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Story by Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY • 55m
The claim: John Kerry says billions of people must be sacrificed to save the planet
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 13: Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry waits for the beginning of a hearing before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at the U.S. Capitol on July 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. The subcommittee held a hearing on “The State Department’s Climate Agenda: A Budget Overview by the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.†(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)© Provided by USA TODAY
An Oct. 25 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a screenshot of an article purporting to quote U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.
“John Kerry: ‘We Must Sacrifice Billions Of Humans To Save Planet Earth,’” the headline reads.
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It was liked more than 600 times in two days.
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Our rating: False
A spokesperson for Kerry said the claim was false. It distorts comments Kerry made during a summit in August. The claim originated on a website that has previously published misinformation.
No mention of human sacrifice in Kerry’s speech in Scotland
The screenshot is from an Oct. 22 story by The People’s Voice, a website known for publishing misinformation. It claims Kerry declared during an August speech in Scotland that “billions of human beings must be sacrificed in order to save planet Earth from imminent destruction.”
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Kerry spokesperson Chad Houghton called the claim “ridiculous” and “obviously false” in an email to USA TODAY.
The U.S. special presidential envoy for climate gave the keynote address at the Scottish Global Dialogues in August in Edinburgh, Scotland. In his speech, he said limiting the planet’s average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius – an internationally agreed-upon goal – is possible. He also called out entities he said distort evidence of the climate emergency for political or personal gain.
But the former secretary of state did not mention anything about mass human sacrifice, according to an official transcript of his remarks posted to the State Department’s website. The word “sacrifice” does not appear in it, and the word “billion” was used only in the context of dollar amounts.
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The article also includes a claim that Kerry said the greatest threat faced by humanity is “humanity itself.” But that omits critical context from Kerry’s statement. He described the threat as coming from “those seducing people into buying a completely fictitious alternative reality where we don’t need to act and we don’t even need to care.”
The People’s Voice, previously known as NewsPunch, has repeatedly published fabricated stories, many of which USA TODAY has debunked.
USA TODAY reached out to The People’s Voice but did not immediately receive a response. The social media user who shared the post could not be reached.
Lead Stories also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Chad Houghton, Oct. 26, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- U.S. Department of State, Aug. 24, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry at the Scottish Global Dialogues in Edinburgh, Scotland
- The Independent, Aug. 24, Special envoy Kerry says 1.5C target still ‘doable’ but will be ‘very difficult’
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©Sepp Kipfstuhl, Alfred Wegener Institute
Aerial view of melt ponds at Greenland’s ice sheet margin at the end of June 2012.
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