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Oops! Shades of Gore: Joe Romm’s research comes up short: Unknowingly Uses Skeptical NASA Moonwalker Schmitt to Rail on Global Warming Skeptics

Former Clinton Administration official and climate fear promoter Joe Romm — followed in the footsteps of former Vice President Al Gore — by linking skeptics of man-made global warming fears to those who believe the 1969 moon landing was staged. (Note: Romm and Climate Depot’s Morano debated global warming in March 2009. See: Morano debates former Clinton Official Romm – April 6, 2009)

The embarrassing problem for Romm is that he — unknowingly — used one of the most prominent global warming skeptics, NASA moonwalker Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, in an attempt to “prove” climate skeptics are akin to those who believe the moonlanding was staged.

Schmitt, who flew on the Apollo 17 mission, declared in 2008:

“The ‘global warming scare’ is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making. It has no place in the Society’s activities.”

But Romm, in his July 20, 2009 article railing on climate skeptics, failed to do basic research on moonwalker Schmitt’s skeptical climate views. Romm approvingly cited Schmitt’s scientific views in an article at Climate Progress that was intending to smear climate skeptics.

Romm asserted: “I’m just drawing the painfully straight line from the moon hoax people to the climate hoax people.” (Romm followed in Gore’s footsteps: See: Moonwalkers Defy Gore: NASA Astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin and Jack Schmitt reject global warming fears: Defy Gore’s Claim That Climate Skeptics Are Akin To Those Who Believe Moon Landing was ‘Staged’ – July 3, 2009)

Romm approvingly quoted Schmitt rejecting moon landing conspiracy theories.

“If people decide they’re going to deny the facts of history (about the moonlanding) and the facts of science and technology, there’s not much you can do with them,” Schmitt said.

Romm agreed with Schmitt’s assessment about conspiracy theorists who think the moonlanding was staged, declaring “precisely.” Romm then added, “Of course, denying the moon landing doesn’t hurt anybody. But denying our scientific understanding of climate science — and actively misleading the public — imperils the health and well-being of billions of people and generations yet to come.”

If only Romm had known Schmitt’s and NASA moonwalker Buzz Aldrin’s skeptical climate views, he could have avoided this latest embarrassment. Schmitt is an Award-Winning NASA Astronaut/Geologist, formerly of the Norwegian Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey. Schmitt has received numerous awards in his career including the Space Center Superior Achievement Award and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. Schmitt, a member of the Geological Society of America, American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Below is a reprint of Climate Depot’s July 3, 2009 report:

Another Moonwalker Defies Gore: NASA Astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin rejects global warming fears: ‘Climate has been changing for billions of years’

Moonwalkers Defy Gore’s Claim That Climate Skeptics Are Akin To Those Who Believe Moon Landing was ‘Staged’

Friday, July 03, 2009By Marc MoranoClimate Depot

Washington, DC – At a House global warming hearing on Capitol Hill on April 24, 2009, former Vice President Al Gore once again compared skeptics of man-made climate fears to “people who still believe that the moon landing was staged on a movie lot in Arizona.” Gore appears ignorant that his several years old analogy has been refuted by two of NASA’s moonwalkers themselves — Moonwalker and Award-Winning NASA Astronaut/Geologist Jack Schmitt – who recently declared he was a global warming skeptic and now, Award-Winning NASA Astronaut and Moonwalker Dr. Buzz Aldrin.

Gore was not asked during his April 24, 2009 Congressional hearing how he can link climate skeptics to people who believed the moon landing was “staged” when two prominent moonwalkers themselves are man-made global warming skeptics. (Also see: Global temps ‘have plunged .74°F since Gore released ‘An Inconvenient Truth’)

NASA’s Dr. Aldrin — who earned a Doctorate of Science in Astronautics at MIT — declared he was skeptical of man-made climate fears in a July 3, 2009 UK Telegraph interview.

“I think the climate has been changing for billions of years,” Aldrin, the second person to walk on the Moon, said. On July 20, 1969, Aldrin and astronaut Neil Armstrong made their historic Apollo 11 moonwalk, becoming the first two humans to set foot on the Moon. According to his bio, “Aldrin has received three U.S. patents for his schematics of a modular space station, Starbooster reusable rockets, and multi-crew modules for space flight.” Aldrin was also decorated with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest American peacetime award and he has received numerous distinguished awards and medals from 23 other countries.

“If it’s warming now, it may cool off later. I’m not in favor of just taking short-term isolated situations and depleting our resources to keep our climate just the way it is today,” Aldrin explained.

“I’m not necessarily of the school that we are causing it all, I think the world is causing it,” Aldrin added.

Aldrin joins fellow moonwalker Schmitt, who flew on the Apollo 17 mission, in declaring their skepticism of man-made global warming fears.

“The ‘global warming scare’ is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making. It has no place in the Society’s activities,” Schmitt, who flew on the Apollo 17 mission, said in 2008. (See: Astronaut Jack Schmitt Joins Skeptics & For Gore, a very inconvenient moonwalker.)

Schmitt is featured in the 2009 report: U. S. Senate Minority Report: More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claim.

Below is Schmitt’s full entry in the Senate’s 700 Plus Scientist Report:

Award-Winning NASA Astronaut/Geologist and Moonwalker Jack Schmitt, formerly of the Norwegian Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey, who flew on the Apollo 17 mission, has received numerous awards in his career including the Space Center Superior Achievement Award and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. Schmitt, a member of the Geological Society of America, American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, rejected man-made climate change concerns in 2008. “The ‘global warming scare’ is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making. It has no place in the Society’s activities,” Schmitt wrote on November 17, 2008. “As a geologist, I love Earth observations. But it is ridiculous to tie this objective to a “consensus” that humans are causing global warming when human experience, geologic data and history, and current cooling can argue otherwise. ‘Consensus,’ as many have said, merely represents the absence of definitive science,” Schmitt explained.

Related Links:

U. S. Senate Minority Report: More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims – March 2009

Report: Democrats Refuse to Allow Skeptic to Testify Alongside Gore At Congressional Hearing

Oops! Inconvenient Astronaut: NASA Moonwalker Schmitt Defies Gore’s Claim — Declares Himself a Skeptic! – April 25, 2009

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