Meteorologist takes jab at DeSantis, lectures viewers about climate change — and it could backfire: 'Hurt station revenues'



A local Miami meteorologist took a thinly veiled shot at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over the weekend, urging viewers to vote in the name of climate change legislation.

Steve MacLaughlin, a meteorologist at NBC affiliate WTVJ-TV, used broadcast time to condemn DeSantis for signing a new law that essentially removes climate change as a policy priority in the Sunshine State.

'Bashing popular Governor DeSantis will hurt station revenues as advertisers bail out on controversial segments.'

MacLaughlin referred to the bill as the "Don't Say Climate Change" initiative, a reference to the lie that Florida once passed a "Don't Say Gay" law.

As he spoke, MacLaughlin displayed fearmongering graphics about weather records and couched his criticism in the fact that DeSantis signed the bill "in spite of the fact that the state of Florida over the last couple of years has seen record heat, record flooding, record rain, record insurance rates, and the corals are dying all around the state."

"The world is looking to Florida to lead in climate change, and our government is saying that climate change is no longer the priority it once was," he claimed.

"Please keep in mind the most powerful climate change solution is the one you already have in the palm of your hands: the right to vote," MacLaughlin continued. "And we will never tell you who to vote for, but we will tell you this: We implore you to please do your research and know that there are candidates that believe in climate change and that there are solutions, and that there are candidates that don't."

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Aside from the fact that MacLaughlin was describing weather — not climate — events, it's important to remember that officials only began keeping weather records in the 19th century.

To speak of records, then, can only refer to the small time in history in which weather records have been kept.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ryan Maue, a weather and climate expert, explained why MacLaughlin's climate activism could be bad for WTVJ's business.

"Viewers in large markets will just switch the channel if they don't want climate change lectures," Maue noted. "In Miami and Florida, in general, bashing popular Governor DeSantis will hurt station revenues as advertisers bail out on controversial segments.

"The weather minutes are very profitable, so not a good business decision to lean heavily into activism," he explained.

Viewers in large markets will just switch the channel if they don't want climate change lectures.

In Miami and Florida, in general, bashing popular Governor DeSantis will hurt station revenues as advertisers bail out on controversial segments.

The weather minutes are very…
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) May 20, 2024


In Maue's view, MacLaughlin is not actually serving WTVJ's audience.

"There is an underserved market in the media for climate variability and data/graphics. The public is naturally curious about extreme weather events," he said. "Hectoring viewers w/partisan politics will not serve that market."

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Climate scientist levels CNN reporter for claiming fossil fuels intensified hurricane — and then he drops the historical facts



Meteorologist Dr. Ryan Maue rebuked CNN reporter Bill Weir on Wednesday for claiming that fossil fuels and climate change are intensifying storms.

Before Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning, CNN anchor Abby Phillip asked Weir, CNN's chief climate correspondent, about how to protect communities from natural disasters, like hurricanes.

The question was flawed from the start because Phillip claimed that "warmer water, historically warm water" means "communities now are suddenly in the path of hurricanes where they have not been before." Still, Weir took the bait, connecting "wicked storms," fossil fuels, and climate change.

"Is there anything that can be done to protect [these communities] going forward?" Phillip asked.

"That's an amazing question," Weir responded. "It's the biggest, sort of trillion-dollar question about how you adapt communities like this to the world that we're already now living in at the same time trying to mitigate further more wicked storms down the road with more fossil fuel pollution."

Weir added that the cost of fossil fuel pollution-driven climate change is "becoming bigger with every storm."

"Science has been warning about this for a very long time. In many ways, it's been predicted," he claimed. "It's the speed that we're seeing these changes that has taken most folks by surprise."

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The CNN segment was completely misinformed, Maue later pointed out, because there was a major hurricane that hit in the same area as Idalia in the 19th century — long before widespread usage of fossil fuels.

"Except, the landfall of Idalia is only strongest along coastal area since 1896 Cedar Keys hurricane (125 mph) 125-years ago, well prior to modern fossil fuel usage," Maue wrote on social media.

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Maue, whose doctoral research focused on tropical cyclones, also exposed the reductionist connection that Weir and Phillip made between warm water and a strong cyclone.

"Why didn't Idalia rapidly intensify during the 3 days it sat over the NW Caribbean? Did someone forget to push a button or turn a knob?" he mocked, explaining the water in the Northwestern Caribbean is "very warm and deep."

