Accusation of conspirators, predicting lies, or alarmists… When meteorologists are plagued by cyberbullying. In the UK, which experienced a severe heat wave reaching 40°C in some places last week, meteorologists were unfortunate enough to find themselves in the middle of a wave of hate mail from internet users .
It is the BBC channel that narrates this unfortunate episode. Meteorologists and journalists experienced an “unprecedented” wave of harassment as the country experienced one of the hottest episodes in its history. His mistake: linking the heat wave episode to global warming.
Both the channel team and the Royal Meteorological Society and the Met office (the equivalent of Météo France) received hundreds of messages on social media questioning their observations, accusing meteorologists of being “hysteria” or “alarmist” or ” want to scare”. the population”.
“accusations of lies”
However, the country broke records for temperatures in more than a dozen cities, with over 40.3°C recorded in West London on July 19. The Met Office later estimated that the heat wave was made 10 times more likely due to climate change.
The executive director of the Royal Meteorological Society, Liz Bentley, remarks that “abusive comments increase when the message of climate change is intrinsic to the story.” She thus denounces “accusations of lying or suggestions of blackmail” towards her colleagues.
Met Office chief meteorologist Alex Deakin described the wave of harassment as “frightening in some ways”.
“We report facts”
The journalist of the British chain, Matt Taylor declared that he had never experienced such a wave of hatred in 25 years of profession. “It’s the most abusive tone I’ve ever received. I tuned myself out because it got too depressing to read some of the responses,” he says.
“I’ve found that the abuse is becoming more vicious and personal, and it’s quite demoralizing when you’re trying to do your job,” says BBC meteorologist Jennifer Bartram.
Tomasz Schafernaker, a meteorologist, also points out “what frustrates me the most is when I am accused of misrepresenting the truth. As meteorologists, we report facts. There is no conspiracy.”
“A turning point in public attitude”
Because many netizens protested that they saw no difference in temperature compared to previous years, some even argued that it was “only summer”, although several scientific reports now state that heat waves will now be more numerous and intense.
For Matt Taylor, this episode of cyberbullying shows a “turning point in public attitude and awareness of what has happened to our climate.” And it’s also an opportunity to do some pedagogy: “Our climate has changed, so our reporting and our responses need to change too. All we’re trying to do is get the facts out to the people,” he argues.
Source: BFM TV
