The Weather Underground

July 06, 2007

The Weather Channel, long a stalwart of straight-ahead weather reporting, has decided to start comprehensively following the story of climate change. The channel’s resident climatologist Heidi Cullen argues that all TV meteorologists should integrate climate change science into every weather report.


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[1]
Posted by: David
July 06, 2007 - 02:58PM
Rhode Island

Bob said the Heidi was hired in 2003 in response to Hurricane Katrina. amazingly prescient of TWC, since Katrina did not occur until 2005.

Also, in general there is a garbling of the debate. While there are few people, scientists or otherwise, that dispute whether or not global warming is occuring, there is considerable debate as to how much is due to "greenhouse gasses" and how much is part of a natural cycle. After all, there have been numerous heating and cooling cycles before.

[2]
Posted by: The Producers
July 09, 2007 - 04:57PM
NYC

David – thanks for posting your correction. You’re right: What the copy should have said was that Ms. Cullen was hired in 2003 but that her role changed after hurricane Katrina in 2005 when the issue of global warming became a priority for the network.

The producers.

[3]
Posted by: Richard
July 09, 2007 - 05:51PM
Chicago

Heidi Cullen's remarks that meteorologists who question anthropogenic global warming should be decertified and not allowed to practice their profession was frankly quite repulsive, and should have been addressed during the interview. Whatever the truth about global warming winds up being, threats against those who question the “norms” and current beliefs are an affront to the past 300 years of scientific inquiry and the modern scientific method where current beliefs are challenged and modified to conform to successful challenges. The current crop of climatologists seem so insulated from criticism of their theories and so mired in groupthink mentalities that any criticism of either methodology or conclusions results in bad faith questions about motivations, competency, and ethics and quite frankly reminds me sense from The Crucible. Whenever questioning of current scientific belief is shut down, science suffers.

[4]
Posted by: Alexander
July 10, 2007 - 08:08AM
Massachusetts

Richard from Chicago has distorted what was actually said in the interview. Bob, in asking Heidi about her position, characterized it as advocating for a requirement that a meteorologist must have "at least fundamental climate change training." In her response, Heidi expressed a desire that he or she be "up to speed on the state of the science."

This is different from Richard's summary of Heidi's position. He attributes to her a desire "that meteorologists who question anthropogenic global warming should be decertified and not allowed to practice their profession."

[5]
Posted by: Richard
July 10, 2007 - 01:14PM
Chicago

Clarification: It was comments on her weblog that the American Meteorological Society should revoke their accreditation of any meteorologist who questions the current groupthink mindset surrounding global warming.

[6]
Posted by: No longer viewing
July 28, 2007 - 04:04PM
East Coast

After being huge fans for years, we have opted not to watch the Weather Channel due to their obsession with integrating global warming gloom and doom into EVERY forecast. It's simply boring and agenda driven. We now get our weather from Weather Underground and avoid the spin.

[7]
Posted by: pete
October 25, 2007 - 08:34AM
N.E. newjersey

HA,HA,HA, here we go again; working,OUTSIDE,my job depends on the weather.weather forcasters here inN.E. have no clue[DOPPLER]stop me from laughing,WEATHERCHANNEL, same.finally my job takes me to florida;;;[where they prepare for bad weather]when i get there i won,t have aTV

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