The frontrunner to become President Donald Trump's top science adviser once labeled climate scientists a chanting "glassy-eyed cult" similar to the Hare Krishna religious sect.
Princeton University scientist William Happer, who met with Trump last month, told London's Guardian newspaper:
"There's a whole area of climate so-called science that is really more like a cult. It's like Hare Krishna or something like that. They're glassy-eyed and they chant. It will potentially harm the image of all science."
But John Holdren, Barack Obama's science adviser, told the newspaper Happer's opinions would be a "substantial handicap."
"Every national academy of science agrees that the science is solid, that climate change is real. To call this a cult is absurd and ... an insult to the people who have done this work."
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