Historical meteorologist of the specialized channel, Régis Crépet regularly questions the human origin of global warming on social networks. Its management assures that “sanctions have been taken”.
This is a seemingly trivial article. On January 3, on the site of La Chaîne Météo, the leading private meteorological information media, Régis Crépet returned to the abnormally high temperatures that France is experiencing at the start of 2023. “Why isn’t it cold?” asks the meteorologist, an employee of the group for 22 years. This question, shared by many media, including franceinfo, is treated very differently here. Despite a year 2022 marked by the manifestations of global warming in France and while the climatologists interviewed elsewhere make the link with the climate, the subject is not addressed at all. Yet heat waves like this are made more frequent and intense by this climate change.
This forgetting of the climatic film in which the image of this wave of mildness is inserted owes nothing to chance. “When an article is signed Régis Crépet, you know that it will not provide this information, when it should have done so from a journalistic point of view”, pings one of his former colleagues. On the face side, Régis Crépet is one of the faces of La Chaîne Météo, regularly interviewed in Le Figaro (owner of the channel) and many media (The Latest News from Alsace, The Republican East, The Lorraine Republican, The Parisian, Point, The TelegramRTL, The Express and even… franceinfo).
On the tails, weather and climate professionals consider him one of the last climatosceptics in the sector since the dismissal by France Télévisions of Philippe Verdier in 2015. A presenter against his colleagues, more and more concerned about this problem. Régis Crépet thus announced, in 2014, a “climate cooling” based on a wacky curve, and wondered in 2016 if warming was over. Having remained online for nine years, the first content was deleted a few hours after our interview with the management of La Chaîne Météo.
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“He ignores what does not support his opinion”
“He’s a charlatan”sums up agroclimatologist Serge Zaka, who often argued on Twitter with the person concerned. “He cannot call himself a climatologist, he has not published any scientific study”, he continues, with reference to the biography of Régis Crépet on the social network. And the specialist underlines the presenter’s practice of “cherry-picking”: “He will look for the smallest thing that will support his opinion and he ignores everything else.”
“Climate change is not ‘I think that’. It’s ‘we have demonstrated that’. I don’t see why we would listen to Régis Crépet who tells us: ‘I think that’.”
Serge Zaka, agroclimatologistat franceinfo
His Twitter account, closed a few hours after our interview with the management of La Chaîne Météo, illustrates this pecking. In 2022, the hottest year ever recorded in France, the meteorologist mainly spoke of cold and snow, very little heat wave or drought, as had already been noted Internet user.
In e-mails sent after our interview with its management, Régis Crépet recognizes that he is not a climatologist. He also claims to agree with the scientific consensus on the human origin of global warming, “even if it happened to me sometimes to make remarks which could lead to believe or think the opposite”. “The field of climate is very vast, which can give rise to questions and deepenings, which is not synonymous with questioning”, he wrote to us, denying having defended the thesis of global cooling. Between the lines, Régis Crépet recounts having changed, “since global warming figures are consolidated by modeling, especially in recent years when climate change is rapid (especially in Europe)”.
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An about-face that makes a source close to the company laugh a lot. “It’s a diplomatic response, it’s not really what he brings out. He must have said to himself: ‘I’m going to answer him what he wants to hear'”comments this person, who describes, like other witnesses, a man carried by “the spirit of contradiction”. In fact, recent posts on social networks – some of which were deleted after our exchange with Régis Crépet – cast doubt on the sincerity of this reversal.
On Facebook, where he leads the public group “Le Météo groupe”, he announced for example on January 12, 2023 in capital letters that “Europe will get colder over the next 15 to 20 years” on the basis of a “new study” by Fritz Vahrenholt a notorious climatosceptic (in English). About the responsibility of man in global warming, a fact firmly established by the scientific community, he judged at the beginning of December 2022 that it was not “clearly demonstrated” and ensured in October of the same year as this “warming would be mainly due to solar activity”.
