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10 Reasons Why John Kerry Deserves a Magna Cum Laude in Climate Pseudo-Science

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Photo Credit: Boston College Chronicle Speaking at the graduation ceremony of his alma mater Boston College, he said:

“If the US does not act and if it turns out that the critics and naysayers and the members of the Flat Earth Society – if it turns out they’re wrong, then we are risking nothing less than the future of the entire planet.”
He claimed:

“Recent reports, one from the UN and one from retired US military leaders warn us, not just of the crippling consequences to come but that some of them are already here. 97 per cent of the world’s scientists tell us that this is urgent. Why? Because crops can’t grow there’ll be food insecurity; if there’s less water because of droughts, if there are stronger and more powerful storms, things will change in a hurry and change for the worse. Climate change is directly related to the potential of greater conflict and greater instability. I’m telling you that there are people in parts of the world today in Africa, they fight each other over water, they kill each other over it. This is not a matter of politics or a matter of partisanship. It’s a matter of science and stewardship. And it’s not a matter of capacity it’s a matter of willpower.”

Hmm. Let’s fisk those statements, shall we?

1. Flat Earth Society. Lazy, inaccurate ad hom directed at people whose only desire that climate science and climate science policy should be evidence-based, rather than derived from modelled forecasts which bear increasingly little resemblance to observed, real-world data.

2. If it turns out they’re wrong… (aka the Precautionary Principle) This presupposes that there are no costs to doing what Kerry wants and acting on climate change now. But, of course, the costs of trying to combat climate change have already run into the trillions of dollars – with no evidence that they have made any difference.

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry: If We’re Wrong on Climate Change, ‘What’s the Worst That Can Happen?’

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Photo Credit: Cliff / Creative CommonsSecretary of State John Kerry did not shy away from pejorative language when addressing “climate change” in his commencement speech at Boston College on Monday. Kerry referred to those skeptical of the Obama administration’s climate claims as “members of the Flat Earth Society” who are “risking nothing less than the future of the entire planet” by resisting implementation of the administration’s policies. At the very least, Kerry argued, what have we got to lose by taking the steps he and the president are advocating? [emphasis added]:

If we make the necessary efforts to address this challenge – and supposing I’m wrong or scientists are wrong, 97 percent of them all wrong – supposing they are, what’s the worst that can happen? We put millions of people to work transitioning our energy, creating new and renewable and alternative; we make life healthier because we have less particulates in the air and cleaner air and more health; we give ourselves greater security through greater energy independence – that’s the downside. This is not a matter of politics or partisanship; it’s a matter of science and stewardship. And it’s not a matter of capacity; it’s a matter of willpower.

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry on Religion: ‘Not the Way I Think Most People Want to Live’

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

During a talk to the U.S. embassy staff in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the first stop on his trip to Africa, Secretary of State John Kerry remarked about what he called the “different cross-currents of modernity” and the challenges they present on the African continent. The comments contain a veiled reference to religion, and the part that religion might be playing in some of the current conflicts in Africa:

This is a time here in Africa where there are a number of different cross-currents of modernity that are coming together to make things even more challenging. Some people believe that people ought to be able to only do what they say they ought to do, or to believe what they say they ought to believe, or live by their interpretation of something that was written down a thousand plus, two thousand years ago. That’s not the way I think most people want to live.

The words “something that was written down a thousand plus, two thousand years ago” appear to refer to the Bible, or the Koran, or perhaps both. More than one conflict in Africa today has either implicit or explicit religious connections.

Read more from this story HERE.

John Kerry Won’t Testify About Benghazi Because He’ll Be in Mexico, Despite Subpoena

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Secretary of State John Kerry is planning to be in Mexico on the day of a congressional hearing on Benghazi for which he was subpoenaed to testify.

The scheduling conflict drew a befuddled response Wednesday from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has ordered him to appear.

