'Climategate' Undermined Belief in Global Warming among Many TV Meteorologists, Study Shows

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://eagle.gmu.edu/newsroom/853/

'Climategate' Undermined Belief in Global Warming among Many TV Meteorologists, Study Shows

Feb. 22, 2011

Media Contact: Tara Laskowski, [e-mail] 703-993-8815

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FAIRFAX, Va.—A new paper by George Mason University researchers shows that 'Climategate'—the unauthorized release in late 2009 of stolen e-mails between climate scientists in the U.S. and United Kingdom—undermined belief in global warming and possibly also trust in climate scientists among TV meteorologists in the United States, at least temporarily.

In the largest and most representative survey of television weathercasters to date, George Mason University’s http://www.climatechangecommunication.org/index.cfm">Center for Climate Change Communication and http://cssr.gmu.edu/">Center for Social Science Research asked these meteorologists early in 2010, when news stories about the climate e-mails were breaking, several questions about their awareness of the issue, attention to the story and impact of the story on their beliefs about climate change. A large majority (82 percent) of the respondents indicated they had heard of Climategate, and nearly all followed the story at least "a little."

Among the respondents who indicated that they had followed the story, 42 percent indicated the story made them somewhat or much more skeptical that global warming is occurring. These results stand in stark contrast to the findings of several independent investigations of the emails, conducted later, that concluded no scientific misconduct had occurred and nothing in the emails should cause doubts about the fact which show that global warming is occurring.

The results, which were published in the journal http://www.ametsoc.org/">Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society, also showed that the doubts were most pronounced among politically conservative weathercasters and those who either do not believe in global warming or do not yet know. The study showed that age was not a factor nor was professional credentials, but men—independent of political ideology and belief in global warming—were more likely than their female counterparts to say that Climategate made them doubt that global warming was happening.

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[Jim__]

1. That speaks more to the knowledge and understanding among those TV metoerologists ...

... than it does to anything else.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Sadly, people listen to them

I mean, let’s face it. The average US citizen trusts that jovial fellow they see on the TV every evening more than some know-it-all chicken-little “climate scientist” who says the world’s gonna fry like an egg.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/269929/april-06-2010/science-catfight---joe-bastardi-vs--brenda-ekwurzel