White House readies panel to assess if climate change poses a national security threat
Source: Washington Post
Health & Science
White House readies panel to assess if climate change poses a national security threat
By Juliet Eilperin and Missy Ryan
February 20 at 5:00 AM
The White House is working to assemble a panel to assess whether climate change poses a national security threat, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, a conclusion that federal intelligence agencies have affirmed several times since President Trump took office.
The proposed Presidential Committee on Climate Security, which would be established by executive order, is being spearheaded by William Happer, a National Security Council senior director. Happer, an emeritus professor of physics at Princeton University, has said that carbon emissions linked to climate change should be viewed as an asset rather than a pollutant.
The initiative represents the Trump administration’s most recent attempt to question the findings of federal scientists and experts on climate change and comes less than three weeks after Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats delivered a worldwide threat assessment that identified it as a significant security risk.
In late November, Trump dismissed a government report finding that global warming is intensifying and poses a major threat the U.S. economy, saying, “I don’t see it.” (1) Last month, his nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, acting administrator Andrew Wheeler, testified that he did not see climate change as one of the world’s pressing challenges.
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Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's senior national affairs correspondent, covering how the new administration is transforming a range of U.S. policies and the federal government itself. She is the author of two books — one on sharks and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other — and has worked for The Post since 1998. Follow https://twitter.com/eilperin
Missy Ryan writes about the Pentagon, military issues and national security for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2014 from Reuters, where she reported on U.S. national security and foreign policy issues. She has reported from Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Chile. Follow https://twitter.com/missy_ryan
(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-on-climate-change-people-like-myself-we-have-very-high-levels-of-intelligence-but-were-not-necessarily-such-believers/2018/11/27/722f0184-f27e-11e8-aeea-b85fd44449f5_story.html
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/white-house-readies-panel-to-assess-if-climate-change-poses-a-national-security-threat/2019/02/19/ccc8b29e-3396-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html
David Fahrenthold Retweeted
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The White House is readying a panel to assess if climate change poses a national security threat, @eilperin and @missy_ryan report
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Juliet Eilperin Retweeted
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White House climate change panel to be led William Happer, a National Security Council official who: - Is not a climatologist - Argued C02 emissions are good - Took $ from a coal company to testify at a PUC meeting @eilperin @missy_ryan
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SCOOP: U.S. intelligence agencies have said repeatedly, including last month, that #ClimateChange represents a security threat. Now a WH aide who has praised CO2 is readying a panel to assess if it really poses a risk. W/ @missy_ryan
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So, so, stupid and short-sighted. Too bad the Mar-a-lago golf course won't flood. That would be an environmental catastrophe of major proportion.
I confess that I've fantasized about this more than once.
I am so so sick of the lies, the greed, the defiant denial of facts, the defiant ignorance. Time is of the essence in addressing climate change. We simply don't have time for idiocy and shortsightedness right now. 
