CNBC Guest Compares Climate Change ‘Hype’ To The Holocaust (VIDEO)

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A physics professor on Monday compared the “hype” surrounding climate change to the Holocaust on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Co-host Joe Kernen first quizzed Happer, a Princeton University professor and chairman of the Marshall Institute, on on whether money given to the Marshall Institute by Exxon Mobil created a conflict of interest.

Happer said that he’s gotten some flack from members of the scientific community, but brushed it off as not a big deal.

Co-host Andrew Sorkin then jumped into ask Happer why he “doesn’t believe in climate change at all.”

“Just a minute,” Happer responded, cutting Sorkin off. “I believe in climate change. Shut up!”

Sorkin then asked the professor about a 2009 interview with the Daily Princetonian, in which he compared labeling carbon dioxide a pollutant to Nazi propaganda.

“You know, I get called a denier. And anyone who objects to all of the hype gets called a denier. That’s supposed to make me a Holocaust denier. I’m getting tired of that,” Happer responded. “The comment I made was, the demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler. Carbon dioxide is actually a benefit to the world, and so were the Jews.”

And then at the end of the interview he insisted that he hadn’t “taken a dime from Exxon.”

Watch the video via Media Matters:

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Notable Replies

  1. It’s always funny, until the Supreme Court declares that carbon dioxide is a person and can have it’s own PAC and not pay for birth control.

  2. Very misleading title. I thought he was going to say the Holocaust was also a hoax, which he didn’t. Clearly not defending his CO2 denialism, but he didn’t compare it to the holocaust.

  3. Speaking of climate (ok, weather), there’s definitely some fog settled in around this guy’s brain.

  4. I think it’s more likely that CO2 will be declared protected speech, therefore EPA restrictions are a violation of corporate persons’ First Amendment rights.

  5. Proof that you don’t have to be particularly smart to be an Ivy League professor. Who did he sleep with in order to get that job? Well, apart from Exxon Mobil.

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