MetEd/NorLatMet: MetEd's Northern Latitude Meteorology Community

Weather and the Environment Initiative

Environmental Education & Tools for Broadcast Meteorologists

A recently released NEETF/Roper report concludes that the majority of Americans "have a fairly high and mostly inaccurate opinion that they know more about the environment than they actually do." For example, "45 million Americans think the ocean is a source of freshwater, 120 million think spray cans still have CFCs in them though banned in 1978, another 120 million people think disposable diapers are the leading problem with landfills when they are about 1% of the problem, and 130 million believe that hydropower is America’s top energy source, though it accounts for just 10% of the total."

Noting that "meteorologists are powerful and trusted science communicators," the report recommends organizations like AMS, NSF, and NOAA devote more resources toward educating broadcast meteorologists on local environmental issues "so they can convert the weathercast to an environmental cast."

NEEF's Earth Gauge Initiative is one such effort intended to help you bridge the environmental information gap. So far, this initiative has resulted in:

• Pilot projects in 6 media markets reaching 25 million viewers
• Development of the Earth Gauge^TM environmental information service
• Implementation of this Broadcast Met Community Website on MetEd

Watersheds: Connecting Weather to the Environment

Click here to go to the Watersheds course

As a further extension of our involvement with this initiative, the COMET Program is developing a course of condensed learning modules on environmental issues specifically tailored for use by broadcast meteorologists.

This course introduces watersheds as the environmental context wherin the combined affects of weather events and human activities determine water quality, quantity, and ecosystem health. Each unit provides the scientific context for key aspects of the watershed dynamic. Units are accompanied by useful tips that viewers can apply locally to guard or improve watershed health. There are six units in this course, each taking approximately 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

Unit 1: Watersheds

Why is the concept of a watershed as an environmental neighborhood important? In this unit you will learn what a watershed is and how this concept came into being. You will also see how this concept relates to the communities and backyards of your broadcast audience and learn how to look up your local watershed online.

Unit 2: Watershed Systems

Watersheds within a broadcast area will usually be part of a nested hierarchy of multiple, interconnected watersheds. Because of this, weather events usually have impacts beyond the watersheds where they occur. Therefore, the health of your local watershed depends on the health of upstream watersheds, and what happens in your local watershed can affect the quality of downstream watersheds. This unit will help you understand these interrelationships.

Unit 3: Water Sources

Precipitation events obviously have direct bearing on watersheds and the natural processes in them. This unit looks at water storage and movement within a watershed and how these processes determine water quantity and quality. You'll also learn what's happening to many of our nation's groundwater systems and what individuals can do to help protect and conserve these precious resources. Finally, you'll learn how to identify drinking water sources your community.

Unit 4: Water Quality

Relatively few Americans know how pure their drinking water is, or where most drinking water contaminants come from. As water from precipitation moves through a watershed, contaminants that affect water quality can be picked up, distributed and concentrated in the local water supply. This lesson identifies some of the main sources of water contamination, and lists actions individuals can take to protect water quality.

Unit 5: Storms and Floods

Obviously, precipitation events have the greatest potential for affecting the environmental health of watersheds and watershed systems. This unit describes the types of flooding caused by heavy precipitation events and the impact of flooding on a watershed. Also, this unit describes how the built environment within a watershed can affect the impact of flooding on the environmental health of a watershed or watershed system.

Unit 6: Drought

Single weather events such as a convective storm can dramatically impact a watershed, but weather cycles can also have a cummulative effect on a watershed. This unit examines drought as a major watershed event, including its various manifestations and impacts. You'll also learn what it takes for a drought to end, and get some story ideas for feature reporting on this topic.

Click here to go to the Watersheds course

Coming soon

Coming soon is a one hour course on the interaction of weather, the built
environment and watershed health. Human decision making, both individual
and collective, in regard to the use of environmental resources within a
watershed can affect the health of the watershed ecosystem as well as the
way of life within the watershed. The human built environment in all of
its forms and uses can either increase or decrease the impact of weather
events and climate change. The course, a part of the Earth Gauge
program conceived by the National Environmental Education and Training
Foundation in alliance with the AMS' Station Scientist initiative, will be
a further addition to the Eyes on the Environment curriculum.

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