The German weather presenter bringing climate
change into millions of living rooms
One German TV meteorologist says weather reports must
adapt to the era of global warming.
Özden Terli believes that in drawing on his expertise
as a meteorologist, he’s able to communicate the climate context more directly
than journalists |
BY ZIA
WEISE
SEPTEMBER
2, 2022 2:56 PM
https://www.politico.eu/article/german-weather-presenter-climate-change-million-living-room/
And now,
the weather.
It’s a
familiar phrase that has millions perking up in front of their televisions to
find out if they’ll need an umbrella the next day or whether they can plan
their weekend barbecue.
Özden Terli
tells them. But as climate change upends Europe’s weather patterns, he
increasingly finds he can’t leave it at that.
“Good
evening and welcome to the weather report. Extreme drought, heat and forest
fires — the climate crisis can be felt first-hand this summer,” he began one
broadcast this August before showing viewers how yet another heat wave would
travel from Spain across France into Germany over the coming days.
By
Annabelle Dickson, Esther Webber and Emilio Casalicchio
Terli, a
meteorologist and television presenter for Germany’s public broadcaster ZDF,
believes he has a duty to point out the link to global warming. Weather
reports, he says, must convey the realities of climate change.
“When you
stand in front of the camera, in front of millions of people, that comes with a
certain kind of responsibility,” he told POLITICO. “Particularly after the
Paris Agreement, it was clear to me that weather reporting must go in this
direction.”
Ever since,
he’s challenged expectations of what weather forecasts should look like — an
effort that’s been met with both praise and hostility.
Different
approach
Weather
reports are taking on new meaning in the era of climate change: Heat waves,
floods and other extremes are becoming more frequent and more intense as the
planet heats up.
Terli
believes that TV meteorologists, unlike news reporters, can demonstrate this
connection in a way that’s far more immediate and accessible.
“There’s a
drought, and I’m showing the graphic with the lack of rain, the change in
precipitation values. The context is right there, the link is immediate,” he
said.
There’s
another reason TV meteorologists are particularly well-placed to communicate
the effects of global warming. Weather reports are considered apolitical;
studies in the United States, Australia and Norway, for example, have shown
that weather presenters are trusted sources of climate information.
Terli
believes that in drawing on his expertise as a meteorologist, he’s able to
communicate the climate context more directly than journalists, who he says
tend to “hold back and talk in the subjunctive.”
But he’s
not keen on casting himself as a climate communicator — "I’m not trying to
educate anyone, I’m presenting facts” — and gets defensive when asked if he’s
trying to reach audiences that news reporters can’t.
“This kind
of question comes up because some assume that meteorologists who communicate on
climate change are trying to achieve some sort of [political] goal,” he said.
Online
battles
While he
says the praise for his focus on climate change far outweighs criticism, he
also faces the occasional backlash.
Last
summer, in the middle of Germany’s election campaign, the country’s top-selling
tabloid Bild implied Terli and his colleagues were campaigning on behalf of the
Greens with their reports.
“They’re
only supposed to predict the weather. But for some time now, TV weather
presenters have been explaining in detail the temperature curves of recent
years and climate change,” wrote the tabloid, which, like POLITICO, is owned by
publisher Axel Springer.
Bild went
on to mention Terli by name and asked: “Objective information or secret climate
election campaign?”
But not
mentioning the link between extreme weather and climate change would equal
deliberate omission, Terli counters.
He and his
like-minded colleagues aren’t motivated by politics, he added. “We do it
because it’s the reality out there. We have to get the facts about climate
change out, get them to people,” he said. “It’s not my problem if the Greens
are particularly active on this topic.”
But while
Terli’s weather reports are delivered with the sobriety of a public television
presenter, he shows far less restraint on social media.
In between
factual posts about weather extremes, he frequently vents his frustration over
inaction on climate change, fights with climate deniers and argues with
politicians.
“On
television, I’m impartial, almost emotionless, and on Twitter, it’s the
opposite,” he acknowledged. “That’s a private account and I put it all on
there: Sarcasm, irony, wit, and the facts. And why not? A meteorologist is also
human.”
His online
battles with climate deniers have shown him that there are some who “don’t want
to understand,” he added. “But it doesn’t matter. In principle, they’ve already
lost. You only have to look outside.”
Summer of
extremes
Terli
doesn’t mention climate change in all his reports — he usually has just over a
minute to run audiences through the temperatures, precipitation levels and wind
strengths for the coming days from the Alps to the North Sea.
But he also
occasionally appears on regular news shows as an expert to explain extreme
weather events, and earlier this year traveled to Norway’s Svalbard archipelago
to report on the accelerating ice melt in the Arctic.
