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Bill Nye, the ‘Science’ Guy on Global Warming and Patriotism

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  February 14th, 2010 at 11:00 AM  | 

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“Bill Nye, the Science Guy” made some outrageously offensive and ill-informed statements Wednesday night on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, going so far as to apply the word “unpatriotic” to those who don’t share his faith in the Church of Climate Change. (Video clip available here. Warning: It’s at HuffPo.)

Nye, who’s primarily known as an entertainer and producer of children’s television, was cast in the role of Official Representative of the Scientific Establishment during Ms. Maddow’s segment on Climate Change. Maddow offered several clips of conservative commentators lampooning the notion of Global Warming, while D.C. digs out of the record-breaking Blizzard of Aught-Ten.

One snowstorm, sayeth the experts Maddow and Nye, does not disprove Climate Change. Well, duh. We skeptics don’t have to disprove anything.

The recent blows to the integrity of the Climate Change community, all of which are self-inflicted, may be enough to bring down their House of Cards without much outside help.

We’re not trying disprove anything, Mr. Science Guy. Your guys are squirming. And we’re enjoying it.

Here are some of Nye’s howlers (complete transcript here):

If you want to get serious about it, these guys claiming that the snow in Washington disproves climate change are almost unpatriotic. It‘s really … they‘re denying science.

[Asked to distinguish between climate and weather]: Well, one‘s a small-scale phenomenon, happens day to day. The other‘s a big phenomenon. We all know this. We all feel it in our—in our hearts.

The main thing is: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change got a Nobel Prize. They got a scientific prize for making a discovery. They didn‘t get a minor award. This is a big deal. They discovered climate change through all kinds of evidence, and it‘s something we should all be very, very concerned about.

This thing of denying science—you know, science has done so much to make this country what it is, a technological leader. It‘s improved the quality of life for so many people, here and around the world. To deny what scientists or scientific evidence is showing, is inappropriate. And as I said earlier, to me, when I get wound up, it‘s unpatriotic.

Emphasis added throughout.

  1. For a Science Guy, you’re doing an awful lot of feeling there, and not a whole lot of thinking. Just sayin’.
  2. Unpatriotic? The patriotism of Jane Fonda, Bill Ayers, Danny Glover and Rosie O’Donnell is unquestionable, but Climate Change skeptics are unpatriotic? Please.
  3. The IPCC, along with Al Gore, won the Nobel Peace Prize, not a scientific Nobel. Other noted Peace Prize recipients: Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Yassir Arafat…
  4. The IPCC is a political, not a scientific, body. They do no research and they claim no “discoveries”. They certainly didn’t “discover” climate change, unless you count how they harnessed its power as a political bludgeon.
  5. Science has improved our lives in many ways. One way is education. That means that quite a few of us have critical thinking skills, and can appreciate the abuse of science on display in the Climate Change community.

So what makes this guy a science expert? Here’s the CV for Bill Nye, the Science Guy.

  • BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell, 1977
  • Registered Engineer since 1983 (WA)
  • 3 honorary PhDs
  • 3 Patents (ballet toe shoe, digital abacus, educational lens)
  • Several Emmys
  • Host and Writer, “Stuff Happens,” television series covering the consequences of human activities on the environment, for Discovery’s Planet Green network

This last bullet is included only because it is the only item in an extensive CV which relates to climate science.

Oddly, your humble correspondent has a similar background, absent the kids’ TV, the toe shoes and the honorary degrees:

  • BS in Petroleum Engineering, Oklahoma, 1978
  • Registered Engineer since 1982 (OK)

The key difference between Bill Nye the Science Guy and Vladimir the Energy Whore may be that Vladimir knows bulls**t when he smells it.

Cross-posted at VladEnBlog

P.S. Check the comments at the Science Guy’s website…

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COMMENTS

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  • 10ksnooker

    the theory is the science guy who must prove the theory.

  • throwback59

    warming mongers have become in the past couple of weeks. Basically they are saying “who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes.”
    Nye can use those ballett tap shoes he invented to dance around the fact that much of the so-called evidence on global warming is being discredited on a weekly basis.

  • mbecker908
    • mbecker908

      Johnny says:
      February 14, 2010 at 11:11 am

      Hey Bill,

      Found a few ?unpatriotic? scientists for ya

      http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7026317.ece

      Your liberal slip is showing.

      From TimesOnLine…

      The United Nations climate panel faces a new challenge with scientists casting doubt on its claim that global temperatures are rising inexorably because of human pollution.

      In its last assessment the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the evidence that the world was warming was ?unequivocal?.

      It warned that greenhouse gases had already heated the world by 0.7C and that there could be 5C-6C more warming by 2100, with devastating impacts on humanity and wildlife. However, new research, including work by British scientists, is casting doubt on such claims. Some even suggest the world may not be warming much at all.

