Description:

The Climate Matters program--which now supports more than 900 broadcast meteorologists nationwide as local climate educators-- is playing an important role in improving public understanding of global climate change and its local impacts. In this panel we will give a brief overview of how the program has developed over the past decade (including the important role of AMS in its development); describe the profound evolution of US TV weathercasters’ views about climate change during this period; demonstrate the program’s localized, science-based climate reporting resources; and provide evidence from various evaluation studies which support the conclusion that TV weathercasters are having a demonstrable impact on improving public understanding of climate change in communities across America. We will also look forward to discussing the planned developments to the program, including how we responded to the pandemic by converting our in-person educational workshops for meteorologists and journalists into a sophisticated online training program to support local, science-based, climate reporting. The multi-media master class will include videos, interviews, and additional segments with distinguished professionals in climate science, journalism, and communications.