Heat wave, intense rainfall, drought: weather presenters are at the forefront of climate change. Instead of contenting themselves with announcing rain and fine weather in a light tone, they now take advantage of their bulletin to explain these phenomena and their impacts, while making the general public aware of their seriousness.
“Before, the weatherman would shy away from the map and say, ‘Today it will be sunny, not sunny, it will be hot, not hot.’ Now he realizes that the information he has in his hands can also help a global cause,” says Patrick de Bellefeuille.
A well-known figure on the small screen, Patrick de Bellefeuille has been telling Quebecers about the weather on MétéoMédia for more than 30 years. What was only supposed to be a passage to launch his career finally became a vocation. Over time, the presenter has developed an expertise on climate change and has seen his role completely change.
For years, weather forecasters confined themselves to announcing the temperatures, the strength of the wind or the amount of precipitation. For several years, they have been popularizing, explaining and contextualizing meteorological phenomena. A way to raise public awareness of climate change and its consequences, while fighting misinformation.
The recent freezing rain storm that hit southern Quebec is a good example. While some have begun to mistakenly compare the situation to the 1998 ice storm, Radio-Canada news service meteorologist Waldir Da Cruz took advantage of his time on the air to put the two events into context. . “Yes, unfortunately over a million people were without electricity, but it was a very, very short event compared to 1998. To allow people to understand the difference, I said to them: ‘Take the accumulations received in Montreal [le 5 avril dernier], multiply them by three and imagine receiving them for 6 days.” That was it, in 1998,” he explains.
Find the middle ground
The two speakers agree: with such a forum, the choice of words, tone, expressions is important. “Meteorology is not an opinion, it is a science. […] For decades, the way of presenting it suggested that it was something simple and light, but it is not,” says Waldir Da Cruz.
He gives the example of heat waves, a phenomenon that now occurs almost every year. “Rather than saying: “We will have to take advantage of it, it will be hot”, we must explain why these heat waves are more and more recurrent, but also their consequences. There are people who suffer from it, ”he explains.
” There jobit is not to give a feeling to the weather, but to stick to the facts and the analysis”, adds Patrick de Bellefeuille, who also gives training courses around the world.
The danger, of course, is to fall into sensationalism and scare the public. We remember the case of Marc Hay, weather journalist for the French channel BFMTV. Last summer, when the country was experiencing a series of heat waves, he dropped a drama on the air: “France is going to burn. While some saw it as a cry from the heart from a discouraged presenter about the lack of awareness in society, others criticized his alarmist tone.
“In itself, it’s not a stupid idea, especially since he can afford it, at BFMTV. It went around the world, it made an impression, ”admits Patrick de Bellefeuille. He nevertheless prefers to set aside the editorial and find the happy medium. The idea is neither to hide in the sand nor to make everyone panic, but to inform correctly.
Climate bulletin
If sometimes he himself feels discouraged by the situation, he keeps his spirits up by telling himself that one day at a time, presenters and meteorologists around the world will help change the opinions and habits of citizens. From Belgium to the United States, via Poland, Brazil or Argentina, the majority of his colleagues have taken this tangent to talk about climate change.
And beyond the work of the presenters, it is downright the format of the weather reports that we are starting to change in certain countries, notes Mr. Bellefeuille. The weather segment is getting longer and longer, to add context, advice and sometimes even mini-reports. This is the case recently of the public channels France 2 and France 3, which have transformed their weather report into a “weather and climate newspaper”.
Meteorology is not an opinion, it is a science. […] For decades, the way of presenting it implied that it is something simple and light, but it is not.
For her part, the director general of information at Radio-Canada, Luce Julien, is not closing the door to one day changing the format of the weather segment of the television news, but she does not feel the need to do so for the moment.
Climate change and its consequences already have a large place on the various platforms of the public broadcaster, she underlines. “We didn’t make a big statement like Tea Guardian on the climate emergency, but the word of the info that we wrote in December is a bit like a declaration of intent: “Look, for us, the environment is really important, it’s is at the heart of our priorities.” »