      ?The temperature records cannot be relied on as indicators of global change,? said John Christy, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, a former lead author on the IPCC.

  • RedBeard

    We would expect no less from a Maddow-endowed “expert.”

    • bballfan

      To funny, How true. Anyone on that show is instantly not credible.

    • bballfan

      To funny, How true. Anyone on that show is instantly not credible.

  • WarEagle01

    (Note to self: Never, ever allow kids to watch this ignorant boob on TV.)

    • http://itsaboutfreedom.proboards.com/index.cgi#general bigalsouth

      and making excuses. “We just report the findings! Don’t blame us!” The IPCC is backing away from its Nobel PEACE prize winning findings that the Himalayan Glaciers would disappear by 2035.

      http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2010/01/16/glaciergate-ipcc/

      Stoopid goober TV “scientist.

      • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

        on the Nobel committee, There is now no real prestige in winning their prizes.

  • ceili_dancer

    Also on a TV comedy show on Comedy Central called “Almost Live”. I think he carried the jokes over to the whole AGW debate.

  • dennism

    …the Smart Set says cold weather is no evidence of anything. But they go on to say it is evidence that the theory is right. I’m not making this up.

    • Vladimir

      If so, where are they?

      • Vladimir

        If so, where are they?

  • 4life

    The new State Religion. Isn’t there something in the Constitution about that?

  • USNJIMRET

    As in the Nobel Peace Prize being miscast as a Science Prize.
    Or declaring that the very partisan political group that ‘Awards’ said prize does so without bias.
    Just enough of a kernel of truth in the lie to give one the wiggle room needed should the lie be challenged.
    Considering how many years he has in the TV ‘Education’ field, Mr Nye KNOWS that his false presentation of facts has a long term positive, for his side, result.
    After all, how many people believe that Sarah Palin is the one who said that she can see Russia from her house? And parrot that ‘fact’ as evidence of her lack of intelligence?
    Same thing here.
    Present, from an invented position of scientific “authority”, facts and ideas that are demonstrably incorrect, and you grow a few more soldiers in your decades long war of disinformation and coerced adherence to their preferred solution, more government control of everything.
    All cloaked in a very non threatening geek who produces children’s television ‘programming’, a word with more then one meaning!

  • Return to Revolution

    We’re also unpatriotic if we don’t find the world of the ‘Green Police’ – which is where we are headed – all that savory.

  • shadowtax

    Come back to us, Mr. Wizard!

    • Alberta
    • Vladimir

      I think even Jethro Bodine recognized that the Peace Prize is not scientific.

  • conservnut

    Found a few more unpatriotic folks for ya.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7026317.ece

  • eastbaylarry

    Meanwhile the administration is moving forward to control our economy via agencies like the NOAA, which has been put forward as the government authority on climate change.

    We can’t let ourselves be distracted by the talking heads.

  • http://pocketchangeproductions.net/ anotherindyfilmguy

    “We all feel it in our?in our hearts.”

    And that why and where the science stopped being important to the eco-socialist goals of promoting the global warming fraud… When *feelings* are more important than *facts* insanity rules…

  • penguin2

    You are smarter and know how to think about solving scientific/engineering problems, not covering them up. Though there is a pun in there when thinking about the geological aspects….

    I had no idea he wasn’t a “scientist.” He is just another Hollywood elitist who thinks he knows something and believes he is smarter than the rest of us. Sort of like the Hollywood types who know more about foreign policy than people like Ambassador Bolton. OTOH, with the current admin, Hollywood does match up.

    • mbecker908

      having lunch with the AGW True Believers…

      • dennism

        you’d never think he had a brain in his head.

  • http://erickbrockway.wordpress.com/ Erick Brockway

    Right here.
    Even translated for the dummies at HuffPo.

  • DONTREADONME

    pretty much why the GW debate is a hoax; therefore, they call me anti-science well I am anti science if this is what they call science. BTW B.S. SUNYIT Photonics and Applied Mathematics 10 years design engineer patents with my former company yup, I am DONTREADONME The Science Guy and I gave myself 3 honorary PhDs yup that’s about as much as an honorary degree is worth.

    • Vladimir
      • Achance

        as opposed to Republicans. I can only think of honorary degrees going to Republicans here after said Republican gave large amounts of money to the Democrat controlled university.

        • mbecker908

          From HuffPo…

          TEMPE, ARIZONA – Universities typically confer an honorary degree on commencement speakers, particularly those who have reached the pinnacle of their career or achieved the top of their field. Arizona State University (ASU), though, says it will not confer an honorary degree on this year’s commencement speaker, President Barack Obama, because “his body of work is yet to come.”

          ASU Media Relations Director Sharon Keeler says, unlike other universities, the processes for selecting commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients are independent. She says that honorary degrees are given “for an achievement of eminence” and that Obama was not considered for an honorary degree because his body of achievements, at this time, does not fit within that criteria.

