The White House is reportedly organizing a new committee to examine whether climate change poses a threat to national security, to be led by notorious climate change denier, Princeton University professor emeritus William Happer. Observers say his involvement in the “Presidential Committee on Climate Security” indicates the Trump administration wants to undermine findings within the national security community that climate change poses a severe threat to human safety. William Happer is a National Security Council senior director who has long claimed increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will actually benefit humans. He has compared the fight against climate change to the Holocaust, saying, “The demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler.” We speak with journalist David Wallace-Wells, deputy editor and climate columnist for New York magazine. His new book is titled “The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming.”
Transcript
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We spend the rest of the hour on the climate crisis, following reports that the White House is organizing a new committee to examine whether climate change poses a threat to national security. Efforts to form the panel, named the Presidential Committee on Climate Security, are being led by Princeton University professor emeritus and Trump science adviser William Happer, a physicist and known climate change denier. Observers say his involvement indicates the Trump administration wants to undermine findings within the national security community that climate change poses a severe threat to human safety.
William Happer is a National Security Council senior director who has long claimed increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will actually benefit humans. In a 2017…