the minds of the minority who have open minds.
Social media (this place being one such) has poisioned the well such that a cohort of peeps no longer trust the “establishment” and prefer to hear echoes of their own beliefs …. and so they become even more convinced.
We have cognitive dissonance – such that here there are morons that shout in caps that it is all due to some unphysical/impossible thing in their desparate attemtps to rant out their anger
It’s actually a re.cipe to the destruction of ordered society.
Oh, And you’re welcome.
Exactly, I remember when the left trotted out Russia colluuuusion…that is when I knew media cannot be trusted. The NY Times won a Pulitzer for their drivel. Simon still believes. Propaganda works.
Trump openly admits he wants to surrender Ukraine and eastern Europe to Putin.
And the USA cannot do that while credibly defending Taiwan’s chip industry from China.
That’s the end of the USA as a major power.
So it’s not exactly propaganda to point out that Trump is working for a foreign power.
He admits it. He promises he will surrender in the first few months.
Yeah talking about how evil and dangerous Trump is going to be, the Babylon Bee has this scoop –
Democrats have warned that if elected a second time, Donald Trump will be an evil dictator just like Adolf Hitler.
When asked why Trump didn’t become Hitler during his first term, Democrats explained that he simply forgot.
https://babylonbee.com/news/democrats-explain-trump-was-going-to-be-hitler-during-his-first-term-but-he-forgot?utm_source=The%20Babylon%20Bee%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email
But the Babylon Bee is taking the mick. It’s not true because it’s satire.
Trump is meant to be a serious politician. What he says is meant to be true.
So when he says he will surrender, believe him.
Biden, Kamal et al were the ones that surrendered to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
They are weak lazy cretins…
Nothing they say is true.. not that ever actual say anything meaningful.
Obama and Biden gave Ukraine blankets and pillows when Russia invaded on their watch.
When Trump was elected, he gave Ukraine anti-tank weapons which were used to great effect the next time Putin invaded Ukraine. And they invaded on Biden’s watch, not Trump’s watch.
Trump made NATO Stronger not weaker. The NATO Secretary General could not sing Trump’s praises enough after Ttrump got the other NATO members to pay their fair share which gave the NATO Secetary General about $100 billion more to spend on Europe’s defense.
Some idiots on the Left and Right want to portray Trump as an Isolationist. Does that sound like the actions of an isolationist to you?
Who knew?
That’s it – from now on, I’m not believing a word the Bee prints.
Especially about that traitor to Europe’s interests Donald Trump.
Thanks for saving me from further public embarrassment.
“So when he says he will surrender, believe him.”
Trump never said such a thing. Prove Trump said what you claim. You can’t do it, because he didn’t say anything like that.
Let’s have your evidence. Just saying something is so doesn’t make it so.
You are promoting radical leftwing propaganda. You are promoting lies about Trump.
Prove you are not lying.
Supply the supposed quote then..
So when, Mr. Brave-pants are you going to do your part by enlisting in the Army of Ukraine? Let’s hear it……..no putting your money where your mouth is, huh?
Your deep-seated TDS is showing !
It is not rational.. it is Kamal/Biden based.. you should be so embarrassed.
Definitely not reality based.
“Trump openly admits he wants to surrender Ukraine and eastern Europe to Putin.”
Wrong! You are just making things up. Show where Trump indicated he would do this. You can’t do it, because he never said such things.
All the radical Left has are lies, lies, lies. You guys can’t stop lying about Trump.
This is just like Simon.
Put down your crack pipe
A recipe for the destruction of ordered society. Hmmm. Religious wars will do that. In the case of religion there can never be proof of who’s right and who’s wrong. In the case of
Silent Spring,
Global Cooling,
Nuclear Winter,
Acid Rain,
The Ozone Hole,
Global Warming,
Climate Change,
The Climate Crisis,
The Climate Emergency
etc.
it will, over time, become obvious who’s right and who’s wrong. However that time is measured in decades. By then an ordered society may well be destroyed.
