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Geneva is truly an international city. Important people from all over the world live here, and this might explain why.

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Jay Travel, Weather climate change, diplomats, Geneva, WCC-3

From the World Climate Service-3 conference in Geneva, a big international meeting setting the stage for what will be a major climate change treaty to be ratified in Copenhagen in December. Judging by what we have seen here, one would suspect the nations of the world will have to make some serious compromises in the negotiations ahead.

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admin News, Weather

Geneva, Switzerland, is one of the world’s great cities. It is also a little expensive.

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admin Travel

This is the first in what will be a series of podcasts expected to originate in Europe. By way of introduction, we talk a bit about the drag of jet lag.

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Jay Travel jet lag, video podcast

Television meteorologists who make school visits inevitably get the same question from youngsters: “How much money do you make?” When speaking to adult groups there is another, equally uncomfortable question that comes up: “What do you think about global warming?”

We do our best to answer, as we are members of the scientific community and expected to give guidance on such matters. But it is hard to find the upside of giving an answer that, according to statistics, puts any television meteorologist (on either side of the issue) at odds with approximately 50% of their viewers.

Take the case of two excellent TV meteorologists who work in adjoining markets in Alabama: Dan Satterfield from Huntsville, and James Spann from Birmingham. Both are among the very best at what they do. Each is considered the dean of weathercasters in their markets; both are very smart guys and fine gentlemen. They both study climate science and talk with experts in the field. But they have come to an honest, carefully considered difference of opinion. Dan Satterfield believes in manmade global warming. James Spann does not.

James has received the greater attention. He was interviewed on national television for criticizing former Weather Channel climatologist Dr. Heidi Cullen, after she suggested that weathercasters who deny manmade global warming should not be certified by the American Meteorological Society. (The AMS has issued public statements about climate change.) Dan has long written about climate issues, and two years ago proved his sincere interest by paying his own way to the Arctic to report on the effects of warmer climate there.

Both James and Dan have received substantial ridicule and abuse for taking their thoughtful positions. James was blamed for creating a “cyber storm.” Dan has been accused of joining “with other recent frustrated ‘believers’ in man-made climate fears.” An emailer said Dan seemed to “prefer the practices of the inquisition.” 

Most of the angry rhetoric has come from outside of Alabama, from critics who don’t know either man or how seriously they do their jobs. Just as with national opinion polls, the feedback about climate change tends to break along party lines. In advising fellow broadcasters who might be tempted to take a stand on climate change, James Spann cautions:

I would warn anybody that dives into this issue (they) will pay the price with a pile of hate coming from one political party or another.

Jay Science, Television industry, Weather

As we make our way through the middle of July, with kids wasting away the days counting down to next month’s new school term, I am reminded of the circumstances under which I began spending my childhood summers outdoors rather than in front of the TV set. Not that my brothers and I were couch potatoes… but Saturday morning cartoons and afternoon comedy reruns (The Monkees, Gilligan’s Island, The Munsters, etc) had been the focus of our non-school recreation time.

I can’t remember what year it was, but I do remember the May afternoon of my youth on which it happened. I came home from school and turned on our black and white television. But rather than a favorite program growing from the single dot in the middle of the screen as the picture tube warmed up – my siblings and I were horrified to see nothing but snow.

When my father got home from work, we pleaded with him to call the repairman to come and fix the family TV. My dad said he couldn’t afford it at the time, so we would have to find something else to do. Rather than watching television, we were forced to spend the rest of the spring and summer months playing outside – stuff like pick-up baseball games, bike hikes, and the swimming pool.

In autumn, after school resumed, we came home one day to find mother watching TV. Apparently dad had been able to get the television fixed, and we went back to our viewing routine through the fall and winter months.

The following year, as the weather warmed up, the TV ironically went on the blink again. Once more we exchanged TV time for outdoor activities.

