Wednesday
Oct142015
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Top French weatherman suspended for forbidden views
Oct 14, 2015 Books Civil liberties Climate: Sceptics ;)
France's top weatherman, Philippe Verdier has been suspended from work for publishing a book about climate change which suggests that the IPCC might be just a tad unreliable and more than a little politicised.
In his book, the author, who rejects the term "climate sceptic", notes "the many happy and positive consequences of global warming." It also highlights scientific uncertainty... [he] speaks of "manipulated science", "blinded media", "mercantile NGOs" and "religions in search of new creeds."
It will be Île du Diable for him then.
Reader Comments (78)
Je suis Philippe Verdier!
ooh la-la!
He's going to have the lefty cranks on his case - brave man - career suicide in France where the gubmint pulls rather a lot of media strings - Monsieur 'Olland and his team of goons are not going to like this.
Damned fine timing though :-)
15th October is the anniversary of the Met Office, via Michael Fish and the BBC, telling us all there was no hurricane on its way back in 1987. Some of us do remember that it was not the Met Office's finest hour. Michael Fish made his remark, following a viewer commenting on news from a French weather report.
I do not know whether this gentleman speaks English, but does he have the skills that the UK viewers expect from the BBC?
Robert Christopher has posted another link (Torygraph) on unthreaded:-
France's top weatherman sparks storm over book questioning climate change
The storm of 15/16th October 1987, is one that the Met Office and Global Warmists would rather forget, as it represented a failure of forecasting, only a few months after the Met Office got a sooper dooper new computer, and is the sort of weather event we were told would be more likely due to more CO2.
I have never heard why the French were able to forecast that storm.
A man with a book to sell, seeking publicity, with an opinion at odds with the French Government and EU scientific opinion, in the run-up to the Paris bunfight ..........
Sounds to me like a UK National newspaper or political outfit would find something to discuss with him, that might be of interest to the rest of the English speaking world.
tomo - Damned fine timing though
The location isn't bad either!
Green Sand and Robert Christopher
Cross posted! Wonderful timing!
2015 is shaping up to be the worst on record in climate science.
Ce livre.
C'est si bon.
J'imagine.
Allez Les Bleus!
[he] speaks of "manipulated science", "blinded media", "mercantile NGOs" and "religions in search of new creeds."
Haven't the French authorities proved him right by suspending him? I hope it is all good publicity for his book!
Truth is always the first casualty of war.
Philippe Verdier got it spot on.
The story is also in a “newspaper of record” in France, Le Monde. A Google Translate of that is here.
Le Monde alleges four major errors in Verdier’s book.
1. The uncertainties about global warming, "knowingly erased" by the IPCC?
2. The IPCC scientists, paid by governments?
3. In France, the milder winters are a good thing?
4. Climate models, unreliable?
Book on Amazon (Fr), has 6 reviews 5 positive only one negative. I don't trust online trans, maybe our French speakers could take a look?
Climat Investigation
Je Suis Philippe Verdier
Ditto
The book is on the 11th place among books in the french Amazon at the moment. Well done! I hope this helps the sales.
Allez M. Verdier! Il faut devenir le premier!
Moi aussi, je suis Philippe Verdier!
"Book on Amazon (Fr), has 6 reviews 5 positive only one negative. I don't trust online trans, maybe our French speakers could take a look?"
Judging from the debate on Amazon.fr the negative one seems to be from a usual and known activist-ecotroll who has not read the book.
Je suis Philippe Verdier aussi, excellent!
Moi aussi, Je suis Philippe Verdier
(Le Monde wasnt so fast scouting for errors in Pickety's tractate, lol)
You vill love climate change!
Sara Chan, thank you for posting that link, but the google translation did not make much more sense.
The criticisms of the book appear to have been written by someone very sympathetic to the IPCC's peer review process.
I am not sure whether this should disqualify someone from criticising a bus timetable.
Sure he'll enjoy his time in the Foreign legion. You don't get much weather in the Sahara.
Scorchio ! Scorchio ! Scorchio ! Scorchio !
Suspended for thoughtcrime.
This type of thing only convinces skeptics that they are right, and convinces others to join their ranks. People don't like bullies, and I think the state broadcaster will come to regret this move.
Just read the Telegraph article.
