by
One
of France’s top weathermen, Philippe Verdier, has been sacked from his
job on TV network France 2, for questioning the global warming
orthodoxy.
In a controversial book that challenges climate change titled, Climat Investigation
(Climate Investigation), Mr Verdier says that leading climatologists
and political leaders have “taken the world hostage” with data that he
says is misleading.
Telegraph.co.uk reports:
In
a promotional video, Mr Verdier said: “Every night I address five
million French people to talk to you
about the wind, the clouds and the
sun. And yet there is something important, very important that I haven’t
been able to tell you, because it’s neither the time nor the place to
do so.”
He added: “We are hostage to a planetary scandal over climate change – a war machine whose aim is to keep us in fear.”
His
outspoken views led France 2 to take him off the air starting this
Monday. “I received a letter telling me not to come. I’m in shock,” he
told RTL radio. “This is a direct extension of what I say in my book,
namely that any contrary views must be eliminated.”
The book has
been released at a particularly sensitive moment as Paris is due to host
a crucial UN climate change conference in December.
According to Mr Verdier, top climate scientists, who often rely on state funding, have been “manipulated and politicised”.
He
specifically challenges the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, or IPCC, saying they “blatantly erased” data that went
against their overall conclusions, and casts doubt on the accuracy of
their climate models.
The IPCC has said that temperatures could rise by up to 4.8°C if no action is taken to reduce carbon emissions.
Mr
Verdier writes: “We are undoubtedly on a plateau in terms of warming
and the cyclical variability of the climate doesn’t not allow us to
envisage if the natural rhythm will tomorrow lead us towards a fall, a
stagnation or a rise (in temperature).”
The 330-page book also
controversially contains a chapter on the “positive results” of climate
change in France, one of the countries predicted to be the least
affected by rising temperatures. “It’s politically incorrect and taboo
to vaunt the merits of climate change because there are some,” he
writes, citing warmer weather attracting tourists, lower death rates and
electricity bills in mild winters, and better wine and champagne
vintages.
Asked whether he had permission from his employer to
release the book, he said: “I don’t think management liked it, let’s be
honest.”
“I put myself via this investigation on the path of COP 21, which is a bulldozer, and we can see the results.”
The
book was criticised by French newspaper Le Monde as full of “errors”.
“The models used to predict the average rise in temperatures on the
surface of the globe have proved to be rather reliable, with the gap
between observations and predictions quite small,” it countered.
Mr
Verdier told France 5: “Making these revelations in the book, which I
absolutely have the right to do, can pose problems for my employer given
that the government (which funds France 2) is organising COP [the
climate change conference]. In fact as soon as you a slightly different
discourse on this subject, you are branded a climate sceptic.”
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