Chris Gloninger spent the last 18 years breaking down Iowa’s latest local weather news. This week, he is making the news.
A TV meteorologist in Des Moines resigned as a result of harassment from climate deniers.
A small but loud and aggressive group on the far right thinks it can cancel science when it contradicts their ideological extremism.
After spending the last two years as chief meteorologist at Des Moines news station KCCI, a CNN affiliate, (Chris) Gloninger announced Wednesday he is resigning as one of the many faces of local TV weather. His departure comes months after receiving a series of harassing emails from a viewer who disagreed with one thing he did on-air: he explained how weather was linked to the climate crisis. He also received other negative feedback via private messages and social media, which has become a common experience for weather and climate communicators. The decision was not easy, Gloninger told the Washington Post, but in a tweet announcing his exit, he cited a “death threat stemming from my climate coverage” which he said resulted in post-traumatic stress.
Death threats directed at people advocating real science are nothing new. We know how Galileo was persecuted by the Catholic Church for daring to prove Copernicus correct.
The emails from the viewer, according to screenshots Gloninger’s tweeted, called the meteorologist a “liberal conspiracy” theorist and told him to “go east and drown from the ice cap melting.” It escalated last summer when he received a more menacing threat from the viewer. “It is mentally exhausting and at times I have not been ok,” Gloninger tweeted at the time. “The threat of course was concerning, but the stream of harassing emails is even more distressing.” Gloninger said he plans to “embark on a new journey dedicated to helping solve the climate crisis,” in addition to spending more time with family. His last day is on July 7. A statement from KCCI about his departure said Gloninger plans to go into climate consulting: “Gloninger is leaving television to focus on caring for his family and his own mental health. He plans to pursue work in climate consulting.” Gloninger’s experience is not an isolated one. Climate change has become a highly politicized topic, despite hundreds of global scientists concluding it is “unequivocal” that humans have caused the crisis and that “widespread and rapid changes” have already occurred around the world. Climate communicators, journalists, meteorologists and national weather services, including those in the US, Spain and Australia, have reported an increase in harassment, threats and abuse for connecting extreme weather events to climate change.
Some climate stripes to stick it to those halfwit climate deniers.
There's an organization called 3.14 Action which is dedicated to electing more people with a science background to Congress and to public office in general.
3.14 Action | Electing scientists who will use evidence and facts to fight climate change and fix our broken healthcare system.
One of their successes in 2022 was helping meteorologist Eric Sorensen get elected to the US House from a swing district in Illinois.
Science is science, it's not something you bend to fit your ideology.
