ABOVE: FLICKR, GAGE SKIDMORE
William Happer, a science advisor to President Donald Trump and an outspoken critic of research demonstrating humanity’s contribution to climate change, is stepping down from his post on the National Security Council today (September 13) after a year in the role, E&E News reports. The departure of the 80-year-old Princeton University physicist follows the rejection this summer of his plan to set up a committee of scientists to critique government science reports and policymaking on climate-related topics.
An administration official tells the Associated Press that Happer plans to return to academia, and says that the Trump administration thanks him for his “tireless efforts” to make sure government policy is “based on transparent and defensible science.”
A specialist in atomic physics, optics, and spectroscopy, Happer has been a long-time critic of the scientific consensus that recent climate change has been mainly driven by human activity, and of ...