"He [Verdier] said he decided to write the book in June 2014 when Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, summoned the country’s main weather presenters and urged them to mention “climate chaos” in their forecasts."
Talk about a smoking gun. And - basically - blowing the whistle has got him fired. I wonder where the Guardian will stand on this whistle blower?
In the link to Le Monde given by Sara Chan that is supposed to refute Verdier's claims, there is a chart to prove that climate models are good at predicting climate. Interestingly the chart is from the TAR and goes to 2000. We are in 2015 and have the fifth assessment report already! Not a very neat job, but might fool the innocent...
And the explanation how the IPCC scientists are not paid by the governments is also quite funny...
We salute you Philippe Verdier!
It takes real guts to go against the Socialist nutters running the Elysee shebang, in collusion with Berlin and that Chicago green agitator in the White House - for this present French lot have set their hearts on concocting the Paris limitation emissions treaty
stitch upbollox.To wit, in France, all contrary views have been pounced upon by the jackbooted Vichy of Hollande's miserable collaborators regime. The French don't burn coal much at all, for they have nuclear and hence why they stymie and attempt to forestall and stick the boot in to any prospect of Britain exploiting its shale gas plays - doncha just love it - governmental French interference, via the auspices of the Brussels juggernaut?
Crier à Dieu pour le France!...... vive la météorologie française libre! Et...................Viva Marine Le Pen!- Le Monde alleges four major errors in Verdier’s book.
- 1. The uncertainties about global warming, "knowingly erased" by the IPCC?
Maybe a mistranslation but given that the IPCC's charter is to report on the risk of, and strategies to counter, the human influence on climate, don't you think the IPCC would want to play down anything that contradicts this claim rather than risk making itself redundant?
- 2. The IPCC scientists, paid by governments?
Paid or funded? Lots of science is now funded according to its relevance to government policy. The implied message is therefore you play ball with us and you'll get funding, don't play ball and you don't get funding. This also goes to findings of one paper setting up the next research grant.
- 3. In France, the milder winters are a good thing?
It's not like there's no deaths from the cold in winter that might not be so numerous with a degree or two of warming... It's not like the French could save on heating costs if they didn't have to heat their buildings quite so much...
- 4. Climate models, unreliable?
Dishonest La Monde won't publish the widely available graphs that show the models to be seriously wrong. Also the latest IPCC report said (WGI chap 9 and SPM, I think) that 111 of 114 model runs predicted greater warming that the temperature data from 1998 to 2012 (when the report was drafted) indicates. Of course your definition of "inaccurate" and "unreliable" might differ.
Sven, thank you for that! My google franglais is not so bad as I thought. This criticism by an IPCC fan of work criticising the IPCC seems to suffer from serious flaws.
It has IPCC written all over it.
The French establishment targeting someone to cover up their own failings is reminiscent of the Dreyfus Affair, hence presumably the Bish's reference to Devils Island.
The French Government already have enough problems with a lack of trust with the people. Handing the French evidence of a conspiracy, against the best interests of the French people is a bit dim at any time. The science has not improved in time for the Paris jamboree, but the scope for further climate science disasters has.
Undeniably, French clima-gravitas is inextricably linked with the impending December escargot fest.
Where is that 'valley' of the sane, described in 'Atlas Shrugged'?
As Sven mentioned above, the graph in section 4 of the Le Monde article, allegedly showing that models are accurate, is from the Third Assessment Report (2001). [Specifically, Figure 4 of WG1 SPM, based on Figure 12.7(c).] The article states [per Google Translate] "Climate scientists were able to verify the accuracy of their models multiple times, such as after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo (the Philippines) in 1991..." when the figure rather clearly shows that this model overstated the effect of Pinatubo by about a factor of 2.
Liberté, égalité, fraternité and free speech are alive and well in France. That is, as long as you do as you are told by the great leader.
Brave man - he simply voiced what the vast majority of people in France already knew.
The Government of France is trying to manipulate its people by fear.
"He said he decided to write the book in June 2014 when Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, summoned the country’s main weather presenters and urged them to mention “climate chaos” in their forecasts."
I can just see how the average French person is going to react to that!
