UPDATED: Twitter address and a Petition
Phillipe Vernier, France 2
Philippe Verdier is a household name in France where he does the weather on the nightly news on “France 2”. He’s releasing a book “Climat Investigation” being launched right now, outing himself as very much a skeptic, saying top climate scientists “have been “manipulated and politicised”. He decided to write the book because a year ago he was horrified when the French Foreign Minister got all the weather presenters together and urged them to use the term “climate chaos” in their broadcasts.
The France-2 response to force him off air is the best publicity his book could get. The Streisand effect will do his book sales a big favour. But lets hope wisdom prevails, and he is able to keep doing his job. Send feedback to “France 2” about this forced holiday — what better proof that free speech hangs by a thread, and the edifice of the Great Global Warming Scare is only maintained by bullying and intimidation. About half of all meteorologists are skeptics. How many of them don’t speak up out of fear? The 97% consensus is not created by science but by coercion.
France’s top weatherman suddenly off air, because of skeptical book questioning climate change
Telegraph
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.
Dear Phillipe, welcome to the club of scientific dissidents. It’s a big group and growing fast.
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.
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.
Read the rest in the Telegraph
UPDATE: His twitter account, for starters: @philippeverdier. As Ian says, get in touch!
UPDATE 2: Tweet — @france2tv #JeSuisPhilippe Le changement climatique est une religion! @JoanneNova (Thanks for the suggestion Rex)
UPDATE 3: A note about a petition
Dear Jo, dear all, we (collectif des climato-rélaistes) have launched a (worldwide) petition to support Philippe Verdier, in the name of freedom of speech, and also because most of us share his views on the climate change (pseudo-)science and on the (dys-)functioning of IPCC. Please join the petitioners The webpage gives you more details (in french and English).
On behalf of Philippe, many thanks in advance for your support