Washington, Sept 11, 2019 (AFP)
A scientific advisor to President Donald Trump who argues that the overwhelming consensus on global warming is false has stepped down at the White House, officials said Wednesday.
William Happer, deputy assistant for emerging technology on the National Security Council, "is returning to academia," a spokesman for the NSC said.
"We wish him well and thank him for his tireless efforts to ensure that the Trump Administration's policies and decision-making were based on transparent and defensible science," the spokesman told AFP.
Happer's departure was announced a day after one of his supporters, national security advisor John Bolton, was fired by Trump.
Happer espouses a widely discredited theory that burning fossil fuels is good for the planet, rather than contributing to greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
He also called the concept of a tipping point, where the planet reaches irreversible warming tendencies, "propaganda" and for the "scientifically illiterate."
Trump is an outspoken proponent of fossil fuels and regularly touts surging US oil and gas production during his reelection campaign speeches.
Trump also pulled the United States out of the 2015 international Paris climate accord on collective measures to curb activities that contribute to warming.

Sumber : AFP