![]() ![]() That visibility makes them an easy target for someone looking to vent their rage,” said Mersereau, the weather journalist.Īnd because climate change denialism has been linked to other forms of online extremism, meteorologists have a unique role in being able to bring familiar credibility to combat misinformation for a local audience. They’re on television every day, and their forecasts are omnipresent whenever you hop online. “Meteorologists are the most visible scientists in our daily lives. Added to their predictions of precipitation and reporting on snowfall measurements, meteorologists have begun to develop a televised discourse on climate change in an effort to combat climate misinformation. “TV meteorologists, unlike news reporters, can demonstrate this connection in a way that’s far more immediate and accessible,” he told Politico Europe.Īs climate change transforms coastlines, consumes forests and upends hundreds of millions of lives, it follows that the local weather report has become a cultural and political warzone. A German meteorologist has centered climate change in his weather reports to counter growing climate change denial. In response, meteorologists have felt the need to get political themselves. In Hungary, two meteorologists were fired over forecasts, ultimately inaccurate, that put a damper on patriotic celebrations, part of the government’s general crackdown on media in the country. Meteorologists in Sweden had faced backlash ahead of the country’s general elections last year because of a “misleading image” that falsely claimed to show proof of “climate hysteria.” Screengrabs of weather forecasts are being manipulated to show weather patterns and temperatures that allegedly prove that climate change is not real. Weaponizing weather has made meteorologists a target, and not only in the United States. “It’s hard for folks to separate daily weather from long-term climate patterns, especially now that we’re feeling the effects of climate change’s influence on extreme weather.” ![]() It’s easy to conflate the two, if you don’t understand the difference,” said Dennis Mersereau, a weather journalist in Reidsville, North Carolina. “Weather is your mood, the climate is your personality. Many cite local weather to bolster their claims of climate change denial. Chemtrail conspiracists often share the same messaging as other conspiracy theorists, like adherents of the “Great Replacement Theory.” Researchers have estimated that between 30% and 40% of Americans believe in elements of the chemtrails conspiracy.Īdverse weather events like the latest catastrophic hurricane, heatwave or winter storm energize conspiracists. This conspiracy has been re-upped many times in recent years, especially during moments of uncertainty or social panic, such as during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Chemtrail conspiracists often mistake the trails of water vapor expelled by airplanes flying overhead for chemicals. government manipulates the weather for nefarious reasons by releasing chemicals into the atmosphere from aircraft. One of the most durable has been the chemtrails theory, which holds that the U.S. Weather manipulation conspiracies have been around for decades. They claimed that the hurricane was, in fact, a political instrument targeting opponents of vaccine mandates and anti-transgender legislation - baseless and absurd claims that gained currency on social media, especially among some Republican supporters. ![]() House in 2020, and Lauren Witzke, who campaigned for a U.S. But storm path models rapidly evolved in the run-up to the hurricane, sparking spurious allegations from two Republican candidates: DeAnna Lorraine, who ran for election to the U.S. Many in Florida’s Tampa region prepared for the landfall of Hurricane Ian, which, models had predicted, would hit their area. A vocal opposition has formed against TV weather forecasters and the science of meteorology.įormer political candidates have conjured claims that last October’s devastating Hurricane Ian was engineered by the “Deep State” to destroy Republican governor Ron DeSantis’ reputation. ![]()
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