The issue of climate change and the impact of severe weather have become a political hot button and a topic that can quickly boil over into fierce arguments, fueling our feelings of impotence and apathy. But we don’t have to be trapped in “us-versus-them” binaries. Jesus offers an alternative throughout the gospel: Love each other.
When you are at a dinner party, or just at the water cooler at work, what could possibly be a more neutral and banal conversation piece than the weather? Many of us avoid conversations about religion or politics in polite company, leaving us with weather to dominate our conversations. We check the weather every morning before we get dressed, factoring in the chance of precipitation before deciding on what we will wear. We watch the weather ahead of an outdoor gathering like a family reunion. Weather forecasts help us make the day-to-day decisions of our lives. Forecasts also help us prepare for weather emergencies; the right weather forecast can be a lifesaver, quite literally.
A recent episode of RadioLab, a podcast from NPR, explains the history of weather forecasting, beginning with Irving P. Krick, the man credited with providing President Eisenhower with the forecast that made D-Day a success.1 Krick, however, was not popular among other meteorologists, particularly since they collaborated on the forecast, and Krick’s prediction was actually incorrect. The prediction that was ultimately offered to President Eisenhower was not the one Krick favored. He was spurned by colleagues for taking undue credit.
Nonetheless, Krick gained notoriety for his weather predictions and was soon asked by Hollywood movie makers to provide weather predictions to set filming dates. Krick realized there was money to be made on weather predictions, so he left his job at CalTech and started his own consulting business providing weather forecasts to customers with a vested interest in what the weather would be. Krick primarily interpreted data from The National Weather Service, but he dreamed of a day when weather would be privatized and private companies would provide forecasts using their own data.
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