Astronauts Denying Climate Change Have Right Wing Ties, Push Conspiracies

Harrison Jack Schmitt

The two astronauts behind a push against climate science at NASA have ties to right-wing organizations with sketchy scientific credentials and a history of promoting outlandish climate conspiracies.

In a March 28 letter to NASA, “49 former NASA scientists and astronauts” urge NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to stop the organization from “refrain from including unproven remarks in public releases and websites.” The letter claims, “We believe the claims by NASA and GISS, that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change are not substantiated.”

The letter runs counter to the discoveries of mainstream science, which has detailed the ongoing damage created by global climate change.

Former Apollo astronauts Walter Cunningham and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt are listed as the main contacts for the letter, and their past advocacy against climate change science calls into question the scientific validity of the petition.

In 2009 Schmitt appeared on the talk show of 9/11 conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and said that he believed that the environmental movement was a front for Communism.

“I think the whole trend really began with the fall of the Soviet Union. Because the great champion of the opponents of liberty, namely communism, had to find some other place to go and they basically went into the environmental movement,” Schmitt said.

Walter Cunningham

Walter Cunningham wrote against climate science in a pamphlet published by the Heartland Institute, a right-wing think tank dedicated to fighting climate science.

Schmitt was also a speaker at a conference arranged by the Heartland Institute to deny climate change.

ExxonMobil, the energy giant who stands to gain from the denial of climate science, has been a major funder of Heartland Institute in the past.

Recently leaked documents show a project by Heartland designed to subvert traditional science education and promote climate change denial.