Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for January 9, 2008

‘Weather Report’ Now About Entertainment: A Note from Anthony Watts

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I was recently copied in on some correspondence between Marc Morano and a former television weather presenter, Anthony Watts, in which Watts gives a real insight into the extent to which the media now treat news and weather as entertainment:

Marc,

As a former television meteorologist, and having had to deal with some of the very same issues you cite, let me elaborate on behalf of TV meteorologists everywhere.

1) Many TV meteorologists don’t have control over their on-air content. Especially in large TV markets, the news director and producer often define what role weather has in the show. The maxim of “if it bleeds it leads” often applies to weather when weather is severe. “If it burns it earns” might apply to ratings and the AGW “crisis”.

2) Sometimes, there is undue pressure to sensationalize normal weather events, because of the trend of TV news towards such sensationalism. Just look at how TV news often take common ordinary things and turns them into “sensational” live stories these days.

3) Those TV meteorologists that want to tone down sensationalism in their own reporting often find themselves at the short end of the negotiating stick when contract renewal comes due. Rarely if ever does “how accurate have your forecasts been?” come into play, its all about ratings. Its all about the talent persona and how that persona is perceived by the viewer. If the TV meteorologist doesn’t toe the line in the branding such as “Action News” they can be looked at as “not a team player”. They may not want to go along with sensationalism, but they want to keep the job. Economics trumps factualism in many such situations.

4) Even in my own small town there recently has been a change to “Action News” branding. Now I’m seeing transitions between news stories with an animated graphic and a “swoosh” sound effect. Does it make the product any better? IMHO, not at all, but it does make it seem more “action” oriented. I blame Hollywood. Which is why we hear laser blasts and explosions in deep space during sci-fi movies. Reality is boring, “swoosh” rules.

5) Television news has changed in the last 20 years from being information oriented to entertainment oriented. Witness the daily Britney report if you don’t believe me. Thus, it is more about telling an engaging story, or being first, than it is about accuracy.

6) Science and entertainment merged in Al Gore’s AIT slideshow. Given that example, it is not surprising to see it emulated in TV news when weather is discussed.

Anthony Watts
www.itworks.com

Brown Bears (Part 1)

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“Brown bears, the most widespread ursid, are not listed as threatened globally because large numbers still inhabit Russia, Canada, Alaska and some parts of Europe. Nevertheless, very small, isolated, and highly vulnerable populations exist in southern Europe and central and southern Asia.

“Several brown bear populations are protected under national or provincial laws. Grizzly bears – brown bears living in interior North America – are considered Threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act outside of Alaska.”

Brown bear C Ivan Seryodkin copy.jpg
Brown Bear ( Ursus arctos ) photograph by Ivan Seryodkin

Photograph by Ivan Seryodkin with permission via Ann Novek.
Text from the IUCN via Ann Novek.

New Generation of Nuclear Power Stations for Britain

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According to The Times political editor, Philip Webster, a new generation of nuclear power stations will be built to supply unlimited amounts of electricity to Britian’s national grid.

“The Cabinet will give the go-ahead for the new building programme today [Tuesday 8th January] and John Hutton, the Business Secretary, will announce the decision on Thursday.

“He will pave the way for the nuclear industry to play a much bigger part in meeting Britain’s energy needs by making plain that there will be no limit on the amount of electricity it can supply to the grid.”

Climate Scare to Shift to Ocean Acidification?

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Over at Prometheus, it has been noted that observed global average surface temperatures for 2000 to 2007 are failing to follow the projected IPCC A1F1 scenario despite the fact that CO2 emissions are rising in line with the high end prediction. Of course, we don’t know how long this will continue, or when and if the record temperature for 1998 wil be broken.

Meanwhile, Roger Pielke Sr has looked at 3 other global warming or cooling metrics, namely lower tropospheric warming, atmospheric water vapor content, and oceanic heat content. Pielke Sr concludes that:

“An examination of even the most fundamental of climate metrics show that recent trends are inconsistent with the 2007 IPCC claims regarding global warming. This includes a lack of warming in the global average lower tropospheric temperature and upper ocean, the muted at best moistening of the troposphere, and evidence of a negative radiative feedback. These lack of agreement with these climate metrics indicate that the IPCC report should be interpreted as a collection of papers on a hypothesis rather than a summary of established scientific understanding of how humans are altering the climate system.”

With the above in mind, global average temperature is losing it potency as an observational scare, and the scene is set for climate alarmists to shift the focus onto ‘ocean acidification.’ A email from Bob Carter dropped into my mailbox on 18th December suggesting that the IPCC have been preparing for such a debate shift for some time.

Lo and behold, on 6th January, a weblog called Never Ending Math Equation came up with this blog post:

“Ocean Acidification” or “Why You Should Be Scared About Rising CO2 Emissions Even If You Are A Climate Change Skeptic”

“Given that this debate is often as fruitful as debating a creationist on evolution, I propose a different tact in winning support for timely action on this issue: explain the looming problem of ocean acidification.” Read the entire post here.

Of course, the oceans are alkaline and dissolved CO2 makes them less alkaline although acidification is the accepted terminology. Bob Carter provided a link to an excellent New Zealand account of the background to the acidification of the ocean scare. The text, though scientific, is written without detailed technicalities to a degree that renders most of it appreciable by non-scientists. The 3 part Seafriends article, ‘Ocean acidification – Are oceans becoming more acidic and is this a threat to marine life?’ can be found here.

So, if you feel inclined, follow all the links above and prepare for a possible climate debate shift.