From the Oxford Mail comes a depressing sign of our times.

An executive sacked from one of the UK’s biggest property companies began his defence today of an employment tribunal decision that he can claim he was unfairly dismissed because of his belief in climate change.

Tim Nicholson, 42, from Oxford, says his views on the environment are so strong that they led to clashes with other senior staff at Grainger plc.

But the ruling is being challenged by Grainger on the grounds that green views are not the same as religious or philosophical beliefs.

Representing the company, John Bowers QC said: “A philosophical belief must be one based on a philosophy of life, not a scientific belief, not a political belief or opinion, not a lifestyle choice, not an environmental belief and not an assertion of disputed facts.”

Mr Nicholson claims that his views on climate change affect his whole lifestyle. In a witness statement to the previous hearing, he said: “I have a strongly held philosophical belief about climate change and the environment.

This is just wrong on so many levels that you could make a papier mache model of a giant head out of it. To start with, Climate Change can’t be a religion because a-pound-to-a-penny Tesco won’t let you walk around their supermarkets wearing your tin-foil hat, chum. The guy appears to have been sacked for being an 18-carat-with-extra-stars loon, and quite frankly he’s not doing too much to prove his ex-bosses wrong.

And would you want to sit next to him at work? Although with eco-nutters going without toilet paper and toothpaste and washing their hair with baking soda they are much more likely to be given their own fully air-conditioned office – so maybe this was just an office greasy-pole climbing exercise which backfired. We may never care.

Truly the Apocalypse is upon us.