According to a White House memo dated Feb 14, Trump’s staff members have drafted an executive order to create a 12-member committee, which will include a White House adviser, Dr William Happer, whose views are at odds with the established scientific consensus that carbon dioxide pollution is dangerous for the planet. The memo attempts to cast doubt on multiple scientific and defense reports that have already concluded climate change poses a significant threat to national security.
Critics of the effort to create the new panel pointed to the inclusion of Happer, a Princeton physicist who serves on the White House National Security Council. Happer has gained notoriety in the scientific community for his statements that carbon dioxide is beneficial to humanity.
The memo cast doubt on the multiple scientific and defense reports concluding climate change poses a significant threat to national security, saying the reports “have not undergone a rigorous independent and adversarial peer review to examine the certainties and uncertainties of climate science, as well as implications for national security.”
In 2015, Happer was called to testify before a Senate committee after environmental group Greenpeace revealed he agreed to write a scientific paper at the request of an unnamed oil and gas company in the Middle East.
In his email exchanges with Greenpeace, Happer wrote, “More CO2 will benefit the world. The only way to limit CO2 would be to stop using fossil fuels, which I think would be a profoundly immoral and irrational policy.”
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