October 11, 2019 09:20 AM UTC

Liberty Oilfield Services CEO Likens Climate Change Science to Eugenics

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• by: Erik Maulbetsch

(Uh… — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Speaking as part of a business panel hosted by Colorado Chamber of Commerce, Liberty Oilfield Services CEO Chris Wright was asked to name the biggest threat to his business. Wright responded by citing a “rising sense of fear and panic,” before giving a detailed summary of eugenics (culminating in the Holocaust), and then comparing it to modern climate science.

The Colorado Chamber’s annual luncheon featured keynote speaker U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO).

The event, titled “Business Elevated: Industries Driving the Colorado Economy,” included a panel discussion, moderated by Denver Business Journal reporter Ed Sealover, among business leaders on key political and policy issues impacting industries in Colorado.

Colorado Chamber Chair Stacey Campbell of Campbell Litigation, P.C. and HCA Healthcare Continental Division CEO Sylvia Young joined Gardner and Wright on the panel. GE Johnson CEO Jim Johnson was initially listed as participating, but did not attend. Both Wright and Johnson are five-figure donors to the Colorado Republican party.

For his first question, Sealover asked the business panelists to identify the biggest threat to their industry. Campbell talked broadly about the rising minimum wage, and Young discussed government interference and overreach in healthcare industry.

Then it was Wright’s turn. He began with the big picture, “We have a rising sense of fear and panic and this is a very dangerous environment for decision-making.” Then he proceeded to give a detailed historical summary of eugenics, noting that it was broadly supported by the academic and political communities of the time. He called that insane and noted that “it was taken too far –to extremes– in Europe” (a reference to the Holocaust). Wright then compared it to modern climate change science.

  Read the full transcript below:

CHRIS WRIGHT: What worries me the most is we have a rising sense of fear, of pessimism, even of panic. And this is a very dangerous environment for decision-making. This is — this happens a lot with crowds. You know, when you get large societies.

A hundred years ago, the United States and Western Europe and the Western world was incredibly spun up about eugenics. We had two US presidents speak out positively about eugenics. Harvard, Stanford, Princeton researched on it. The American Academy of Sciences and the American Medical Association endorsed that eugenics was an issue we needed to pursue to save the human race.

So these are insanely outrageous things. Thousands of people — well over 10,000 people in this country — were involuntary sterilized to save us. Obviously, it went to far greater extremes in Europe.

When people believe that the survival of the world is at stake, It justifies almost anything. And that’s what we brought.

That’s where we’re going right now. This worries me tremendously. I have researched and spoken on climate change for ten years. It is a complicated subject. It is a real subject. There are real impacts. It is a very meaningful issue we should engage on. But the dialogue on it today is almost completely divorced with the facts and the data.

The IPCC is referenced as the authority, but the people speaking never actually really look at those reports. The planet is warm, we increase CO2 in the atmosphere.

There is a number of very real things about it, but let me give one example of the insanity that you hear: Extreme weather — extreme weather today — 90% less [fewer] people per year die from extreme weather events than a century ago. The population of the world has quadrupled. It has plummeted like a stone for a century.

This is not because extreme weather has disappeared or declined. In fact, it shows no trend at all. But its [the planet’s] wealthier, energy-endowed humans are much more robust and prepared for these things.

So, there is a very real issue here, but it’s being discussed in a way devoid of facts. It is entirely emotional. It’s a very dangerous decision-making. And like in all of these things, who are the biggest victims? Low income people, not with power and not without a voice. And that’s happening today.