False claims suggesting that the BBC has been misreporting temperatures in southern Europe have been spreading on social media.
A clip of Neil Oliver, a GB News presenter, accusing the BBC “and others” of “driving fear” by using “supposedly terrifying temperatures”, has been viewed more than two million times.
For the past few weeks, an intense heatwave has been sweeping through parts of southern Europe and north Africa, with extensive wildfires breaking out in Greece, Italy and Algeria - leading to more than 40 deaths.
Speaking about the fires on Rhodes on GB News on Monday, Mr Oliver accused the BBC, and other broadcasters, of trying to “make people terrified of the weather”.
About half of my job is dealing with infrastructure so I fight the second order effects of this every day. That gives me hope, that I am delaying the unavoidable disaster ever so slightly every day. Maybe if I work really hard I can buy the human race a single second.
Also I started a guerrilla gardening group and committing myself to planting on average 3 new plants a day.