Is Climate Change Real? Trump Turns To Man Who Compared Holocaust To C02 Reductions To Find Out

Happer, on the far right, met with Vice President Pence about Space Force

Happer, on the far right, met with Vice President Pence about the Space Force Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer February 21, 2019

William Happer, an official on the National Security Council, will likely head up a proposed committee to explore whether or not climate change is a national security threat, The Washington Post reports.

Happer is an atomic physicist who founded the CO2 Coalition, a group he calls, “The CO2 anti-defamation league,” explaining, “There is the CO2 molecule, and it has undergone decade after decade of abuse, for no reason.” His group seeks to combat restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions.

That 2016 comment isn’t the first time Happer has likened the plight of the molecule to the plight of the Jewish people, CNN notes. In 2014, speaking to CNBC, Happer said, “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.”

According to the Post, the Presidential Committee on Climate Security, which Happer is set to lead, may be established through an executive order.

It’s odd for a public official to compare human mass murder to the feelings of a single carbon atom covalently bonded to two oxygen atoms. The Holocaust has more in common with climate change than with CO2 — both have been labeled hoaxes, and both become more deadly the longer they’re ignored.

Jenny Singer is the deputy life/features editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO