False claim John Kerry pushed for mass human sacrifice as climate solution | Fact check

The claim: John Kerry says billions of people must be sacrificed to save the planet

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.

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.”

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.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: John Kerry talked about climate, not mass human sacrifice | Fact check