Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Donald Trump's Pick to Head Up a Climate Committee Once Likened Climate Science Advocates to Hitler

Donald Trump's Pick to Head Up a Climate Committee Once Likened Climate Science Advocates to Hitler
Screenshot via MSNBC/Twitter.

Riiiiight.

The Trump administration will create a panel tasked with assessing the potential harm of climate change, and to spearhead it they've picked William Happer, a known climate change denier who once compared the "demonization of carbon dioxide" to the "demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler."

Happer's comments resurfaced after The Washington Postobtained a document revealing that he would be appointed to the Presidential Committee on Climate Security.


"The comment I made was just that the demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler,” he told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin in 2014. “Carbon dioxide is actually a benefit to the world, and so were the Jews.”

You can hear Happer make the remarks in the video below.

Happer's beliefs don't appear to have changed since then. In 2017, Jezebel published the following email exchange, in which Happer addressed comments from a Jezebel reader named Anna who scrutinized the work he's done for companies in the fossil fuel industry.

"Demonization of CO2 and people like me who come to its defense is nothing to be proud of," Happer wrote at the time. "It really differs little from the Nazi persecution of the Jews, the Soviet extermination of class enemies or ISIL slaughter of infidels."

William Happer/Jezebel

Happer also believes that more C02 in the atmosphere would be beneficial for the world at large, a belief he espoused in 2015 after members of the environmental campaign group Greenpeace posed as oil company representatives and persuaded him to write a scientific paper.

“More CO2 will benefit the world," Happer said at the time. "The only way to limit CO2 would be to stop using fossil fuels, which I think would be a profoundly immoral and irrational policy.”

Happer's long history of climate change denial would eventually inspire him to create the CO2 Coalition, on which he serves as president. He has also chaired the George Marshall Institute, which received $865,000 from Exxon Mobil between 1998 and 2011. His appointment to the Presidential Committee on Climate Security has sparked criticism from such individuals as Michael Mann, a  professor of atmospheric science at Penn State, who described Happer as a "fringe figure."

“It is truly dangerous to have someone like that having such a direct influence on the executive branch’s policies on climate," Mann told Newsweek, adding:

“It’s remarkable to see someone who made his name as a physicist deny some of the most basic physics around—the physics that tells us that the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting increase in the greenhouse effect is responsible for the warming of the planet that we have seen, and potentially far more warming—and widespread devastating impacts—if we don’t act to reduce our burning of fossil fuels."

Happer's appointment has also ignited an outcry on social media from many who see his appointment as further confirmation of the Trump administration's denial of climate change as an existential threat to life as we know it.

Jan Selby, a professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex, U.K., also expressed concerns about Happer's appointment, saying that it constitutes another attempt from President Donald Trump to deny the reality of climate change:

"This seems to be just another attempt by President Trump to obscure the reality of climate change, and the weight of scientific evidence on it.

But the idea that a panel on the security implications of climate change could be headed by someone who doesn’t believe in climate change is patently ridiculous. You don’t need to have an A grade in logic to realize what its conclusions will be.”

The memo obtained by The Washington Post indicates that the goal of the Presidential Committee on Climate Security will be to provide an "adversarial" review of climate science to determine if warnings about the risks posed by global warming have been overstated. A portion of the memo reads:

"These scientific and national security judgments have not undergone a rigorous independent and adversarial scientific peer review to examine the certainties and uncertainties of climate science, as well as implications for national security."

According to Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences and geography, climate change is not only a risk to national security that cannot be undermined.

“Study after study from the military, bipartisan and nonpartisan organizations and the National Academy of Sciences have confirmed that climate change is a threat to national security," he said. "I actually served on one of the National Academy studies commissioned by the U.S. Navy, and the findings were crystal clear. To form such a committee smells of confirmation bias and contradicts military generals and admirals that have spoken clearly on this topic.”

Happer's appointment comes as the world grapples with a sixth mass extinction, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that blames human overpopulation and overconsumption for the "biological annihilation" of wildlife in recent decades.

Earlier this month, an alarming study published in the journal Biological Conservation found that 40 percent of insect species on the planet are in population decline as a result of climate change, pesticide usage, and the introduction of invasive species that "could have catastrophic consequences for both the planet's ecosystems and for the survival of mankind."

More from People/donald-trump

Donald Trump
Mehmet Eser/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Trump Demands 'Boss Of AT&T' Fix Equipment After Failed Conference Call In Bizarre Meltdown

When most of us have technical difficulties, we contact tech support or customer service.

But if you're President of the United States, just ranting on social media—then having your White House Press Secretary post a screenshot of your post on a social media platform people actually use—is apparently the answer.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Lauren Boebert speaking to Alex Stein
Prime Time with Alex Stein/Blaze Media

Lauren Boebert Casts Doubt On Moon Landing During Wild Interview With Conspiracy Theorist

Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert was criticized after she seemingly agreed with the conspiracy theory that the moon landing was faked in a wide-ranging interview with conservative conspiracy theorist Alex Stein.

The segment began with the duo casting doubt on nuclear weapons—Boebert even joked about needing "tin foil"—and moved into weirder territory when Stein praised Boebert for "vibing" with him on the topic of the moon landing. Conspiracy theorists have long alleged the moon landing was fabricated by NASA in what they claim was an elaborate hoax.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rosie O'Donnell; Oprah Winfrey
Simon Ackerman/Getty Images; Ernesto Ruscio/GC Images

Rosie O'Donnell Calls Out Oprah For Attending Jeff Bezos' Wedding In Scathing Poem

Among the various celebrity hangers-on who attended Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez's Venice wedding, the one that seemed to generate the most controversy was Oprah Winfrey.

After all, a woman known for her progressive politics whose entire ethos is about teaching people how to be their best selves, attending the wedding of man who directly funded a fascist regime dismantling our country before our eyes doesn't exactly add up.

Keep ReadingShow less
Lisa Murkowski
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Lisa Murkowski Slammed After Criticizing Massive Budget Bill She Just Voted For

Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski was slammed after she claimed that President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill is "not there yet" despite casting the deciding vote to narrowly pass it before sending it back to the House.

In a marathon voting session, the Senate narrowly passed the legislation in a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote after three Republicans joined all Democrats in opposition.

Keep ReadingShow less
Woman listening to her boyfriend play guitar
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Things People Initially Found Attractive About Their Partner That Now Annoy Them

Being in a relationship can be wonderful, but it's not without its ups and downs.

In order for it to work, we have to allow it to grow and change over time rather than being locked forever into what it was when we first started dating our person.

Keep ReadingShow less