William Happer

William Happer

William Happer (born July 27, 1939) is an American physicist who has specialized in the study of atomic physics, optics and spectroscopy. He is professor of physics, emeritus, at Princeton University and a long-term member of the JASON advisory group, where he pioneered the development of adaptive optics. From 1991 to 1993, Happer served as director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science as part of the George H. W. Bush administration. Happer rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. He has no formal training in climate science, but he is an expert on the characteristics of the CO2-molecule due to his extensive work with CO2 lazers.

Quotes

• I, and many other scientists, think the warming will be small compared the natural fluctuations in the earth’s temperature, and that the warming and increased CO2 will be good for mankind.
  • May 20, 2010, testimony before the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming of the U.S. House of Representatives (Happer, William (May 20, 2010). Climate Science in the Political Arena.; Levin, Bess (February 20, 2019). "Trump's New Climate Czar". Vanity Fair. )

• We know that carbon dioxide has been a much larger fraction of the earth's atmosphere than it is today, and the geological record shows that life flourished on land and in the oceans during those times. The incredible list of supposed horrors that increasing carbon dioxide will bring the world is pure belief disguised as science.
  • Schmitt, Harrison H.; Happer, William (May 8, 2013). "In Defense of Carbon Dioxide". The Wall Street Journal. 

• Shut up...The demonisation of carbon dioxide is just like the demonisation of the poor Jews under Hitler. Carbon dioxide is actually a benefit to the world, and so were the Jews.
  • 2014, to host Andrew Ross Sorkin on Squawk Box on CNBC (Gardner, Timothy (2019-02-20). White House readies panel to question security risks of climate. CNBC.; Holmes, Jack (February 21, 2019). "The Head Honcho on Trump's New Climate Change Panel Compared Carbon Dioxide to Jewish People: Both, he said, have been wrongly persecuted". Esquire. ; Baynes, Chris (February 21, 2019). "Trump climate change panel set to be led by scientist who compared ‘demonisation’ of carbon dioxide to Holocaust". The Independent. ; Levin, Bess (February 20, 2019). "Trump's New Climate Czar". Vanity Fair. ; Theel, Shauna (July 15, 2014). "CNBC's Climate "Expert": "Demonization Of Carbon Dioxide Is Just Like" Demonization Of "Jews Under Hitler"". Media Matters For America. )

• I like to call this the CO2 anti-defamation league, because, there is the CO2 molecule, and it has undergone decade after decade of abuse, for no reason. We’re doing our best to try and counter this myth that CO2 is a dangerous pollutant. It’s not a pollutant at all. . . . We should be telling the scientific truth, that more CO2 is actually a benefit to the earth.
  • 2016, at the Crossroads III: Energy and Climate Policy Summit hosted by the Heritage Foundation (Eilperin, Juliet; Ryan, Missy (February 20, 2019). "White House prepares to scrutinize intelligence agencies’ finding that climate change threatens national security". The Washington Post. ; Levin, Bess (February 20, 2019). "Trump's New Climate Czar". Vanity Fair. )

• There’s a whole area of climate so-called science that is really more like a cult. It’s like Hare Krishna or something like that. They’re glassy-eyed and they chant. It will potentially harm the image of all science.
  • February 15, 2017 (Devlin, Hannah (February 15, 2017). "Trump's likely science adviser calls climate scientists 'glassy-eyed cult'". The Guardian. )

• I am trying to explain to my fellow Americans the serious damage that will be done to us, and indeed to the whole world, by cockamamie policies to ‘save the planet’ from CO2.
  • March 17, 2016 (Happer, William (March 17, 2016). "HAPPER: Man’s role in climate change minimal". Asbury Park Press (USA Today). ; Levin, Bess (February 20, 2019). "Trump's New Climate Czar". Vanity Fair. )

• Temperatures have not risen very much, and most of the temperature rise is probably completely natural, and has nothing to do with increasing CO2. Industrialization probably played a small role, but I think it's very hard to tell how much.
  • 2017 (Holmes, Jack. "It's the Golden Age of Climate Denial". ; Holmes, Jack (February 21, 2019). "The Head Honcho on Trump's New Climate Change Panel Compared Carbon Dioxide to Jewish People: Both, he said, have been wrongly persecuted". Esquire. )

• ...the public in general doesn't realize that from the point of view of geological history, we are in a CO2 famine....
  There is no problem from CO2. The world has lots and lots of problems, but increasing CO2 is not one of the problems. So [the accord] dignifies it by getting all these yahoos who don't know a damn thing about climate saying, 'This is a problem, and we're going to solve it.' All this virtue signaling. You can read about it in the Bible: Pharisees and hypocrites and phonies.
  • Grant, Bob (February 6, 2017). "Q&A: William Happer, Possible Science Advisor to the President". The Scientist. 

Quotes about Happer

• Happer is a former Princeton physics professor who co-founded the group in 2015. Before that, he chaired the George Marshall Institute—dissolved around the same time of the CO2 Coalition's founding—and developed a reputation as one of the nation's premier climate skeptics.
  • Holmes, Jack (March 12, 2017). "It's the Golden Age of Climate Denial". Esquire. 

• Before he founded the CO2 Coalition, Happer chaired the George Marshall Institute and developed a reputation as one of the nation's premier climate "skeptics." The Institute received $865,000 from ExxonMobil between 1998 and 2011. (Elsewhere, ExxonMobil-funded think tanks have been found offering scientists $10,000-a-pop to undermine climate reports.) With a degree in physics from Princeton, Happer is unusually qualified to serve in this area—the various other deniers I spoke to for the story had degrees like a bachelor's in political science or a PhD in geography—but he is a professional denier all the same.
  • Holmes, Jack (February 21, 2019). "The Head Honcho on Trump's New Climate Change Panel Compared Carbon Dioxide to Jewish People: Both, he said, have been wrongly persecuted". Esquire. 

• Happer, who worked at the Energy Department under George H.W. Bush and joined the White House in September to work on “emerging technologies,” is not formally trained as a climate scientist.
  • Eilperin, Juliet; Ryan, Missy (February 20, 2019). "White House prepares to scrutinize intelligence agencies’ finding that climate change threatens national security". The Washington Post. 

• It’s important to note the person behind this attempt to chill our defense agencies from understanding and managing climate risk is Dr. Will Happer. Dr. Happer testified before Congress in December 2015 that the world has too little Carbon Dioxide and is too cold – an extreme, fringe view even for the tiny number of scientists who call themselves climate skeptics. This is a clumsy attempt to force the entire federal government to conform to a bizarre view thoroughly rejected by the vast majority of scientists.
  • Rear Admiral David Titley, US Navy (Ret), Senior Member of the Advisory Board at the Center for Climate and Security and former Oceanographer of the Navy (Military and National Security Leaders Strongly Criticize Politicized “Presidential Committee on Climate Security”. Council on Strategic Risks, (February 20, 2019).)