Let’s be clear about the difference between climate and weather. The climate of a particular location is determined by compiling 30-year averages of data points like rainfall and temperature. This is not to be confused with the day-to-day, short term meteorological events—that, of course, is “the weather.”

Every once in a while, we’ll hear about an important new assessment of the current climate or a new report on climate trends, but only if you’re listening pretty closely. However, we’re constantly bombarded by weather reports from the more than 1,000 television meteorologists in the United States. While they’re not climatologists, they do have scientific credentials and credibility with the public and usually serve as the main source of climate information for the average American.

Unfortunately, however, there are many meteorologists who deny the existence of human-induced climate change, and the Forecast the Facts campaign (@ForecastFacts) is trying to hold them accountable. The site calls out meteorologists who have denied the science of climate change on the air or in public.

The Forecast the Facts campaign launched last week, right before this week’s American Meteorological Society (AMS) annual meeting in New Orleans. This year, the AMS will present a new statement on climate change that supports the consensus scientific view regarding human impacts on the climate. It’s important that the AMS pass this statement and strongly convey it to members as the organization’s official position on global warming.

You can join the Forecast the Facts campaign and sign a petition urging the AMS to pass and promote the new statement. For more on TV meteorologists who deny climate change and the crazy things they’ve said on the air, read this article from ThinkProgress.

By Philkon Phil Konstantin (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Across the country, TV meteorologists are denying climate change, and guess what? They're often the main source of climate information for average Americans.