“There appears to be some confusion between State Department staff and the Secretary, who said publicly yesterday that he would comply with the subpoena for his testimony,” committee spokesman Frederick Hill said. “The State Department has not contacted the Committee directly.”

The State Department announced Wednesday morning that Kerry is scheduled to be in Mexico City May 21-22, for talks on trade, education and security.

May 21 is when the House oversight committee wants Kerry to testify, to discuss newly uncovered documents regarding the administration’s public explanation of the attacks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry: I Didn’t Call Israel an “Apartheid State” But If I Did I Should Have Chosen Different Words

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Photo Credit: Townhall

Photo Credit: Townhall

In case you missed it yesterday, the Daily Beast’s Josh Rogin reported on comments made by Secretary of State John Kerry saying that if Israel doesn’t come to a two-state agreement with the Palestinians, it will become an apartheid state. Kerry also said Israel needed a change in leadership.

The secretary of state said that if Israel doesn’t make peace soon, it could become ‘an apartheid state,’ like the old South Africa. Jewish leaders are fuming over the comparison.

If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a room of influential world leaders in a closed-door meeting Friday…

Now Kerry is walking back his comments and even flat out denying he even made the “apartheid” comment in a statement released last night by the State Department. In the same statement denying the comments, Kerry said he should have used different words to describe the situation. He also berated critics for daring to question his support for the Jewish State.

Read more from this story HERE.

WATCH: Cruz Calls on Kerry to Resign After ‘Apartheid’ Remark

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) demanded on the Senate floor Monday that Secretary of State John Kerry resign from his post following highly controversial remarks about the state of Israel.

Kerry came under fire from lawmakers and a variety of pro-Israel organizations after he told world leaders in a closed door meeting that Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state” if it fails to reach peace with the Palestinians.

Israel cut off peace talks late last week after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formed a unity government with the terror group Hamas, which announced that it would not renounce violence or recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Cruz said in a speech on the Senate floor that Kerry should immediately offer his resignation to President Barack Obama.

“John Kerry should offer President Obama his resignation and the president should accept it,” Cruz said.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Brendan Smialowski / Reuters

Photo Credit: Brendan Smialowski / Reuters

Kerry Warns Israel Could Become ‘An Apartheid State’

By Josh Rogin.

If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a room of influential world leaders in a closed-door meeting Friday.

Senior American officials have rarely, if ever, used the term “apartheid” in reference to Israel, and President Obama has previously rejected the idea that the word should apply to the Jewish state. Kerry’s use of the loaded term is already rankling Jewish leaders in America—and it could attract unwanted attention in Israel, as well.

It wasn’t the only controversial comment on the Middle East that Kerry made during his remarks to the Trilateral Commission, a recording of which was obtained by The Daily Beast. Kerry also repeated his warning that a failure of Middle East peace talks could lead to a resumption of Palestinian violence against Israeli citizens. He suggested that a change in either the Israeli or Palestinian leadership could make achieving a peace deal more feasible. He lashed out against Israeli settlement-building. And Kerry said that both Israeli and Palestinian leaders share the blame for the current impasse in the talks.

Kerry also said that at some point, he might unveil his own peace deal and tell both sides to “take it or leave it.”

“A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens—or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state,” Kerry told the group of senior officials and experts from the U.S., Western Europe, Russia, and Japan. “Once you put that frame in your mind, that reality, which is the bottom line, you understand how imperative it is to get to the two-state solution, which both leaders, even yesterday, said they remain deeply committed to.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry: ‘I Don’t Know Anybody Who Says You Ought to Go to War over Crimea’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP / Riccardo De LucaBy Melanie Hunter.

In an interview Wednesday with a local Washington, D.C., affiliate, Secretary of State John Kerry said he doesn’t know anyone who wants the U.S. to go to war with Russia over Crimea, an autonomous republic in the southern region of Ukraine before Russia’s military intervention.

“I don’t know anybody in America who has suggested to go to war over Crimea. Do you want to go to war over Crimea? I don’t know anybody who says you ought to go to war over Crimea, so therefore, your options are economic and diplomatic and isolation,” Kerry said.

