Final answer:
The statement represents an appeal to authority fallacy by trusting a local weather person's opinion on global warming over that of unknown experts. It ignores the scientific consensus and peer-reviewed research that confirms global warming as a significant issue caused by human-induced changes in greenhouse gas levels.
Step-by-step explanation:
The fallacy presented in the statement: "Watts has been doing the weather on the local channel for over ten years. I put more stock in what he says about global warming than in somebody I never heard of" is an example of the appeal to authority fallacy, sometimes also referred to as argumentum ad verecundiam.
This logical fallacy occurs when someone argues that a claim must be true simply because it is made by someone perceived to be an authority on the subject. However, even experts can be wrong, and the validity of a claim should be assessed based on evidence and scientific consensus, not just on the authority of the person making the claim. In the context of global warming, it is important to consider the peer-reviewed research and the consensus among climate scientists, which overwhelmingly supports the idea that global warming is a real and pressing issue largely caused by human activity, as evidenced by the understanding that 97% of climate scientists agree on anthropogenic climate change.