Whenever people switch sides, it grabs our attention: Stephen Colbert to the Late Show … Johnny Damon to the Yankees … Darius Rucker to country music.

And now Greg Fishel, chief meteorologist for WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was the first certified broadcast meteorologist in the U.S., but he did not believe humans played a role in climate change.

Fishel: “I was a hardcore skeptic for most of my adult and professional life.”

But one morning, he woke up with a question.

Fishel: “Greg, are you doing the same thing that the people you’re criticizing are doing, in that you’re only looking for information to support what you already think?”

So Fishel sought evidence from a wide range of experts. And came away with a new understanding.

Fishel: “Nobody is absolutely sure what the climate’s going to be like in 50 or 100 years, just like I can’t tell you exactly what the temperature’s going to be like in Raleigh tomorrow afternoon at three, but just because I don’t know everything doesn’t mean I don’t know anything. We still know a lot. And we still know enough to realize that we’re messing with something that we probably shouldn’t be messing with.”

In preparation for a half hour TV special, Fishel traveled the continent to interview experts. He hopes the program will help his viewers better understand climate change.

Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media/Justin Bull.

Photo: Greg Fishel (credit: WRAL News Documentary screenshot).

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