The Sound Of God Bowling

I haven't had to use that explanation on my toddler age son yet. We just have an understanding that sometimes it rains and sometimes thunder and lightening are part of the package.

When the time comes to explain the technical cause of thunder I'll defer to a scientific explanation. This will probably mean not depending on any number of our local television forecasters. Apparently most of these guys aren't consistent when it come to deferring to science.

The WaPo weather blog has a piece on a local TV meteorologist who is trying to fight the ignorance amongst his colleagues with a primer on climate change. Bob Ryan has put together an online series that's meant to provide the basic facts and science behind climate change. Ryan sees the role of the weather guy changing in scope to include addressing the impacts of global warming:

Ryan's new articles are clearly in keeping with his view that climate science is now part of a TV meteorologist's beat, and must be covered within a scientific framework. However, a sustained commitment to covering climate science on air as well as online will go much farther towards fostering a well informed public.

He's even included content on scientific method for the most ardent of weather zealots. I would suggest that the flat-Earthers that comprise our local Doppler Cartel check out the series and inform themselves. I agree with Ryan that they can't pretend that the impact of climate change will not become part of the daily information they provide. Old age or religious fanaticism are not a reason to avoid embracing the science related aspects of the job.

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Cleveland's Doppler Cartel

My childhood hero Dick "wooly bear man" Goddard, friend to all dogs and cats, is in the global warming denier camp. So says an extenisve expose into Cleveland's television weather guys that was given front page space in Wednesday's Plain Dealer. The list goes on to other well know purveyors of the Doppler such as Mark Johnson, Andre Bernier, John Loufman and Mark Nolan, (no longer doing weather). Oddly enough I didn't see any women on the list.

The concept of the story is actually kind of humorous. At first it would seem that this position would contradict the duties that local meteorologists fulfill on a daily basis. If you take a step back and consider that there is one glaring fact that exempts the Doppler cartel from being rational about global warming, they are not scientists. Sure each of the weathermen carries a seal form the AMS but, aren't they really giving a glorified weather Power Point presentation every night?

What would be really interesting is to see what the correlation is between the views of members of the weather underground that aligns their views on global warming. Such an investigation woudl be fodder for the guys at Freakonomics. There are a variety of explanations for their skepticism given, from complete denial the earth is indeed heating up to the thesis presented in Michael Crichton's book State of Fear.

Bernier said local meteorologists "are just more practical" and not swayed by the opportunity for more grant money to do more research proving climate change.

Using Crichton's work to refute global warming is common among a certain persuasion of political minds. The only problem is that Crichton was not a scientist. Scientists submit their work to peer review which Crichton did not do. This article gives the impression that the large sample of weather broadcasters in Cleveland and across the country are in the same camp ideological camp. Their focus on presenting the very short term outlook of weather as opposed to long term climate has apparently swayed their opinions, almost like a badge of honor. Next up, does too much time in front of a chromokey impact human logic?

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