TV station fires climate sceptic forecaster

A weather forecaster for French state television has been fired after releasing and promoting a book criticising politicians, scientists, and others for what he calls an exaggerated view of climate change.

Philippe Verdier’s dismissal from France-2 comes a month before Paris hosts a UN conference aimed at the most ambitious worldwide agreement yet to limit global warming.

He announced the dismissal in an online video in which he described it as an attack on media freedom.

France Televisions, which owns France-2, would not comment. French media reported that the network said Verdier had violated ethical rules.

Many media organisations have guidelines about journalists publicly expressing personal opinions on subjects they cover.

Verdier was initially suspended a month ago, after his book initially came out and he sent an open letter to French president Francois Hollande saying the climate conference “won’t solve anything.”

In an online video he released at the time, Verdier criticises “complete hype on the climate” by scientists, politicians, business lobbies, environmental and religious groups.

“You are dramatising things to underline your will to gather the world’s powerful and defuse a pending cataclysm,” he wrote to Hollande.