It seems like the yearly cycle occurred a couple more times, as I grew out of childhood into a young teenager who developed an interest in tinkering with things. Eventually, I turned my attention to the broken TV set. I was a little afraid as I ignored the stern safety warnings on the pasteboard rear panel of the set, opening it up to reveal a maze of wires and tubes. I noticed there was one small tube laying at the bottom of the TV box, and realized its array of pins fit perfectly into an empty socket below the picture tube. I plugged in the tube, powered up the TV, and was overjoyed when the disabled set glowed to life.

When dad got home that day I met him excitedly at the door, and explained how a tube had somehow worked itself loose, and that I had just saved him a big repair bill by fixing the television set myself. Curiously, there were no congratulations coming my way. Dad just walked upstairs to the dinner table.

I wasn’t the stupidest kid on the block, but it actually took a fair bit of thinking before I realized dad had been chasing us outdoors for the past few summers by sabotaging the TV. As I look back in hindsight, I realize what a great idea it was. My brothers and I actually developed fair skill sets in various sports, and my sisters enjoyed playtime outside with their friends. I am certain many of our active hours would have been wasted vegetating had it not been for the untimely breakdown of our only TV set.

My own kids aren’t so gullible, so I have to be straightforward in my insistence that TV time be limited in favor of summertime exercise, be it swimming or biking or walking the dog. Getting the kids outdoors could be a lot easier for me – except that I have no idea how to loosen a chip on an integrated circuit board in a color TV set.

Jay Television industry exercise, television

The climate change debate came to a rocky perch in western South Dakota the other day. Eleven activists representing Greenpeace slipped into a restricted area, climbed over the top of Mount Rushmore, and unfurled a huge banner containing President Obama’s picture, challenging him with the statement, “America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming.”

While the activists generated publicity, they evoked no sympathy. Park visitors jeered the eleven as they were taken away in handcuffs. One tourist yelled, “Put them in jail.” Another called it degrading, saying “They’re just idiots for doing stuff like this and ruining something that means something to other people.”

In retrospect, one wonders why Greenpeace would overplay a winning hand. President Obama is on the same side of the climate change issue, so why embarrass him by demanding even stronger, more aggressive political action? The president’s sweeping cap and trade climate change bill passed the House, but will be fiercely fought in the Senate. So why pull off a stunt that antagonized onlookers (and voters) for no apparent reason?

Accounts of the incident were carried in newspapers nationally and internationally. The environmental website therenewableplanet.com headlined, “Mount Rushmore ‘Defaced’ by Greenpeace.” The website of the Chronicle newspaper in San Francisco (where four of the arrested activists are from) seemed to excuse the act, which it said “included an apt, and symbolically powerful, message.”

San Francisco aside – even those who favor climate change legislation have to be shaking their heads at Greenpeace. Hijacking a national monument does nothing to change minds or attract converts to the green side of the climate change debate.

Jay News climate change, Greenpeace

Three years ago, while attending a conference in eastern Europe, I was invited to an evening social gathering hosted by the local British ambassador. At one point, the ambassador asked if I thought it was possible to get the Kyoto treaty ratified in America.

Kyoto was an international agreement under which industrialized countries (as a whole) were to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses to 5.2 percent below what they were in 1990. It was legislation aimed at curbing manmade climate change identified by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Most of Europe and the rest of the world approved.

I replied to the Ambassador that I did not think it was possible to get the Kyoto treaty ratified in America. I did not see how my country would agree to self-cripple  industries and transportation systems. Besides, as recently as 1997, the US Senate passed a resolution stating opposition to the Kyoto treaty – and passed it by a 95-0 vote.

Since then, climate change has become a hot issue, with substantial funds spent to burn the fires of discourse. But, cue the fire extinguisher – there is no point in debating any further.

The US House passed President Obama’s Cap and Trade Act. No one in Congress is sure about everything in it (it is 1500 pages long), but they do know it will strictly limit greenhouse gas emissions in America. The same principles opposed unanimously in the Senate twelve years ago have now been approved 219-212 in the House.

President Obama and his administration have been masterful in reversing a tide of opposition into a groundswell of support in the halls of Congress.

Jay News, Weather