Climate Matters

Climate Matters was an NSF-funded one-year pilot test of the premise that when TV meteorologists report local stories about climate change, their viewers will gain a more science-based understanding of the issue. The project was co-developed by a local TV weather team (WLTX Television, Columbia, SC), a university (George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication), and a non-profit educational organization (Climate Central). They formed a partnership to produce Climate Matters using peer-reviewed studies to produce the content. Work began in 2009, using peer-reviewed studies and NOAA NCDC data to develop thirteen on-air stories and related web content that was used over the course of a year. The story topics were chosen based both on their local relevance and on their potential to provide viewers with information about climate change that was novel and useful to them.

Climate Matters launched on-air in July 2010. A number of challenges were faced in airing the segments including time constraints due to elections, weather, conversion to high definition television, and a re-launch of the station's website. All of the stories were eventually aired and were subsequently hosted in the newly created Climate Matters portion of the station's website. Examples of the on-air product and web content will be shown. Pre- and post-surveys - using both cross-sectional and cohort designs -- were conducted of Columbia area residents to evaluate the project's impact. Preliminary results demonstrate that exposure to Climate Matters led viewers to develop a more science-based understanding of climate change, confirming our hypothesis and validating the premise of our partnership.

Key finding: When weathercasters educate about climate change, their viewers learn.