But questions whether hurricanes and droughts are more frequent

Roger Pielke Jr claimed he was victim of a witch hunt in an op-ed Friday

A climate change scientist who challenged the status quo on extreme weather claims he faced such backlash from the left that he lost a writing job and wound up on the White House website.

Roger Pielke Jr, an environmental studies professor at the University Of Colorado, called himself a 'climate change heretic' in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal Wednesday. Pielke Jr believes climate change is real but his research has concluded that there is little evidence that extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, flood and droughts, have increased in the United States or across the world.

That position, which he admits might be wrong, prompted 'an intense media campaign' to have him fired from his position as a writer for Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight, Pielke Jr wrote. He said he was demoted from staff writer to freelancer and quit when it became 'obvious' that the website wouldn't publish his work anymore.

Pielke Jr's name came up in an email published by Wikileaks as part of its release of messages received by Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta. The email showed how the editor of a news blog funded by the Center For American Progress, a liberal think tank founded by Podesta, rejoiced at the thought that the blog had helped silence Pielke Jr.

Roger Pielke Jr (left), a professor at the University Of Colorado, called himself a 'climate change heretic' in an opinion piece Wednesday. He mentions as evidence of the backlash against him an email written by Judd Legum (right), the editor of a climate change blog

The email, published by Wikileaks, was sent by Judd Legum, the editor of Think Progress, which has a climate section called Climate Progress.

Legum was writing to green billionaire Tom Steyer and his friend Ted White. Steyer, according to Pielke Jr, was one of the donors that had helped fund the blog.

The billionaire, a fierce advocate for clean energy, is currently listed on the Center For American Progress' board of directors. He spoke as a panelist during a talk hosted by the center in September 2016, about energy, water, and transportation infrastructure.

Legum began his email to Steyer and White by explaining that Pielke Jr had been hired to write about climate change at FiveThirtyEight.

'Pielke basically has made a career of "accepting" climate change but disputing that we can really do anything about it or that it has much of an impact,' Legum wrote.

FiveThirtyEight, a website founded by Nate Silver (pictured), hired Pielke Jr as a climate change writer in 2014, but Pielke Jr says he suffered such backlash he had to quit

Legum then explained that Climate Progress had debunked some of Pielke Jr's conclusions before he had even written anything on FiveThirtyEight. He said that when Pielke Jr did question the link between climate change and extreme weather, Climate Progress published a rebuttal 'within hours', with quotes from 'many prominent climate scientists'.

'I think it's fair say that, without Climate Progress, Pielke would still be writing on climate change for 538. He would be providing important cover for climate deniers backed by Silver's very respected brand. But because of our work, he is not,' Legum wrote according to the email.

'I don't think there is another site on the internet having this kind of impact on the climate debate. Thanks for your support of this work. Looking forward to doing even more in the coming months.'

Pielke Jr claims he faced increasing backlash for his work until he had to leave his FiveThirtyEight job.

Pielke Jr believes climate change is real but questions whether it is linked to the frequency of extreme weather events - such as tropical storm Hermine in September (pictured)

A critique of Pielke Jr's work, written in 2014 by President Barack Obama's assistant for science and technology, remains published on the White House's website to this day.

Director John P Hodren wrote it after Senator Jeff Sessions had accused him of misleading the American people by linking severe droughts in the west of the United States to climate change.

Sessions had quoted Pielke Jr in his challenge of Hodren, prompting Holdren to debunk Pielke Jr's conclusions in response.

Pielke Jr has since extended his field of research to other domains, such as sports organizations and has found the change 'refreshing'.

'But the lesson is that a lone academic is no match for billionaires, well-funded advocacy groups, the media, Congress and the White House,' he wrote in his op-ed.

'If academics—in any subject—are to play a meaningful role in public debate, the country will have to do a better job supporting good-faith researchers, even when their results are unwelcome.

'This goes for Republicans and Democrats alike, and to the administration of President-elect Trump.'