Anthony Watts shames former Apollo Astronaut, Walt Cunningham

Update

This tweet from @rubiginosa sums up Anthony Watts' article better than anything:

pic.twitter.com/Hp6C4G6A7j #climate MT @wattsupwiththat Apollo Astronaut: Climate Alarmism Is the ‘Biggest Fraud in the Field of Science’
— rubiginosa (@rubiginosa) July 6, 2014

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Anthony Watts is mocking the 84 year old Apollo astronaut, Walt Cunningham. He's posted a rather embarrassing article about the poor chap, written by Eric "eugenics" Worrall** (archived here, latest here). Anthony's headline was: "Apollo Astronaut: Climate Alarmism Is the ‘Biggest Fraud in the Field of Science’".

Walt is wheeled out by the professional disinformers from time to time and made to perform in public. I've written about it once before.

If Walt wanted to, he could be remembered for his glory days. Instead he spends part of his retirement waving his hands about, weakly protesting climate change muttering paranoid conspiracy theories and making inane, nonsensical comments such as these, quoted on Anthony Watts blog:

“Since about 2000, I looked farther and farther into it,...I found that not one of the claims that the alarmists were making out there had any bearings, whatsoever. And, so, it was kind of a no-brainer to come to the conclusion.”...

...“The media are largely to blame for public misconceptions – not because they’re intentionally misleading the public, but because they “just don’t want to go into the time and trouble to find out.” “If they do go into it and look at it for themselves, they become a lot more neutral in their presentation,” 

...“I can only tell you that, even back in the days of Apollo, we didn’t have to face this kind of nonsense” 

Full of substance, eh? Just what he has looked into, neither Anthony Watts nor Eric Worrall is saying.  I doubt Walt has a clue.  He just knows that the Arctic can't be melting, the oceans can't possibly be getting more acidic, the surface temperature can't be going up and the seas couldn't possibly be storing more heat. Nor could the seas be rising.

Data sources: NODC/NOAA, PIOMAS, NASA (GISTemp), CU Sea Level Research Group University of Colorado

I suppose this is the first of a series of empty, meaningless protests at global warming and climate change that will be paraded at the denier festival at Las Vegas this week. Fodder for HotWhopper.

I do think it's a bit unfair of the science denial brigade to take advantage of a former astronaut who's lost the plot. Still, he's his own person and if he wants to make a fool of himself in his old age, then there will always be unscrupulous people waiting to make the most of the opportunity.

**Eric Worrall earned the nickname "Eugenics" because he made a habit of likening climate science to the study of eugenics in the 1930s, particularly when he commented at Watching the Deniers. It's his version of Godwin's Law.

From the WUWT comments

Sweet Old Bob says he wishes mainstream media was as cruel to the poor chap as Anthony Watts is:

July 6, 2014 at 6:22 am
If only the MSM would cover this speech…

Is Jeremy taking a swipe at the Rocket Scientist from Luna Park and his Force X? He says:

July 6, 2014 at 6:24 am
So true! Climate science is not rocket science – it is BS for Geography types – those people with coloring crayons who incapable of logical scientific enquiry and deduction. 

John piccirilli has been studying climate science in depth for a whole "twenty minutes" and says:

July 6, 2014 at 7:56 am
Follow the money..skeptics make $0 while alarmists and so called “green” energy scams are making millions. I looked into this “debate” for myself, it took all of 20minutes to know the truth.