“Seeing
with my own eyes what’s changing there, that was crazy,” he said. “And then
what happened this summer was remarkable.”
Over the
past few months, Terli repeatedly found himself standing in front of a map of
Europe tinged red to illustrate temperature anomalies, screens showing the lack
of rainfall or graphics of stuck high-pressure systems baking the Continent.
He devoted
one report to outlining how the dramatic collapse of an Italian glacier came
about and others to breaking down monthly data from the EU’s Copernicus
satellite climate change service. When a record-smashing heat wave rolled over
Europe in July, he began by telling viewers it was part of a warming trend
brought about by climate change.
Terli has
an idea of what to expect as climate change progresses — but says he struggles
to imagine the weather of the future. Nor does he know how weather reporting
will change.
“Perhaps
weather reports won’t exist anymore. Maybe we’ll have climate reports instead,
with the weather on the side,” he said. “I have no idea where this is going.
This summer was already so extreme — I can’t imagine what we’ll see in 10
years’ time.”
"These scenarios are not science
fiction" - ZDF meteorologist Özden Terli defies critics
Created: 02/20/2022, 06:15 By: Rudolf
Ogiermann "I only present the facts": Özden Terli (51) presents the
weather in the ZDF news. © Torsten Silz / ZDF The weather seems to be going
crazy more and more often. There is definitely a connection with the climate,
as meteorologist Özden Terli often addresses on
"These
scenarios are not science fiction" - ZDF meteorologist Özden Terli defies
critics
Created:
02/20/2022, 06:15
By: Rudolf
Ogiermann
"I
only present the facts": Özden Terli (51) presents the weather in the ZDF
news.
© Torsten
Silz / ZDF
The weather
seems to be going crazy more and more often.
There is
definitely a connection with the climate, as meteorologist Özden Terli often
addresses on ZDF.
The weather
expert in an interview.
Munich -
Heat, heavy rain or currently storms - it's not uncommon for new records to be
set in the daily weather report, which has long been much more than a forecast
for the next few days.
Especially
when Özden Terli is on duty at ZDF.
The
51-year-old studied meteorology and has been employed by the Mainz broadcaster
since 2013. In his weather presentations in the news formats from Morgenmagazin
to today journal, he often addresses the connections between weather and
climate*.
Born in
Cologne, he is also active on Twitter, where Terli has many fans, but has also
been called a "charlatan" or "propagandist".
ZDF weather
expert Meteorologist Özden Terli in an interview
Mr. Terli,
you used to watch the weather forecast to know whether you needed an umbrella
the next day or whether you could go out in the street in a T-shirt.
Today there
is often a lesson about climate change...
Because we
are living in a climate crisis - with weather phenomena that were predicted by
scientists 30 years or even longer ago: that the concentration of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere will increase, that temperatures will rise, that
there will be more and more extreme weather events .
And that's
exactly what's happening.
And because
meteorology is the physics of the atmosphere, climate change cannot be
separated from the weather*.
So every
once in a while there's - as you say - a lesson about that, because viewers
should know why things are the way they are.
If climate
change plays such an important role in meteorology today, was it too neglected
in weather reports in the past?
I can't say
anything about the situation in Germany.
In the USA,
the oil industry torpedoed climate science for a long time - that has been
scientifically processed.
Compliance
with the climate targets – compensation for the poor?
When there
is talk of meeting climate targets, politicians and the media keep asking how
the poor are supposed to pay for the ever-rising energy prices.
Of course,
the poor need compensation.
But
basically you have to ask the question: What is the alternative?
Do we want
to drive the world against the wall because politicians have not taken the
necessary steps in recent years?
Or do we
want to change things in a way that benefits everyone?
So is the
question not valid?
Of course
she is entitled.
But I also
want to give you another answer: not only the poorer ones, we all have to pay
for it if nothing changes, and very expensive indeed, also in a figurative
sense.
When sea
levels rise, when temperatures rise, people will die, and many others will flee
and stand at the gates of Europe, in far greater numbers than before.
These
scenarios are not science fiction, they will become real if we just continue on
a business-as-usual course.
You are
also attacked for your excursions into climate policy.
How do you
deal with that?
If you're
constantly concerned with the changes in the atmosphere and in the cryosphere
of the earth - that's everything to do with ice, with melting glaciers in
Antarctica for example - then you have to have an opinion on it.
I therefore
find my digressions into climate policy appropriate.
And if I'm
attacked for stating the facts, that's not my problem, it's the problem of
those who attack me.
Interview: Rudolf Ogiermann
.jpeg)
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