"These scenarios are not science fiction" - ZDF meteorologist Özden Terli defies critics

Created: 02/20/2022, 06:15

By: Rudolf Ogiermann

"I only present the facts": Özden Terli (51) presents the weather in the ZDF news.

© Torsten Silz / ZDF

The weather seems to be going crazy more and more often.

There is definitely a connection with the climate, as meteorologist Özden Terli often addresses on ZDF.

The weather expert in an interview.

Munich - Heat, heavy rain or currently storms - it's not uncommon for new records to be set in the daily weather report, which has long been much more than a forecast for the next few days.

Especially when Özden Terli is on duty at ZDF.

The 51-year-old studied meteorology and has been employed by the Mainz broadcaster since 2013. In his weather presentations in the news formats from Morgenmagazin to today journal, he often addresses the connections between weather and climate*.

Born in Cologne, he is also active on Twitter, where Terli has many fans, but has also been called a "charlatan" or "propagandist".

ZDF weather expert Meteorologist Özden Terli in an interview

Mr. Terli, you used to watch the weather forecast to know whether you needed an umbrella the next day or whether you could go out in the street in a T-shirt.

Today there is often a lesson about climate change...

Because we are living in a climate crisis - with weather phenomena that were predicted by scientists 30 years or even longer ago: that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will increase, that temperatures will rise, that there will be more and more extreme weather events .

And that's exactly what's happening.

And because meteorology is the physics of the atmosphere, climate change cannot be separated from the weather*.

So every once in a while there's - as you say - a lesson about that, because viewers should know why things are the way they are.

If climate change plays such an important role in meteorology today, was it too neglected in weather reports in the past?

I can't say anything about the situation in Germany.

In the USA, the oil industry torpedoed climate science for a long time - that has been scientifically processed.

Compliance with the climate targets – compensation for the poor?

When there is talk of meeting climate targets, politicians and the media keep asking how the poor are supposed to pay for the ever-rising energy prices.

Of course, the poor need compensation.

But basically you have to ask the question: What is the alternative?

Do we want to drive the world against the wall because politicians have not taken the necessary steps in recent years?

Or do we want to change things in a way that benefits everyone?

So is the question not valid?

Of course she is entitled.

But I also want to give you another answer: not only the poorer ones, we all have to pay for it if nothing changes, and very expensive indeed, also in a figurative sense.

When sea levels rise, when temperatures rise, people will die, and many others will flee and stand at the gates of Europe, in far greater numbers than before.

These scenarios are not science fiction, they will become real if we just continue on a business-as-usual course.

You are also attacked for your excursions into climate policy.

How do you deal with that?

If you're constantly concerned with the changes in the atmosphere and in the cryosphere of the earth - that's everything to do with ice, with melting glaciers in Antarctica for example - then you have to have an opinion on it.

I therefore find my digressions into climate policy appropriate.

And if I'm attacked for stating the facts, that's not my problem, it's the problem of those who attack me.

Interview: Rudolf Ogiermann