    • Achance

      is that a period of warm weather will end with a period of very snowy weather. Then, with everything covered with snow, most of the solar radiation gets reflected back to space for much longer periods of the year. Consequently, the affected area cools down and you get periods of cold and dry weather. That exposes the ground, results in more radiation being absorbed, which in turn causes things to begin warming up again, thus starting the cycle over. Pretty simple, elegant system and Whoever thought it up was pretty smart.

  • NRPax

    Bill Nye? Isn’t he a second-rate Professor Beakman?

  • partyof1

    sayeth the experts Maddow and Nye, does not disprove Climate Change.”

    but one hurricane does? I assume that Maddow and Nye were cheering Al Gore as he stood in front of the 50 foot image of hurricane Katrina and tied it to “global warming”.

  • archer52

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html

    From our friends in Britain who appear to have had enough of this silly climate change foolishness. There politics is different than ours. They do not have that hard core democratic base with disposable income like here. The money they lost, the jobs they lost makes a bitter people even more bitter. If Al Gore were British he’d be moving.

  • archer52

    http://truthandcommonsense.com/2010/02/15/suing-global-warming-for-loss-of-wages-lifestyles-can-it-be-done/

    In my post I ask the question can we sue? I figure the governments won’t (unless extreme pressure is brought by the voting public). So it is left up to some enterprising young attorney to file the first suit and freeze any records. It can be argued that if these scientists knew the statistics they were offering as evidence were falsified a crime occurred. Like I said in my post, imagine if a big Pharma company put out a drug that harmed the public KNOWING the drug trials were faked, they’d be sued and probably put out of business. The world has lost TRILLIONS of dollars over the years with all the bull demanded by those using global warming stats as facts. Somebody needs to sue somebody for a whole lot of money.

    Now we can’t get everybody involved, but targeting the core group in the email scandal would be a good start. Trust me, like I said in my post, the only thing wimpier than scientists is Bill Maher. They’ll roll over like trained puppies.

    Erick, know anybody looking to be famous?

  • kilroy00

    The only “expert” on climate is GOD! All the rest are phony Nobel “Peace” Prize winners…

  • http://www.ancientsuns.com/fwd/mia/ lone77star

    You bet it is. If someone driving a train is told that the bridge up ahead is out, but chooses to ignore the data, he endangers the lives of everyone on the train. If that train is America, if the driver is us, and if the danger is global warming, then perhaps ignoring it is unpatriotic. Let me explain.

    Weather is complex, to be sure, but some things are unambiguous signs of global warming. Take rising oceans, for instance. The increased turbulence from climate change may result in freak snow storms, perhaps in places that rarely see snow, but the overall picture is clear. The rising of oceans means something is melting. Measurable ocean rise means that a whole lot of something is melting. Melting means global warming. Simple. There may be local cold snaps, but globally we have clear-cut signs of warming. Just take a look at this article about disappearing islands:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100324/ap_on_sc/as_india_disappearing_island

    Nature doesn’t respect party lines, or the economics of big business. You can ignore where this train is headed, or you can do something about it. Just because the other party touts global warming and this party ridicules it does not govern what each of us thinks and does as individuals. Each of us, as Americans, are responsible. Don’t blindly follow the train. Don’t let disbelief or the clutter of “he said, she said” confuse the issue.

    If we don’t take responsibility for the endangerment of America and humanity what does that make us?

    How could global warming endanger humanity? The most obvious way is the displacement of millions from coastal areas as a result of rising sea levels (already underway). Ruining Shanghai, Tokyo, London, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and others could have an adverse effect on world economy. The temporary loss of New Orleans from Katrina was an expensive lesson.

    Increased drought in some areas (including food producing areas), plus increased flooding in others could upset the global food supply (including the domestic food supply). What will you tell your children about the global warming “hoax,” if they don’t have food to eat because we did nothing?

    Increased turbulence in the world economy from the above effects would likely result in regime changes, destabilization, wars and more disruptions. And yes, disruptions to business.

    Personally, I like big business. I especially like responsible big business. I like big business that pays more than lip service to caring about their customers and the future of this planet. It would be a shame to have our precious big business go the way of other big beings 65 million years ago. The dinosaurs couldn’t do anything about their own plight. The sad thing is, our big lumbering beings can do something, but will bruised ego and greed get in the way? I hope not.

    Twelve thousand years ago, after thousands of years of natural global warming, glacial melt resulted in a severe return to Ice Age conditions that lasted 1300 years. This was a period known as the Younger Dryas. So, yes, global warming can result in another Ice Age, as counter-intuitive as that may seem. Weather is complex and unpredictable, locally. Globally, the picture is clear. Will we wake up in time to do something meaningful about it?