As CNSNews.com previously reported, despite repeated warnings by the Obama administration not to interfere in Ukraine’s soverneignty, Russia intervened militarily in the region. On March 2, the U.S. acknowledged that Russia was in control of Crimea. On March 16, Crimea voters approved a referendum to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.

On March 17, the White House announced it had imposed travel bans and froze the assets of seven senior Russian and four Ukrainian officials. Putin was not sanctioned though, because it would be “highly unusual and rather extraordinary” for the U.S. to sanction a head of a state of another country, a senior administration official said.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner Congressional leaders sanctioned by Vladimir Putin celebrate on Twitter

By Charlie Spiering.

U.S. lawmakers celebrated Thursday on Twitter after the Russian government announced sanctions against nine White House officials and members of Congress.

“If standing up for #democracy & sovereignty in #Ukraine means I’m #SanctionedByPutin, I’ll take it,” Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., tweeted shortly after the announcement from the Russian government.

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry Urges US Envoys to Make Climate Change a Priority

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Photo Credit: AFP Photo/Alberto PizzoliUS Secretary of State John Kerry has called on American ambassadors around the world to make the fight against climate change a top priority ahead of new UN talks next year.

In his first department-wide policy guidance statement since taking office a year ago, he told his 70,000 staff: “The environment has been one of the central causes of my life.”

“Protecting our environment and meeting the challenge of global climate change is a critical mission for me as our country’s top diplomat,” Kerry said in the letter issued on Friday to all 275 US embassies and across the State Department.

“It’s also a critical mission for all of you: our brave men and women on the frontlines of direct diplomacy,” he added in the document seen by AFP.

He urged all “chiefs of mission to make climate change a priority for all relevant personnel and to promote concerted action at posts and in host countries to address this problem.”

Read more this story HERE.

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is John Kerry

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Photo Credit: APFleeing his failed diplomatic Middle East efforts, noted nonscientist Secretary of State John Kerry flitted off to Indonesia where he exuded hot air bloviating about (hu)man caused climate change as a weapon of mass destruction as noted here earlier.

However, by Kerry’s reasoning, the ongoing slaughter in Syria is nothing compared to Kerry’s own contribution to manmade climate change/worse than any weapon of mass destruction, blah, blah, blah. How so? John Kerry is not a flappy bird moving from place to place under his own power. So how does he get around? Why, by planes. Big ones. As Jim Geraghty of National Review Online helpfully pointed out, Kerry’s whirlwind travels from continent to continent to continent plus intracontinental short hops accelerate the very climate change he decries.

In case you’re wondering, flying first class from Washington to Seoul to Beijing to Jakarta to Abu Dhabi and then back to Washington runs up roughly 12.16 metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to CarbonFootprint.com, which uses data from the EPA and Department of Energy.

The average American generates about 19 tons of carbon dioxide in a year.

So in one week, just from flying from meeting to meeting, Kerry generated about two-thirds the carbon output of the average American in one year.

Read more this story HERE.

Secretary of State Kerry Lashes Out at Climate Change Skeptics

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Photo Credit: Fox News U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday called climate change perhaps the world’s “most fearsome” destructive weapon and mocked those who deny its existence or question its causes, comparing them to people who insist the Earth is flat.

In a speech to Indonesian students, civic leaders and government officials, Kerry tore into climate change skeptics. He accused them of using shoddy science and scientists to delay steps needed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases at the risk of imperiling the planet.

A day earlier, the U.S. and China announced an agreement to cooperate more closely on combating climate change. American officials hope that will help encourage others, including developing countries like Indonesia and India, to follow suit.

China and the United States are the biggest sources of emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause the atmosphere to trap solar heat and alter the climate. Scientists say such changes are leading to drought, wildfires, rising sea levels, melting polar ice, plant and animal extinctions and other extreme conditions.

Read more from this story HERE.