“Opinions that in no way reflect the positions of the channel”
In one of his e-mails, Régis Crépet also ensures that he does not relay, “in a professional capacity”that “what is peer-reviewed [un critère fondamental pour juger du sérieux d’une étude scientifique] so as not to convey information which would be partly false”. In the Facebook group “The climate is cyclical”, he nevertheless developed the following theory in July 2021: “We know, without lying to each other, that peer-reviewed publications are subservient to the IPCC [le groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat], because otherwise, the authors would have no chance of being published, whereas it is their dearest wish! So, yes, reading committees = Giec = single thought.”
From time to time, the meteorologist is even more direct, describing his opponents on social networks (Météo France, the European institute Copernicus, certain climatologists, etc.) “warmer”, “escrow” or “Khmer Green”. Sometimes that talk sneaks up to his employer’s Twitter account, run in turn by forecasters, as in a series of posts from July 2021 – since deleted – where the link between man-made global warming and the melting of glaciers is disputed.
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With franceinfo, Florent Schindler, director of information for La Chaîne Météo, assures that the media “absolutely does not question global warming and its effects”. “It is a reality that we are witnesses to every day and that we have relayed to ourselves for years”, he continues, citing a few articles like this or that. Florent Schindler recognizes that, occasionally, “subjects and personal opinions which in no way reflect the positions of The Weather Channel” were posted on the channel’s official media. “When this happened, and we learned about it, sanctions were taken”assures Florent Schindler.
“It’s not our business”
A line of defense that is struggling to convince the professionals of the sector and the former employees that we interviewed. A forecaster, who has never been through the chain, estimates that “The editorial line of La Chaîne Météo remains largely influenced by Régis Crépet”. He points out the absence of content devoted to the latest IPCC reports, published between the summer of 2021 and the spring of 2022, and notes that human responsibility for this warming is rarely mentioned in the articles of La Chaîne Météo. In fact, to justify their good coverage of the subject, the management sent us a list of only nine contents, published between 2009 and 2022. That is not even one per year.
“When I was at La Chaîne Météo, I had to do three or four articles a day, purely about the weather, because that was the quickest thing to do.”
A former weather channel forecasterat franceinfo
Witnesses believe that management would have turned a blind eye. “Society is not climatosceptic”recognizes a former presenter, but “The Weather Channel has always sought to create a buzz”. He remembers a leader who believed that the media had to be talked about, whether it was good or bad. “It’s difficult for La Chaîne Météo to exist, cable and satellite are watched less and lessanalyzes our source. Today, it’s the apps, the sites and it’s no longer the forecast that brings traffic, it’s the news that makes noise, that raises debates.” And to conclude that“there is a niche to take” on climate skepticism. “The buzz is neither part of the company’s culture nor our editorial line, it’s not our business”defends Florent Schindler, the boss of the chain, evoking “sourness and jealousy”.
“They let it go and take advantage of the notoriety they can get from it, without looking to see further”, supports another elder. This forecaster also points to a lack of control: “People who oversee come from TV, not science, which forecasters can publish on the site or disseminate in their newsletters is unsupervised.” According to several testimonies, Régis Crépet would still have been summoned several times and received warnings for his comments on social networks.
“A regular employee would already be outside with everything he’s done, but they need him, because it’s a showcase.”
A former weather channel forecasterat franceinfo
The influence of Régis Crépet goes beyond the 6 million visitors per month on their site claimed by Florent Schindler. It also rubs off logically on some of the newspapers which open their columns to him, even if he adopts a more civilized tone, sometimes in line with the scientific consensus. But Régis Crépet often minimizes the possible links with global warming. For example, in May 2022, France was hit by an early and intense heat wave. On franceinfo, a meteorologist from Météo France recalled the context of global warming and stressed that “the months of May [étaient] on average warmer than fifty years ago”. The article in the regional dailies (here, there and there) in which Régis Crépet was questioned began on the contrary with the following observation: “No wonder for a month of May.” The person concerned assures that the question was not put to him.