Doom, Gloom and the Weather

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."--Bob Dylan

The hole in the ozone layer is closing. I learned this coincidentally from a BBC report on a recent Antarctic expedition.

I know that climate change is real, that we must act, that the world is at risk and that California is still in a drought, despite nonstop rain which has warped my front door, made the ground too soggy to walk on without boots, and left me with something short of sunny spirits.

A couple of weeks ago, I met a man who looked me right in the eye and said "I always thought 'Pollyanna in Hell' would be a good theme for an opera." (Pollyanna, of course, was the perpetual optimist in the books of Eleanor Hodgman Porter, 1868-1920.)

Be that as it may, I wonder why weather reports can't emphasize the positive (such as letting us know the hole in the ozone layer is closing). Instead of headlining CONTINUING DROUGHT (or whatever fear-mongering weather report pertains in your part of the world), couldn't they point out that the hills are green, that new little trees are coming up in the places raked by wildfires last summer?

The late lamented Christian Science Monitor, now available only on line and no longer as a broadsheet newspaper, had an editorial policy of emphasizing the positive. The word "death", for instance, was not used. Journalism school had a standing joke about a Christian Science Monitor headline, "Passed-On Pigs". But what's wrong with this? Does refusing to buy into a doom-and-gloom perception indicate denial or ignorance?

"A tree crushed three cars when high winds and rain-soaked earth caused the two-ton tree to topple onto Highway 17 today." That's one way to say it, frightening the east-west commuters, making everyone suspicious of trees and presenting one (dark) perception of an event. Another way would be to point out that not a single driver was injured, that other drivers passed the word down the road, that work crews cleared the tree in record time, that the tree was diseased and could easily have caused trouble had it fallen during commute hours, that the firewood would be distributed to state parks.

Nicodemus' father was a weather man, long before the development of satellites and whatever other sophisticated technological devices weather forecasters use. He would hitch up his suspenders, sniff the air, and say "Looks like moderate rainfall today."

So what's the weather like where you live?