The book is sold out or at least "unavailable". Also unavailable on amazon.fr's competitor fnac.com. He has a twitter channel here https://twitter.com/philippeverdier
On Amazon the phrase that introduces the book says. "Climate is today a war, a religion. All contrary opinion will be eliminated". Talk about proving his point! The one review of the book that is negative doesn't discuss the book contents at all; just nuclear and oil lobbies, author not qualified to give an opinion, overpopulation, overconsumption...."
When I lived there, I well remember a pamphlet in my local community from the Giec (IPCC) with a rebuttal of all sceptical points of view (which were not expunged in France then). The answer to the point made by one prominent sceptic that the planetary climate changes a lot all by itself was a picture of Mann's hockey-stick which was by then long discredited. The very next day I read a scientist berating Steve McIntyre and other sceptics for continually bringing up a 15 year old paper and that paleos had had already moved on from the hockey-stick. Yeah right!
So the IPCC was never other than a political construct and their summaries have never even reflected the report content! In France, as in the UK, the demonization of CO2 was originally a wheeze to sell nuclear power to the public. My how that strategy has backfired! In my lifetime Earth scientists have tried to blame fossil fuels for planetary cooling, acid rain, planetary warming and ocean acidification. When the data proves them wrong they just move on to something else. It's clear that they just don't like fossil fuels!
Roy has it bang to rights. Authorities don't like what he has said - so they suspend him. (ie they shut down the debate) Yet again climate clowns prove they will not debate contrary views, despite the simple truth that if their case was sound they'd win hands down every time, which would then shut down the debate by natural, legitimate means.
They haven't moved on much from the days of the Inquisition have they?
The storm of Oct 87 was not a hurricane! Michael Fish was correct. In the forecast on the Sunday before, after what used to be the farming program which became children in town countryfile, Michael fish said there would be severe gales and got the path correct. The difference between severe gales and storm to hurricane force is not that great.
Incidently, in Dec 1999, the french meteo completely missed storm on the same path which came in on the jetstream from USA and did exactly the same thing. As it approached Finistere it bombed creating winds in excess of 110mph and a storm surge of several metres. The storm passed through Paris destroying several cathedral 'wheel' windows on the way.
A week later another more powerful storm struck further south hitting around Bordeaux. This one came with a storm surge of more than 7 metres, destroyed miles of pylons carrying very high voltage lines.
The meteo saw this one coming having been criticised the week before. Never the less the winds were ferocious and damaging. Worse stil is the french insurance. For natural disasters it is the government who pays and controls who gets paid NOT the insurance companies. As a result you could be living in a house with severe subsidence with no recourse to insurance of any kind. Disasters such as house subsidence due to drought, flooding, storm damage (such as 1999) are assessed after each area is defined and each mairie has filled a dossier. It is all done by an advert in the local journal. If you miss it you get no help to repair you property.
PS...a strange advert / article at the top of Le Huffington Post! Those Frenchies are definitely liberal.
Available on amazon France €18. No 1 best seller. Science, Earth and environment
Link translated:
CLIMATE - Philippe Verdier, head of the weather service of France Télévisions, author of a book relativize the consequences of global warming, announced Wednesday, October 14 that his employer had asked him by letter not to come to work because of the publication of this book.
"I received a letter asking me not to come," said RTL presenter weather reports on France 2, which issued on October 1 "Climate investigation" (Ring), in which he challenges the scientific integrity of the Expert Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which brings together experts from around the world and references.
"I do not know, I do not know the duration of the decision," he said, adding, "This has to do with my book." "It is a decision of France Télévisions, I'm not on leave," said the presenter initially had to go back on the air on Monday after a promotion of his book campaign.
Questioned by AFP, France Télévisions would not comment on the situation but Philippe Verdier recalled an ethical rule "that one can not use his professional status, carried by the image of the company to advance personal opinions ".
For a week, the book was the subject of criticism in the press and led Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, former Minister of Ecology of Nicolas Sarkozy, to attack virulently to climatosceptiques on Canal +. The number two of the party Republicans had drawn a parallel between "those who say 'in fact climate change does not exist or it does not matter, it's great, we usually go to the beach" and "these People "of the tobacco industry or the asbestos industry" for decades "denied the danger.
"I started on the road to COP21"
In his book, the author, who rejects the term climatosceptique, defends "the many happy and positive consequences of global warming." It also highlights the "scientific uncertainty". Climate experts say unanimously that in the long-term consequences of climate change will have dramatic consequences if nothing is done to contain the warming, whose speed is unprecedented.
