“The thing that impressed me the most is how much a 1 ½ degree difference makes in a place like Alaska,” Fain said. “There, when it is supposed to be snowing and freezing but it is 32 ½ degrees, it makes a huge difference. Glaciers melt; it affects nature. When you start to see it first-hand, it teaches you that something is going on.”

Schechter has reported more than 60 of his Verify Road Trip stories. He has taken a viewer to find out whether the border wall effectively controls illegal immigration. He has explored viewer questions about river pollution and Internet rumors. But until now, he said, local TV stations have not deeply explored climate change. He thinks he knows why.

“I think as a reporter you really need to know your material before you make it digestible for the public,” Schechter said. “When it comes to covering climate change, there is so much to learn that it is intimidating. It was for me. You have to know so much to understand it enough to defend the points that I was going to put into my story.”

The Verify project depends on research. Schechter often seeks out government and academic research to get to the core of complex issues. And that is where he said the climate story surprised him.

“I have never seen so much research on anything as I did on climate change,” he said. “Hundreds and hundreds of studies and they all basically come to the same place. I do not consider there to be two sides to this story.”

A recent poll found that 63% of Texas voters worried about climate change and nearly two-thirds supported the government doing something to tackle it.

But the study says that a substantial number of Texans doubt climate science. WFAA decided that the best way to gain viewers’ trust in its reporting was to take along someone who was more like those skeptical viewers.