Climate Change: Why It's Not Changing the Minds of Weathercasters

With over 700 heat records broken in June and the ferocity of Hurricane Sandy, one would think weathercasters would address the possibility and threat of global warming. The reason for this, Rolling Stone's Jeff Goodell believes, is the weathercaster's refusal to accept the evidence of global warming made apparent by climate scientists.

Goodell argues that most weathercasters do not have advanced credentials and are just bright personalities like Al Roker. By ignoring global warming, they are failing to fulfill a scientific duty on a nightly basis. More than a quarter of today's meteorologists call global warming a "scam."

Co-founder of the Weather Channel, John Coleman, has said that global warming is "a fictional, manufactured crisis." How does somebody required to know a great deal about weather and its now unpredictable patterns not believe clear and close to indisputable evidence of global warming?

Another example of contradiction is weatherman David Bernard, who has gone on to call global warming "a global wealth redistribution." Bernard, a weatherman for a CBS affiliate in Miami, is now moving toward network television with CBS as a severe weather consultant. Bernard, however, found it more important to post 131 pictures of his dog on Facebook in June rather than pictures that should have been of the extreme high temperatures that month.

What we must do is incorporate and address global warming in our weather forecasts. Though it is difficult to incorporate it within such a short segment, weathercaster Jim Gandy has found an audience for the subject through his segment titled "Climate Matters" in Columbia, South Carolina.

Global warming is not a new idea. Why then do people, yet alone weathermen, still not understand that human activity is causing abnormal climate patterns? The solution to educating society about global warming is simple: it must be incorporated in weather segments by experts, not meteorologists with a bright personality.

Songwriting: A Weapon of Choice

For the past decade, a treatment other than a copious amount of antidepressants and anxiety pills has been sought for returning soldiers. This treatment lies in musical expression, and it is working.

Songwriters Darden Smith and Radney Foster are working side by side with veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder by helping them write, compose and record the music that they make during their stay at the Texas retreat.

Smith has released over 12 country albums since the 1980s, and Radney has created hits for himself along with stars like Keith Urban and the Dixie Chicks.

More and more fathers and husbands are coming home with battle scars as well as emotional scars. With feelings of severe depression, anger and anxiety, veterans don't have an outlet other than alcohol. What Smith and Foster are doing is saving lives. 

Sgt. Josh Hartman, a soldier whose vehicle ran over an IED in Baghdad, has found comfort in writing and recording songs about his traumatic experiences during his two tours of duty in Iraq. The finished product, "The Soldier Game," was the first of ten tracks recorded alongside fellow soldiers Staff Sgt. EJ Obregon and Sgt. First Class Scott McRae that weekend. 

"To take those things we were talking about and all of a sudden, it's music, that was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life. That's the best therapy I've had since I've been home," says Obregon.

The story and mission of Smith and Foster's retreat deserves to be Spin's spotlight article, the very first story the site's viewers see. Readers are usually welcomed by some underground, hipster indie artist trying to make it to the radio waves, ultimately ending the whole hipster image. The point is, however, that music publications must sometimes put artist profiles on the back burner for musicians making a difference.

Radney Foster embraces Staff Sgt. EJ Obregon

I applaud Spin for its in-depth coverage of a music retreat literally saving the lives of veterans. The personal and graphic stories told by the soldiers featured in David Peisner's article give readers a sense of how skewed reality is for soldiers returning home with PTSD and a lot more baggage than they originally left with.