Will Happer, a Climate Science Denier, Joins the White House.

[Cattledog]

News broke Tuesday that Dr. William Happer, a skeptic of climate science and professor emeritus of Physics at Princeton University, has joined the National Security Council, directing an emerging technologies portfolio. The scope of his responsibilities and the power he will wield remain unclear as the position appears to be newly created. However, Dr. Happer’s public condemnation for the scientific consensus around climate change (a field that he is not an expert in) is cause for serious concern, especially given the role the National Security Council has in setting high-level foreign policy and the growing threat climate change is posing to our nation’s security. Yet again, the White House has elevated an individual who denies the science around climate change to a position of power – with this, individuals such as Happer are not the exception in this administration, but the rule.

Dr. Happer is known for his important contributions to the field of modern atomic physics. He has been on the faculty of Princeton University since 1980, during which time he has also been active in government service, having, for example, served as the Department of Energy’s director of energy research during the George H.W. Bush administration.

However, Dr. Happer is also known for his dismissal of the scientific consensus around climate change, making scientifically unfounded statements that more carbon dioxide will net benefit society. He has also questioned the science underpinning The Paris Agreement (a worldwide commitment to reduce global warming emissions and limit the increase in global temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius), and recommended withdrawing from the Agreement. Such statements caught the attention of the Trump Administration, who considered Dr. Happer for the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) post (a post Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier was nominated to fill). Instead, the administration named him to his new role directing the emerging technologies portfolio.

https://blog.ucsusa.org/rachel-licker/will-happer-a-climate-science-denier-joins-the-white-house?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fb

[maxsolomon]

1. Not a Climate Scientist, as usual

also, he's 79 years old.

why why why. what does he care? he's nearly dead. the planet needs to go on for billions of years.

[Fred Sanders]

2. Physicist! So...climate scientists can deny the theory of relativity and be....credible also?

But a scientist is a scientist for the Deplorables...no need for any more sciencey stuff.

[Lucky Luciano]

3. He is being paid to not understand climate science. nt