https://www.malone.news/p/interview-with-prof-william-happer
Happer: “There is really no threat from increasing CO2 or any of the other minor greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It’s all a made-up scare story.”
Author Hannes Sarv
Hannes wrote to me and asked that we re-publish this interview and essay. Jill and I are caught up in travel and another conservative conference (Council for National Policy), and so we will be relying on re-posts today rather than personally authoring an essay. See the link above to view the interview.
Dr. Happer, a renowned physicist and professor emeritus at Princeton University, says that the real push for climate alarmism and related policies began in the early 1990s. “I was in Washington at the time as a government bureaucrat, and I could see it getting started. It was being pushed by Senator Al Gore and his allies,” he says in an interview with Freedom Research. “At that time, there were still many honest scientists in academia who didn’t go along with all the alarmism, but they gradually died off and were replaced by younger people who have never known anything except pleasing their government sponsors with politically correct research results that they expect,” Happer adds.
Happer argues that climate is very important to humanity and that is not going to change. Therefore, understanding how climate works is also important. But as climate science has suffered greatly in recent decades due to a manic focus on the demonization of greenhouse gases, things are not that good, for the trend is all based on a lie. “It’s dangerous to make a policy on the basis of lies,” Happer says.
In the interview, Happer explains that Earth’s climate has always been in a state of flux. For instance, the current warming period follows the Little Ice Age, which ended in the 19th century. In other words, climate change is one of Earth’s natural processes, and the influence of humans on it should not be exaggerated. The discussion also covers the role of CO2 on Earth, its capacity to warm the climate, the significant costs associated with reducing it in order to go to Net Zero, and whether it is feasible for humans to completely stop using fossil fuels.
As noted above, Dr. William Happer is a professor emeritus at Princeton University, but his academic career began at Columbia University where he rose to full professorship and served as the director of Columbia Radiation Laboratory. He moved to Princeton in 1980. Renowned for his contributions to atomic physics, optics and climate science, Happer has left a significant mark in both science and policy. Beyond academia, he served as Director of the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy from 1991 to 1993. He was also a long-standing member of JASON, an elite group of scientists advising the U.S. government on defense and national security matters.
Happer has earned numerous prestigious awards over the course of his illustrious career. Among the most notable ones is the Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics (1999), bestowed by the American Physical Society, which recognized his exceptional contributions to atomic spectroscopy and optically polarized atoms. In 1997, he received the Herbert P. Broida Prize from the same society, honoring his advancements in optical pumping and spin-polarized atoms – work that has left a lasting impact on modern optics.
Happer’s achievements extend beyond academia into practical innovation, as evidenced by the Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award (2000) from the Research and Development Council of New Jersey. This accolade celebrated his patented inventions that have significantly benefited society. Early in his career, he received the Alexander von Humboldt Award (1976), a prestigious international honor from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, recognizing his lifetime contributions to science. Another early milestone was the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1966), a competitive grant supporting promising young scientists, which underscored his potential shortly after his earning of his Ph.D.
In addition to these awards, Happer’s election to the National Academy of Sciences (1996) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1995) reflects his esteemed standing among peers. He has also received the Frederick Seitz Memorial Award (2015) from the Science and Environmental Policy Project for his outspoken views on climate science, though this recognition carries a narrower, more controversial scope.
Happer is recognized for his prominent role in the climate change debate, advocating for evidence-based approaches to environmental policies. He chairs the CO2 Coalition, established in 2015 to educate opinion leaders, policy makers and the public about the vital role carbon dioxide plays in life and the economy. The coalition seeks to foster an informed and dispassionate discussion on climate change, humans’ role in the climate system, the limitations of climate models, and the consequences of mandated reductions in CO2 emissions.