Finally, Maue wondered why hurricanes in the mid-2000s — like Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, which formed over comparatively cooler waters — were significantly stronger than Idalia if the accumulation of fossil fuel pollutants is intensifying cyclonic storms through climate change over time.

Those are probably questions that Weir, whose college degree focused on journalism and writing, cannot answer.

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Meteorologist calls out MSNBC for using Bill Nye to boost climate change hysteria over weather events: 'A complete fraud'



Meteorologist and climate expert Dr. Ryan Maue blasted MSNBC on Monday for rolling out entertainer Bill Nye to blame recent weather events on climate change.

What happened on MSNBC?

The left-leaning network chose Nye, whom MSNBC labeled a "science educator," to opine about the significance of Tropical Storm Hillary, Maui wildfires, and record-setting heat over the central U.S.

"It's very difficult to tie any specific weather event to climate change, but if you like to worry about things, this is a great time," Nye alarmed.

"We have this huge heat dome with extraordinary humidity in the southern U.S., we have these very high winds in Hawaii, and then we have this enormous rainstorm that came through here, I live in Los Angeles," Nye continued. "This may be the beginning of things. And people like to throw around the expression 'new normal.' Well, it's not going to be normal. It's just going to get worse and worse, probably."

Worse than a 'new normal': Bill Nye on tropical storm Hilary, climate change www.youtube.com

What did Maue say?

The expert meteorologist pointed out the inherent problem with hosting someone trained in mechanical engineering to provide perspective about weather and the climate.

"You know it's serious extreme weather when MSNBC rolls out Bill Nye to drop some science knowledge on their viewers. He doesn't disappoint with a truly bizarre explanation for Hurricane Hilary," Maue said. "Bill Nye is a complete fraud."

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He added, "In more than 10 years of providing extreme weather and climate change commentary on television, Bill Nye has only managed to become dumber on every topic. His statements are nonsensical, head-scratching, absurd, and profoundly wrong."

Maue linked to an article that Washington Post meteorologist Jason Samenow wrote 10 years ago in which he condemned MSNBC for hosting Nye to discuss the weather.

"Why MSNBC turned to Nye for weather wisdom is headscratching, considering it has access to a stable of competent meteorologists at the Weather Channel," Samenow wrote at the time. "Nye has created some wonderful science educational programs for children, but a weather expert he is not."

It's clear the network has not learned from its past mistakes.

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Hillary Clinton literally blames Trump supporters for summer heat: 'Thank a MAGA Republican'



Hillary Clinton is literally blaming Trump-supporting Republicans for summer heat.

On Tuesday, the twice-failed presidential candidate responded to a tweet from the Center for American Progress, a leftist think-tank, that blamed "MAGA Republicans" for hot summer weather. It said such Americans are "pouring fuel on the climate crisis fire."

The CAP's inability to distinguish between climate and weather aside, Clinton took CAP's rhetoric and ran with it.

"Hot enough for you? Thank a MAGA Republican," she said. "Or better yet, vote them out of office."

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Yes, most American's are experiencing hot temperatures. But it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and hot weather is normal.

Even if the hot temperatures (which happen every July in the United States) were abnormal and caused by climate change, how could so-called "MAGA Republicans" be responsible for it? Is Clinton really arguing that a group of voters who have only existed for eight years (since the beginning of Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2015) are responsible for changing the climate in extreme ways in such a short period of time?

Clearly, her argument is bunk, and it, as climate scientist Dr. Ryan Maue pointed out, aligns with a directive from the New York Times to "politicize" weather events.


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Besides, it's just plain wrong to assert that heat currently being experienced in the U.S. is "unprecedented" or that climate change is the only explanation for it.

"Without climate change, July's summer heat in the U.S. Southwest would have been 'virtually impossible,'" Maue mocked on Tuesday. "I guess that's true if you memory hole 1925, 1930s, 1950s, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2012, 2020, etc. and the rest of the almanac.

"The Dust Bowl of the 1930s and 1980 stand out as so exceptionally hot, many decades ago, that no one would say without laughing that the recent July in Texas was unprecedented," he continued. "I guess politicizing the weather means we have to suspend disbelief and erase the past."

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It turns out that summer is hot and if you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

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