I would like to see a Minnesota Walking Day. http://www.colorado-volkssports.org. http://walking.about.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/walklist
I'm including an excerpt from a post to the ClimateConcern yahoo group. I understand that Minnesota discussion forums view global warming to be off_topic. Its not a long message so I hope this will be ok. Pat Neuman Chanhassen ============= --------- Forwarded message ---------- "Weathercaster's personal views distort their understanding of climate science" >From what I see and hear in the U.S., people continue to hear from the G.W. skeptics, thus many have no interest in learning the truth. As was stated earlier, NOAA and National Weather Service (NWS) are failing to inform, educate, alert and help prepare the public on climate-change / global warming. NWS has over 5000 employees, one or more offices in every state, and has direct communications with local and national media. NOAA headquarters takes its orders from the current Administration. NWS is under NOAA. The facts on global warming are not reaching the American people. What can be done about this? The media weather people have not been educated on climate change, yet they speak to the public every day... emphasizing a no global warming skeptic opinion. They should have been provided training on the subject of climate change years ago... from NOAA through NWS offices and staffs in the States. The following article points to this failure by government and media, do you agree? ------------ Weathercaster's personal views distort their understanding of climate science >From AMS Newsletter Volume 24, Number 5, May 2003 Snips: University of Texas Study Finds: The research showed that personal perspectives, not years of experience, market size, newscast position, science degrees, and seals of approval from accrediting organizations, shape weathercasters' views about climate change. Journalism professor Kris Wilson, Ph.D., who spent 10 years in television news, including time as a TV weathercaster, and holds a doctorate in geography specializing in climatology and climate change, conducted the research. "In order to influence public policy about global climate change, citizens need to be accurately informed," said Wilson. "The public's primary source of information about climate change is television. Identifying strengths and weaknesses in reporting may lead to a better informed public and eventually, better policy decisions." "Results from this study challenge the assumption that those trained in science are apolitical and offer another new twist on the concept of journalistic objectivity," continued Wilson. "As important sources of information, many weathercasters let their own personal views about global climate change distort their accurate understanding of the science." Only 22% of weathercasters correctly acknowledged the theory of global warming is accepted by most atmospheric scientists, while 58% thought the topic was still strongly debated. The greenhouse effect is one of the most well established theories in atmospheric science, but fewer than half (44%) of the weathercasters knew this. http://www.ametsoc.org/index.html ------------- ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! _______________________________________________ Twin Cities Metropolitan Issues Forum http://www.e-democracy.org/tcmetro Rules: Sign posts with real name. You may not post more than twice a day.