Philippe Verdier, who is not a climatologist, said against him his "freedom of expression" within weeks of COP21, the planned conference in late 2015 Paris-Le Bourget where a global agreement to limit global warming expected . "I started on the road to COP21, a bulldozer, here is the result," he said. In his book, he says today, "dirty" and "attacked in his profession," speaks of "manipulated scientific", "blinded media", "mercantile NGOs" and "religions in search of new creeds."
You commentators writing in French, please provide a translation as Henry Samuel helpfully did in Green Sand's link:
"Climat Investigation (Climate Investigation)"
Especially you, Phillip Bratby, "Liberté, égalité, fraternité", what the hell is that all about?
Stephen Richards:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/learn-about-the-weather/weather-phenomena/case-studies/great-storm
Elsewhere there are suggestions that anemometers failed (partly because of power cuts) or were simply unable to record the wind speeds, being off the scale.
"He said he decided to write the book in June 2014 when Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, summoned the country’s main weather presenters and urged them to mention “climate chaos” in their forecasts.
“I was horrified by this discourse,” Mr Verdier told Les Inrockuptibles magazine. Eight days later, Mr Fabius appeared on the front cover of a magazine posing as a weatherman above the headline: “500 days to save the planet.” "
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11931645/Frances-top-weatherman-sparks-storm-over-book-questioning-climate-change.html
Reminds me of the run up to the Copenhagen talks in the days of Gordon Brown as PM in the UK back in 2009 -
"PM warns of climate 'catastrophe'
Brown: '50 days to save world'
The UK faces a "catastrophe" of floods, droughts and killer heatwaves if world leaders fail to agree a deal on climate change, the prime minister has warned.
Gordon Brown said negotiators had 50 days to save the world from global warming and break the "impasse". "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8313672.stm
Politicians the world over, just the same, careerists all, touting for their place in the UN!!
JamesG
You've cracked it! But why is it taking so long and in such penny numbers?I keep repeating "this was never — ever — about climate or about science; it was always about radical environmentalism, neo-Malthusianism, world government ..."
Pick any one from a dozen.
Climate has only been the excuse as has (as you rightly point out) acid rain, global cooling, ocean acidification (you forgot the ozone hole!) and you might have added, going back far enough, over-population and anything else they could think of.
On the "Remember when Nature ..." thread we're talking about how climate is more important than democracy. It's all part of the same objective. Agenda21 has morphed into Agenda 2030.
Edenhofer said five years ago that Cancun wasn't about climate; it was about wealth redistribution (read "enforced poverty").
And still we are locked into the idea that it is something to do with global warming! It isn't.
I accept the Meteorological explanation that 15/16 October 1987 was not a hurricance, but a Met Office Howler, and Met Office Howlers continue to this day.
This French gentleman really needs more airtime to explain how the weatherhommes can never get anything right, when they have to forecast to fit with the political climate.
The French huff post certainly has better-mannered posters than the English version and all but one are in support of Verdier. Even the negative comment says that he has every right to his opinion but it is incompatible with his job; but surely he is allowed two jobs that do not encroach on each other; the short-term weather is not up for discussion.
I trust the public see the hysterical over-reactions in the press and TV as typical of zealotry rather than science. Not that scientists on French TV mind at all just making stuff up like their UK counterparts and the interviewers are equally unwilling to believe that scientists could lie so blatantly. For what purpose, they ask? Indeed!
Is it just me, or has anyone ever seen Phillipe Verdier in the same room as Bruno Tonioli?
;¬)
Amazon France will not ship to my home address (not in France). Amazon Germany want to charge €44,99 plus postage.
Philippe - you are a good person.
There is a LOT of face to be lost should Paris turn out to be to public a bust , while a unpopular politician looking to give some shine to their reputation may well think that there much to gain out of a 'successful ' event . So this does not come as a big surprise , and the closer we get to the event the more of this type of thing should expect to see .
One of the reviewers on the Amazon France site says this about the author:
Which even my sub-tourist-level French can see means 'One must have a certain amount of couraqe to release this book a few weeks before COP21, the 21st 'last chance to save the planet'. Thank you Mr Verdier, you are an honour to your profession.'
Bien dit!