Did U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry say, "We must sacrifice billions of humans to save planet Earth"? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told Lead Stories that this claim is false. The article making this claim has twisted quotes by Kerry to fit its narrative. And while this quote is in the article's headline, it does not appear in the body of the article.
The claim appeared in an article published by The People's Voice on October 22, 2023, titled "John Kerry: 'We Must Sacrifice Billions Of Humans To Save Planet Earth'" (archived here). It opened:
President Biden's unelected 'Climate Czar' John Kerry has declared that billions of human beings must be sacrificed in order to save planet Earth from imminent destruction.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
John Kerry: 'We Must Sacrifice Billions Of Humans To Save Planet Earth' - The People's Voice
(Source: The People's Voice screenshot taken on Wed Oct 25 15:02:20 2023 UTC)
At the Scottish Global Dialogues on August 24, 2023, Kerry said it's imperative that the world sets itself up for success against climate change. A transcript of his speech at the Scottish Global Dialogues can be found here. Nowhere in this speech does Kerry say, "We must sacrifice billions of humans to save planet Earth."
In an October 25, 2023, email, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, told Lead Stories:
This latest ridiculous claim by the website The People's Voice is obviously false.
The article claims that Kerry was endorsing population control when he said, "So now, humanity is inexorably threatened by humanity itself." The article does not include the rest of his statement. The full quote is, "So now, humanity is inexorably threatened by humanity itself -- by those seducing people into buying into a completely fictitious alternative reality where we don't need to act and we don't even need to care." The full quote can be seen below. Highlighting in pink done by Lead Stories:
(Source: U.S. Department of State screenshot taken on Wed Oct 25 17:32:26 2023 UTC)
The article speculates that Kerry was invoking the 1991 publication (archived here) of "The First Global Revolution" by the Club of Rome, a think tank that focuses on global issues. The People's Voice article claimed the book said, "The common enemy of humanity is man." This archived page of the book does have a section subtitled, "The Common Enemy of Humanity Is Man" but it does not recommend sacrificing people.
The People's Voice article also added a distorted photo of Kerry's daughter, Vanessa Kerry, and a purported quote from her posted on X, saying, "We need a few billion less souls on this planet." The photo and post are below:
(Source: The People's Voice screenshot taken on Wed Oct 25 19:33:00 2023 UTC)
The original photo of Vanessa Kerry can be found here (archived here). Lead Stories searched Vanessa Kerry's X account (archived here) and could not find this post on X.
A Google News search of the phrase, "John Kerry AND we must sacrifice billions of humans to save planet earth" (archived here) did not yield any relevant results.
The People's Voice
The People's Voice has a lengthy record of publishing false stories in the past. It describes itself as a resource "comprised of various web pages operated by Fact Checked Limited," but it has nothing to do with fact-checking.
As of this writing, its website contained a liability disclaimer, saying:
FACT CHECKED LIMITED AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ALL SUCH INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS ARE PROVIDED 'AS IS' WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND.
More Lead Stories fact checks on John Kerry are here.
