Whole Foods CEO John Mackey: Climate Change ‘Not Necessarily Bad’

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Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey, often described as a libertarian for his pro free-market views, gave a fascinating interview to Mother Jones published Friday (re-syndicated by The Guardian) in which he identifies his own political ideology as “classical liberal” and denies previous labels that he’s a “climate change skeptic,” telling the publication he thinks “climate change is clearly occurring,” but that “climate change is perfectly natural and not necessarily bad.” As Mackey said:

We’ve been in a gradual warming trend since the ending of the “Little Ice Age” in about 1870, and climate change is perfectly natural and not necessarily bad. In general, most of humanity tends to flourish more when global temperatures are in a warming trend and I believe we will be able to successfully adapt to gradually rising temperatures. What I am opposed to is trying to stop virtually all economic progress because of the fear of climate change. I would hate to see billions of people condemned to remain in poverty because of climate-change fears.

Read the full interview at Mother Jones

Updated: The interview was originally carried by Mother Jones and re-syndicated by The Guardian. We apologize for the misattribution. 

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