PARIS, France (PNN) - November 2, 2015 - Philippe Verdier, a household name in France for his daily weather reports on the France 2 channel, announced in an online video that he had received a letter of dismissal.
“My book, Climate Investigation, was published one month ago. It got me banned from the airwaves,” said the weatherman, who was put “on leave” from the TV station on October 12. “I received this letter this morning and decided to open it in front of you because it concerns everybody - in the name of freedom of expression and freedom of information,” said Verdier.
His announcement comes four days after France Télévisions chief, Delphine Ernotte, told French MPs that Verdier had been summoned to a formal interview that could lead to his dismissal.
An employee who picked up the phone at France Télévisions on Sunday morning said there were no PRs present to confirm or deny Verdier’s dismissal.
The controversy around Verdier’s claims has likely been heightened by their timing, with his book coming just weeks before the start of a much-anticipated United Nations climate change summit, known as COP21, to be held in Paris at the end of November.
“I put myself in the path of COP21, which is a bulldozer, and this is the result,” Verdier said in October.
He said he was inspired to write the book after France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met with TV meteorologists and asked them to highlight climate change issues in their broadcasts.
“I was horrified by this speech,” said Verdier.
In his book, Verdier accuses state-funded climate change scientists of having been “manipulated” and “politicized”, even accusing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of publishing deliberately misleading data.
He also argues that there are “a great many positive consequences to global warming,” such as lower consumption of fuel used for heating and fewer cold-related deaths in winter.
“I am being punished for exercising my freedom of expression,” said the weatherman.
