Longtime weatherman and television personality Al Roker revealed Tuesday that he is speaking at a White House climate change event with the hope of influencing the Biden administration’s approach to climate policy.
Roker told NBC’s “Today” that he is currently in Washington, D.C., to speak to the White House’s sustainability and climate change units about the importance of climate policy. Roker said that while the Biden team knows climate change is important, it’s also important for policymakers to get the perspective of people like himself who report on the issue.
.@alroker also discusses his attendance at a climate related event at the White House. pic.twitter.com/h9JtbZAxlU
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) September 27, 2022
Notably, Roker is a weatherman, not a meteorologist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from the State University of New York at Oswego, which he attained in 1976, and no post-graduate degrees. He first became a weather presenter for a local CBS affiliate in 1974 and was hired by NBC’s national flagship in 1983.
The trip won’t be Roker’s first to the White House. In 2013, Roker revealed that he had previously pooped his pants during a trip to the White House in 2002 after undergoing gastric bypass surgery.
“I think it’s important for everybody to keep having a conversation, a dialogue about what’s happening,” Roker said Tuesday. “These are policymakers, but folks like us have to report on it to folks that are viewers, so it’s a great thing to have a dialogue so that we all know what each one is thinking about, so that we can go forward and hopefully help mitigate what we’re seeing with this climate crisis.
Roker added that he needed to share “what we feel is important that our friends in government need to know about all this.” (RELATED: Sen. Klobuchar Suggests The Only Way To Stop Hurricane Disasters Is To Vote Democrat)
The iconic TV host’s other experience includes hosting coverage of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, hosting Celebrity Family Feud and co-authoring several murder mystery novels.