TV Weathermen Aren’t Scientists

In a nearby riding, Kitchener Centre, Progressive Conservative candidate Dave MacDonald is running for election for the Ontario government. He is a former weatherman for the CTV network in southwestern Ontario. In Canada, there is no accreditation to allow the qualified to say they are a meteorologist. So, anyone can say they are a meteorologist, including Dave MacDonald.

Here is an article stating that MacDonald has little or no qualifications. It also gives his quote: “There’s still a lot of controversy over what the cause of climate change is.” He’s trying to give the impression that any climate change observed might not be man made. He’s setting up his poor environmental record party to get out of paying for anything environmentally conscious.

The jury is not out on the man made cause of climate changes. We’ve changed climate at least since the 1940’s with cloud seeding which changed the amount and timing of precipitation. The jet age ushered in contrails which have both cooling and heating effects on climate. The ozone layer has both dwindled and rebounded due to the effects of man and legislation. This effects the quality of sunlight on earth and thus the climate.

Notice I haven’t mentioned the obvious build up of carbon in our atmosphere and its effect of warming up the atmosphere. See Venus if you don’t believe the greenhouse effect. It’s the hottest planet but it is further from the Sun than Mercury.

It is so obvious that man fundamentally changes his entire environment now, that the current age is called the Anthropocene. Yes, this is a geological term – we have such a major effect on our planet that it is being noticed in rock formation all over the world. The anthropo prefix stands for human.

Maybe Dave MacDonald is too ignorant to want to memorize the pronunciation or spelling of Anthropocene. This might tax his science technician brain.

But this slight hint of science credibility really seemed to “work” for the federal Conservatives. Gary Goodyear used his chiropractor skills as an in to get the minister position for science and technology. Would we put a technician in charge of a PHD with lots of experience? The federal Conservatives would, especially if he tried to open the door for creationists to also be in charge of the scientists.

But back to weather man credentials. Here are the lyrics to the Arrogant Worms song “TV Weather Guy”. You can even listen to the song for free there or purchase it. The Arrogant Worms could easily have written this about Dave MacDonald, even though they were writing from Kingston, not Kitchener.