Carson’s “Silent Spring” was over five decades ago.
“And evidence will only change the minds of the minority who have open minds.”
And if the evidence isn’t there, you’ll create it.
The World Meteorological Organization defines a heatwave as five or more consecutive days during which the daily maximum temperature surpasses the average maximum temperature by 5 °C (9 °F) or more.
UK met office no longer use the WMO definition, they have changed it in 2018 to:
“A UK heatwave threshold is met when a location records a period of at least three consecutive days with daily maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding the heatwave temperature threshold, dependant on location.” (currently that is just 28ºC max)
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/types-of-weather/temperature/heatwave
Clearly this is so they can claim that heatwaves occur more frequently, which is an obvious lie if they have to change the definition to make that claim. Of course, this also means they can claim “hottest since records began”, as a new record started with the definition change. The Met office are all in on the globalist’s “climate crisis” scam, designed to rob us of our freedoms and impose taxes based on the vagueries of the weather. We have seen nothing outside of natural variability, and the UK has not seen a heatwave that meets the WMO definition for many years, if not decades.
Nothing new to advance a cause… They changed the definition of ‘vaccine’.
“It’s actually a re.cipe to the destruction of ordered society.”
So you’re a censorship nazi as well. How did we guess?
If I’d gone
But you have.
“And evidence “
Is non-existent.
Present empirical scientific evidence of warming by atmospheric CO2.
You have cognitive non-functionality and emptiness.
Mindless, non-thinking, brain-washed, gullibility is what destroys society.
Just believe what you are told to believe.
“Mindless, non-thinking, brain-washed, gullibility”
A good description of most politicians
& voting them into government
“is what destroys society.”
Look at the UK, rapidly being reduced to 3rd world status by its own successive governments, at least more people are now starting to complain, yet few will rise up (as everyone all hopes the crocodile eats their neighbour first ) !!
What is interesting about this is my journey. I truly believed in CAGW. A friend thought, without evidence, that it was all hokum. I set out to collect the data to prove him wrong.
Oh dear. When I went down that rabbit hole, within a disturbingly short time, I discovered that I had been fed a pack of lies. Even the IPCC weren’t alarmists. It was the media hyping up, and Al Gore making a fortune off the gullible. And this was before climategate. I wasn’t happy, because I don’t like being wrong. I had to suck it up that time.
I used to try to explain the facts to people. After being shouted down by shouty people repeatedly, I now just tell people to look up the data. Ignore the media, and the UN alarmists. Go to the source. Every single person who has actually taken my advice has realised that there really isn’t a problem.
It’s only people like yourself who are of a closed, fixed mindset, who imagine that we don’t believe you because we’re in an echo chamber. Unfortunately, you are merely projecting, and projecting hard.
Your experience mirrors mine. The more one learns about paleoclimates, the more absurd the Great CAGW Scam appears.
Ah but you havent been paying to the new buzzword: ‘tipping point’. Well, not quite new but works wonders. It is always mmm, around the corner..
“And evidence will only change the minds of the minority who have open minds.”
What evidence?
There is no evidence showing humans are causing the Earth’s climate to do anything.
Present some evidence now. You can’t do it.
I actually agree with the quote but in regards to climate change it is mainly conjecture not evidence. Those with open minds will spot the difference.
>> You don’t want to waste time on climate change
The issue is not climate change, but the manmade contribution to global warming
>> TV weather’s big problem with the environmental crisis
Climate alarmism and environmental concerns are two different things, in fact environmentalists complain how the money spend on climate measures could do much good for the environment instead.
>> “Obviously, a changing climate is making extreme high temperatures and rain more common and they’re likely to be down to climate change, but it’s hard to show that.”
If it were obvious, it should be very easy to show.
At least on the northern hemisphere extreme weather can often be linked to polar vortex anomalies, which correlate themselves with solar and volcanic signals, but so far no anthropogenic signal was found.
