18 GENIUS INTERVIEW Greg Gilderman & Kevin Hayes
is incredibly important – but doesn’t really engage the average news consumer in the same way as a story about a person whose livelihood has been destroyed because of climate change. In the case of our podcast series, we’re looking at scientists who have been attacked by the misinformation apparatus. These folks have had some really serious consequences to their lives. FEED: There often seems to be a split between news and weather with the TV meteorologist – even physically separated from the rest of the newsroom. Where do you draw the line between weather and climate reporting and ‘the news’? GREG GILDERMAN: Most people in the US get information about climate and weather from the meteorologist who’s giving them a short-term forecast. We think it’s important to have those same trusted on-camera meteorologists explain what’s happening with climate change. I would encourage other news organisations, whether it’s a small TV station or a major news network, to let their on-camera meteorologists have that same freedom to tell the full story when it’s appropriate. KEVIN HAYES: We did a project last year called The Exodus, which looked at climate migration and again looked at the other ancillary impacts that often aren’t talked about. Our reporter, Rachel Delia Benaim, went to Jordan and interviewed two groups of people there. She interviewed
WHEN IS IT APPROPRIATE TO PULL CLIMATE CHANGE INTO THESE STORIES? FOR US, THE ANSWER IS USUALLYWHEN THE SCIENCE SAYS SO
WINDS OF CHANGE As extreme weather events become more frequent, The Weather Channel reports on the human impacts
olive farmers from Jordan whose olive trees are dying and she interviewed Syrian refugees at a refugee camp, and she looked at the intersection of issues of water management, drought, war and migration, again through the lens of climate change. It’s an interesting question. When is it appropriate to pull climate change into these stories? For us, the answer is usually when the science says so.
There are different levels of confidence in how individual weather events are being impacted by climate change. We know that flood and drought events are going to increase on average in a lot of places. We know that extreme heat is going to increase in a lot of places, again on average. So it’s following the lead of what’s been established and not over-emphasising things that haven’t been.
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