Thinking Outside the Atmosphere to Save Planet Earth - A Panel Discussion

Given the push for governmental action internationally on climate change (whether the change is real or perceived, whether human-caused or not), it is really incumbent upon each of us to become better stewards of Planet Earth. Some 40 years ago, the push was for us to, “Think globally and act locally.” In the rush for governmental and organizational intervention (at all levels) to “save us,” individual contributions to the effort have all but vanished.

Yes, there are periodic beach clean-up days, a spate of Earth Day activities in April and other organized activities. But, one way this saving campaign can work is for committed individual activity with a personal focus. Toward this end, this panel proposes a voluntary plan for TV weathercasters to push this locally-focused effort. By using brief snippets including, but not limited to, bantering with people at the news desk, short produced social media videos, social media posts, blogs and other opportunistic situations, TV meteorologists, professional meteorologists, teachers and others can push for local and personal action. Designed to be like a 15 to 20 second “PSA,” but with a personal touch, each “Saving Planet Earth” message would be “planted" by a TV weathercaster without any political overtones. Any graphics that the local TV meteorologist would want to show would be locally generated. The messenger, a local personality and role model will be able to take a station scientist role and address an issue and a local action that is based on personal experience.

Sample messages might include

“That's right, Joe (anchor), I found an easy way to save gas, save money and reduce my carbon footprint. I just plan my trips around town in an orderly way, whenever I can, to lessen the number of miles I drive. Did it today…again."

“ Today, while taking my morning walk, I followed the OPOTAD approach. I picked up One Piece Of Trash A Day. Actually, today, I picked up 9 pieces. Just makes the place look a lot better. I then posted an image of my collection at FB (OPOTAD web site). I plan to do this every day when I walk. How about having the whole staff join in?"

Messages can be repeated on other days; they can support events like Earth Week; and they can become a focus for local news stories.

All that we are providing (besides the framework) are some “samples.” Each TV meteorologist would be expected to tell his/her own story and model the behavior we are trying to instill in folks. We would hope that TV meteorologists would share their samples via YouTube (we have set up a site) so that we can all learn from each other, possibly even having stories told that we might not ever have heard about.

Because not all on the panel are in the broadcast industry, blogs, magazine articles and other outreach efforts will also be explored.

We hope the panel discussion will generate other ideas that can be accomplished throughout the weather enterprise, making our community the movers and shakers for local climate action.

If you are TV meteorologist, a blogger, or just someone who cares about our home, won't you join us in this effort. Together, we really can save Planet Earth.