I am quite sure Burkill knows all of this, so why is he misleading?
And why to the journalists not do their homework about it? This is not complicated!
“The issue is not climate change, but the manmade contribution to global warming”
Bears repeating.
Is any of it “manmade”?
They have theories and models but no real evidence.
They treat a hot day or a storm as “evidence” of manmade global warming.
Figure 12.12 on P. 90 of Chapter 12 of WGI’s contribution (the science portion) of the 2021 UN IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) clearly shows that, globally, extreme weather has not been getting more frequent, intense nor longer-lasting over the period of 120+ years. Yet the WGII and WGIII contributions directly contradict the authoritative WGI and all of the chapter summaries and summaries for policy makers (SPM), are written by ideological Leftists/Socialist/Marxist politicians and their toady rent-seekers.
“… environmentalists complain how the money spend on climate measures…”
All organised religions break up into cults whose congregations then fight each other over rites, rituals, interpretations, and the correct way to worship their god.
Visiting a website is voluntary.
Having a TV is not required, right?
I sent my TV to the landfill about 15 years ago.
I can learn more about the weather on the internet in 5 minutes
than a TV weather presenter can tell me in a day.
Climate change and media rants about extreme weather are a waste.
“If there’s important weather to be discussing, you don’t really want to waste time talking about climate change.”
Instead, they attempt subliminal influence. Supplanting the word ‘average’ with ‘normal’ for example, as in “the temperature will be a degree or two above normal for the time of year”. Or if that doesn’t get the message across, a picture is worth a thousand words.
No, what people are most interested in knowing is whether or not they will need an umbrella during the day. Unfortunately, forecasting rain is not nearly as reliable as temperatures. Sometimes the forecast is wrong on the same day as the forecast, let alone a week before.
How surprising that people want a weather forecast from weather forecasters. Who knew?
I think polls have consistently shown meteorologists to be largely skeptical of alarmism, which is true of engineers in general. Weather forecasters are engineers, that is people who apply science. As such they are well aware that science can be pretty shaky. Or in this case terminally shaky.
Then why are weather forecasters and other engineering types not shouting that from the rooftops? Follow the money … money … money and political manipulation.
To set the scene…..
All the early bluster on this site and others that started around the same time, claimed that global warming wasn’t even happening; that it was all hype or a statistical aberration of some sort. These views have pretty much disappeared from the scene, even here.
You can go back and check on all the loony ‘global cooling is imminent nonsense‘ that this site initially featured (Don Easterbrook and David Archibald spring prominently to mind).
That’s all gone.
Now that global warming is happening in plain sight, pretty much as the scientists projected, the narrative has changed to ‘okay, but there’s nothing we can do about it – let’s adapt!‘. So you guys keep shifting and changing the narrative (but you never admit to it; you can never admit you were wrong).
We all know global warming is real. We can all see and feel it.
However, any weather presenter who has the temerity to mention this obvious fact tends to get bombarded, via their employer or by social media, etc with the usual, long dead, zombie grievances. Even the zombies these days know they are dead!
Then some of you have the face to wonder why weather forecasters don’t mention global warming in their daily broadcasts.
You already know why they don’t. It’s because of dinosaurs like you, who just cannot bring themselves to admit that you were wrong and the scientists were right.
Long term, this isn’t going to go well for you, either. It’s just going to get more and more obvious that you were wrong; and there’s nothing you can do about that now. You’re going to look sillier and sillier the older you get.
You’ve ploughed your furrow and you’re too headstrong to admit that you goofed. So instead, you attack the messenger, which in this case appears to be the weather forecasters.
You won’t watch the video or read the book, so I post this link for those that may be new to the site and have heard all the garbage that you spout, but are not anywhere near as gullible as you:
Fungal has been trained by the Kamal.
Produces a mindless word salad pertaining to nothing.
An insult to kale and soggy lettuce
Can you show us any warming in the UAH data that has been caused by humans?
