James Marshall Shepard, a former NASA climate scientist and current director of the Atmospheric Science Program at the University of Georgia, said that in the wake of Hurricanes Helen and Milton, meteorologists are facing an unprecedented threat. They say they are being subjected to a wave of harassment. Some people got the message that scientists should be killed. Some have been cursed or told to shut up. Social media posts also target FEMA workers, suggesting they should be beaten, arrested, shot or hanged if seen.
Sheppard said climate change skeptics have long accused weather forecasters of pushing what they see as a “climate change agenda.” But things took an ugly turn this month when conspiracy theorists accused scientists of covering up an alleged government plan to manipulate the weather and send storms into Florida and North Carolina. “Harassment used to be a fringe element,” Shepard, a former president of the American Weather Association, said in an interview. Yale University Environment 360. “In this last episode, it became a little more mainstream.”
He said the already stressful job of tracking extreme weather events has become even more stressful due to misinformation spread primarily on social media platforms. Such campaigns can also threaten lives if people don’t heed forecasters’ warnings or if beleaguered emergency workers fail to do their jobs.
To combat misinformation and educate the public about weather and climate, Shepard and other meteorologists took to social media themselves. But he acknowledges that not everyone will be accepted. In some communities, trust in science and scientists is at an all-time low. Shepard said this was particularly worrying because “unless we take action and reduce our carbon emissions, extreme weather events will only get more severe.”
James Marshall Shepard.
Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Yale University Environment 360: Meteorologists have faced harassment over the issue of climate change for years. Is what we’ve seen recently a continuation of that, or are we entering new territory here?
james marshal shepherd: Climate scientists have been dealing with climate trolls, skeptics, and naysayers for decades. I think it’s an extension of that. During the two recent hurricanes, the tone and amount of harassment increased considerably. Now, I think part of that has to do with the fact that we’re in an election year. Back in 2012, I remember people making similar claims about Superstorm Sandy, that the government created the superstorm to interfere with the election. The difference is that in the past, harassment remained a peripheral element. This last episode went a little more mainstream. That’s a cause for concern.
e360: What kind of reactions do you get when you tell people you’re a meteorologist?
shepherd: “Oh, climate change is natural,” or “It’s just a hoax. You guys are making it up to get subsidies.” He came to me and said, Humans cannot change the weather or climate. ”But now some of those same critics push conspiracy theories, saying we control hurricanes or cause storms, and attack us when we counter with real science. That’s what I’m doing.
e360: There’s not much logic behind a lot of this.
shepherd: Conspiracy theories make it easier to understand and conform to what people already believe or want to believe. There’s a complete psychology to it. There are still groups of people who don’t want to support climate change.
“Some climate scientists have left the field. I think that’s part of the intent of the harassment. They want to silence us.”
e360: What stories have you heard from colleagues about the psychological impact of dealing with these storms and the bullying that followed?
shepherd: I had this pit in my stomach all the way to Helen and Milton. You are predicting or analyzing data that shows that large storms will kill people or destroy lives and property. That in itself is a mental burden. But on top of that comes harassment and skepticism. James Spann, a very famous television meteorologist in Birmingham, Alabama, says: It will crush you. ”
e360: Have you ever seen a burnt out meteorologist?
shepherd: Some promising young meteorologists are leaving our field because they now have to do so much more than they used to simply stand in front of a screen and tell us the weather every day. There are some too. They have to leverage social media, submit environmental reports, and a lot of things that they probably didn’t expect.
Some climate scientists have left the field after facing threats and harassment. But I think that’s part of the troll’s harassing intent. They want to silence us.
James Spann (via Twitter)
e360: People become scientists and engage in research that expands human knowledge. Many people don’t want to get involved in politics, but they get caught up in it.
shepherd:I don’t think that’s necessary. I don’t get involved in politics. I testify before Congress and advise the White House. But I don’t see this as inherently political. I think others are trying to make it political. My philosophy has long been to simply state the facts from an expert standpoint.
e360: You distinguish between unintentional misinformation and intentional disinformation.
shepherd: Yeah. Misinformation puts lives at risk. We have seen people disobey warnings and threaten emergency responders. FEMA had to change some of its operations because the public was being threatened.
e360: You mentioned that you actively use social media. Why is it important to you?
shepherd:Most people now get weather information from apps and social media instead of turning on TV news channels. It’s much more difficult to track what is reliable in these formats. Academics like me believe that if we don’t get involved, the vacuum we leave will be filled by people with purpose. We must develop a vaccine based on the infection information that is circulating in the world.
“Milton went from Category 1 to Category 5 in less than 24 hours. This is a true sign of climate change.”
e360: There are people who think the federal government, and the Biden administration, is steering hurricanes toward red states.
shepherd: We don’t have the technology to do that. I’m a weather and climate expert. I say it clearly because I know it to be true. However, this kind of pressure exists in society now, when expert knowledge is not trusted.
e360: How well did meteorologists predict Hurricanes Helen and Milton?
shepherd: Helen and we were very aware that there was going to be an excessive amount of rain in the mountains and in Georgia. However, some people could not understand because there is no standard for something they have never experienced. These are extremely unusual events; [which] I’m going to see more. People said: “Oh, it’s just a hurricane. There’s going to be a lot of rain.” But we said a few days ago that it was going to be “excessive rain, 20 to 30 inches.” That’s exactly what happened.
The second hurricane, Milton, caused excessive anchoring [in the media] In the storm category. saffir simpson scale [which assigns numbers to the strength of hurricanes] It’s the scale of the wind. That’s often what the media focuses on and the public tends to pay attention to. many [meteorologists] Researchers focus less on categories and winds because they consistently show that the most deadly aspect of hurricanes is water, whether it’s storm surge or inland freshwater flooding from rainfall. I begged him to stop.
Debris left by Hurricane Helen in Marshall, North Carolina, September 30, 2024.
Javin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
e360: You talk a lot about the so-called “weather gap,” or the difference in how extreme weather events affect poor people versus wealthier people. Wealthy people often live in safe places and can afford to protect themselves.
shepherd: It’s much broader than income. The climate disparities caused by these extreme weather events have a real impact on all vulnerable communities, including poor communities, communities of color, young people, and older adults, who are disproportionately affected. they are [often] Less resilience and adaptability. You’re right, there were people in the same area who were similarly exposed and affected, but they had the means to get in a car and probably go to Atlanta and stay in a hotel for a week.
e360: Forecasts are generally becoming more accurate, but we still don’t know everything about hurricane strength.
shepherd: Course prediction has been greatly improved. Predicting intensity still takes time, and we know why. Track predictions depend on large steering conditions in the atmosphere that the model can pick up. However, the prediction of the intensity depends on the heat content of the ocean and the convection occurring within the cloud. These often do not have readily available data to incorporate into models. The energetics associated with hurricane intensification relate to things that cannot be controlled or explained by large-scale models.
e360: Climate change is shuffling the deck so quickly that it’s difficult to fully catch up.
shepherd: That’s why I’m very reluctant to say these are climate change hurricanes. We know that hurricanes occur naturally. It is scheduled to be held in September and October. But the Gulf of Mexico was unusually warm. More severe storms are forming and are rapidly intensifying. I think Milton went from Category 1 to Category 5 within 24 hours. This explosive development is the very signature of climate change.
It’s mind-boggling to see it happen almost exactly as we said. What’s even more worrying is that we’re still at the beginning. Unless we take action to reduce our carbon emissions, they will continue to rise.
