Trump to Create Federal Climate Change-Denial Committee Run by Zany Retired Physicist

The Trump administration will soon name retired physicist and climate change skeptic, William Happer, to lead a White House panel titled the Presidential Committee on Climate Security. The President's committee will be formed to contest [undermine] the 2018 National Climate Assessment and a variety of defense and intelligence agency reports that have detailed the negative effects of global warming and its threat to America's national security interests.

Think Progress: "In his ongoing war with U.S. intelligence agencies, President Donald Trump is now challenging the military’s longstanding conclusion that climate change poses a serious national security threat to America, appointing a fringe climate science denier to lead the effort."

[Retired Rear Admiral David] "Titley, a former oceanographer of the navy who led its Task Force on Climate Change, called Trump’s new panel “an embarrassment” and said Happer holds “an extreme, fringe view even for the tiny number of scientists” who deny climate science."

The Defense Department has been involved in climate change research for several decades and has warned for years that global warming will pose numerous security threats.

AP: Titley said these studies have come to the same conclusions under three presidents, including two Republicans. He said there are “a surprising number of documents from the Pentagon and intelligence community after January 2017 (when Trump took office) that talk about climate and security risk.”

“For the Pentagon, it’s about readiness,” Titley said. “For the intelligence community, it’s about risks. We see the risks are accelerating.”

William Happer, who has been tagged to lead President Trump's new committee is a well known climate change denier with no formal education in climate science. He has warned in the past that carbon in the atmosphere is being treated like Jews under Hitler [yes, a rather bizarre comparison].

From an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box in 2014 via Quartz: "The demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler. Carbon dioxide is actually a benefit to the world, and so were the Jews."

And folks wonder why voters with college degrees are abandoning the Republican Party.

#news #climatechange