President Recruits Climate Skeptics for Climate Panel

The White House is planning to create an ad hoc panel to reassess the government’s analysis of climate science and examine whether climate change impacts national security, according to a leaked White House memo. The memo dated February 14, 2019 reveals that the White House has drafted an Executive Order to create a 12-member committee called the “Presidential Committee on Climate Security.” The memo states that recent scientific and defense reports that conclude that climate change poses a threat to national security “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.” The committee will examine the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, a report that found that climate change will adversely impact more Americans, particularly low-income communities, cause significant financial losses, damage infrastructure, and debilitate social systems. The panel would also reexamine a recent report by the Pentagon on the impact of climate change and sea-level rise on low-lying military installations. White House adviser, Dr. William Happer, who has said that carbon dioxide pollution is not dangerous but beneficial to the planet, will join the panel. Happer is a Princeton physicist who serves on the National Security Council as the President’s Deputy Assistant for emerging technologies. Steven Koonin, a New...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news