Can you present any empirical scientific evidence that atmospheric CO2 causes warming?
In the total absence of any human caused warming and evidence of warming by CO2…
… all you have is mindless, empty, religious-cult belief.
You are certainly looking more and more stupid as you continue to post gibberish.
I suppose you see CO2 in the air too just like Greta says she does?
“We all know global warming is real”
We all know that humans are NOT causing it. !
And that’s if “global” warming was actually happening.
(and measurable). I have doubts.
Who is “you”?
Global warming is measured in temperature anomalies.
Final Nail can see and feel temperature anomalies. He just said so in his post.
He should team up with Greta who can see CO2 in the air and complete the team.
You can’t see or feel it. If you hadn’t been told it must exist, you wouldn’t be any the wiser. You must have eaten the final rusty nail, and it’s affected what’s left of your brain.
Wow! The projection is strong in this one.
Let’s change a few words…
You can go back and check on all the loony ‘ice age is imminent nonsense‘
That’s all gone.
Now that global cooling isn’t happening as the scientists projected, the narrative has changed to ‘okay, but there’s global warming!‘. So you guys keep shifting and changing the narrative (but you never admit to it; you can never admit you were wrong).
We all know global warming isn’t real. We can all see and feel nothing abnormal.
However, any weather presenter who has the temerity to mention this obvious fact tends to get bombarded, via their employer or by social media, etc with the usual, long dead, zombie grievances of CAGW. Even the zombies these days know they are dead!
Then some of you have the face to wonder why weather forecasters don’t mention global warming in their daily broadcasts.
You already know why they don’t. It’s because of dinosaurs like you, who just cannot bring themselves to admit that you were wrong and the scientists were right.
Long term, this isn’t going to go well for you, either. It’s just going to get more and more obvious that you were wrong; and there’s nothing you can do about that now. You’re going to look sillier and sillier the older you get.
You’ve ploughed your furrow and you’re too headstrong to admit that you goofed.
I really didn’t have to change much at all!
The straw man. There is a difference between global warming and Manmade global warming.
The “bluster” wasn’t about the former but pointing out there was no evidence for the latter.
And 30 years on that remains the case. Even bringing on the substitue Climate Change, when the main player global warming went off injured has failed to perform as promised. All data shows a remarkably stable climate system over the last century, absent any trend.
What audience?
I suspect the true reason met office staff don’t go heavy on climate change is that they know enough to know its largely bunk, but want to keep their jobs.
Bless, another even more bizarre level of denial is revealed.
Next it will be trained AI that’s putting out the “propaganda”.
“AI” already is putting out the propaganda, for the left.
And of course it’s not doing that for the right. I mean musky baby just wouldn’t would he (sarc).
This reaction should be no surprise because the public has been fed so much alarmist rhetoric about climate change that it stopped paying attention long ago. People want to know about the immediate and upcoming weather; they’re really unconcerned about what the climate might be in 2050 or 2100. And when the BBC, Guardian, CBC and the other leftist media outlets throw out a constant stream of doomsday climate scenarios, people either scoff at them or ignore them entirely.
There is no proper science to support the CAGW claim. Two things to consider, if it’s not catastrophic what is the point? If it’s not anthropogenic what is the point? People watching the weather news want to know what to expect today and tomorrow. Then the next day they want to know what to expect today and tomorrow. Most import they don’t want smoke blown up their ying yang. The weather changes from day to day. Anything you report more than a few days in advance is little more than an educated guess.
I need weather reports to plan ahead. I don’t need climate reports to plan ahead because climate is 30 years of weather in a given location.
By the time climate reports can be made, all the weather that caused them is done and gone.
Lets get back to TV weather reporting comedians. It was more entertaining to watch them crack jokes than to listen to their gloom and doom.
Then it’s obviously not obvious, is it?
Maybe it is me projecting, but I hate the “We told you this would happen” attitude of weather forecasters whenever rough weather is approaching.