by Jonathan Hiskes This week in TV-news bashing, we learn that significant numbers of TV weathercasters are serving as climate-change experts, without training in climatology but with lots of confidence in their ability to opine on the subject. Here’s what it means for your weekend. Here’s why this forms a perfect storm of poor understanding: Meteorologists tend to be skeptics . Of 571 TV weathercasters surveyed in a George Mason University study , only 31 percent understand that climate change is happening and is mostly human-caused. Twenty-seven percent consider it a “scam,” though virtually all well-respected scientific institutions affirm the reality of the phenomenon. This isn’t their specialty . Meteorology (studying near-term weather) and climatology (studying long-term patterns) are completely different fields, remember. They consider themselves qualified . Large majorities of surveyed weathercasters said they are fairly or very well informed about the causes of global warming (93 percent), the consequences of it (89 percent), and the ways to reduce it (86 percent). They don’t all trust climatologists . Only 44 percent said they trust the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , the world’s foremost body for weighing and assessing climate science. The New York Times suggests a populist tension shapes this—climate researchers have doctorates and work at universities; TV meteorologists can get hired with a bachelor’s degree. But Americans trust their weather person . A study earlier this year found that 56 percent of Americans trusted weathercasters to tell them about global warming, says the Times . That’s far more trust than, say, Al Gore or Sarah Palin enjoy on the issue. Nobody else does it . Ninety-four percent of the surveyed meteorologists said their stations had nobody reporting full-time on environment or science. So it’s a problem. Heidi Cullen , a former Weather Channel climatologist now with Climate Central , tells the Times why the two professions aren’t really in conflict. “They are not trying to predict the weather for 2050, just generally say that it will be hotter,” she said. “And just like I can predict August will be warmer than January, I can predict that.” And Joe Romm reliably flips his lid on media outlets that treat meteorologists as climate experts: “Memo to rest of media:

More on SKCEA.org:

• In the News: Mekong dolphins on brink of extinction
  The population of Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River numbers just 85 individuals and may be on the brink of extinction, according to research by WWF. The researchers also found that calf survival was very low and that the overall population is in decline. A small population l...
• Good lord, American homes are huge
  by Jess Zimmerman. This infographic from the BBC shows how much newly built North American, and especially U.S., homes dwarf those currently being built in Europe. The average new U.S. home is more than twice as big as the average new home in the U.K. ...
• U.S. roads are built to break
  by Jess Zimmerman. Why do we have to pour so much of our transportation money into highway infrastructure? Well, because 50 years ago, the U.S. decided to structure roads in a way that was cheap to build but expensive and difficult to maintain. It's the infrastructure equiva...
• New Islands
  What is an Island? Land that is surrounded by water. Islands are always being created and sometimes destroyed. Earth has 657 more barrier islands than previously thought, according to a new global survey by researchers from Duke University and Meredith College. The researchers id...
• What Google predicts for the future of life on earth
  by Jess Zimmerman. XKCD has collated Google's predictions for the next century, and it is dire, and also optimistic, and also weird. Another excerpt and some key findings below the fold, or see the whole thing here . Here's how the future is shaping up, according to Goog...