Guest essay by Eric Worrall
US Television Personality Bill Nye thinks the younger generation will save the world from Climate Change, by forcing the Republican Party to embrace climate narratives to win their vote. But there are a few factors Nye is overlooking.
“Don’t be surprised, after the conservatives, the Republicans, pick somebody, this person goes, well, I’ve been thinking about it and climate change is a big issue. Because I don’t think they can quite get enough — I don’t think the party can quite get enough votes without millennials. Climate denial is almost entirely generational. Only now and then do you meet a young person — nobody your age is a climate denier. Very few. It’s all old people.”
Read more: http://uproxx.com/news/bill-nye-millennials-gop-climate-change/
Is there any evidence to back Nye’s claim that climate skepticism increases with age? The answer is yes – but the correlation is weak. Other factors such as political affiliation are stronger predictors of climate views – though the correlation between politics and climate views is not as strong as a lot of people assume.
It would be fascinating to see whether people who believe in dangerous anthropogenic climate change retain that belief as they age, or whether the demographic stays more or less stable. According to Gallup, there has been a slow rise in climate alarmism since 1997, which supports Bill’s assertion that millennials will shift the balance of concern about Climate Change.
However, when asked to rate lists of concerns in order of priority, Climate Change consistently comes last. Young people who say they are concerned about climate change, generally don’t support taking action to combat climate change, when given other choices.
See http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/07/17/despite-the-urgency-of-paris-a-u-n-sponsored-global-poll-rates-climate-change-dead-last/ for more information.
Is Bill Nye right, that climate will eventually force the capitulation of skeptical politicians to public climate concerns? In my opinion, the answer is that Bill Nye is wrong.
The evidence suggests that people care most about issues which affect them every day. Even if the younger generation retains their climate concerns, daily concerns about safety, financial security and that pothole at the end of the street which nobody has fixed will continue to trump the climate issue.
At most politicians will begin to pay more empty lip service to climate concerns, but even this is far from certain.
If you were to draw an age related demographic of belief in the tooth fairy, you would find tooth fairy skepticism is also correlated with age. Older people tend to see through the lies they were fed in their youth.
As long as WUWT and other skeptical organisations can continue to point out the flaws in alarmist narratives, skeptical messages will reach enough voters to at least defuse belief in the alleged urgency of the climate issue, so that expensive, socially and financially harmful policies designed to combat the imaginary climate threat will continue to be obstructed.
Sooner or later even Millennials will want more proof than overshooting computer models.
“Some old people” were actually taught valid science and remember most of it. Some of us are not sheeple. Some of us also know that most if not all politicians are not to be trusted. Some of us older people understand human nature and the weak character of those who seek power over others. Some of us have valid, functioning BS filters. And some of us are willing to point out the lies and evil agendas
millennial thinking
http://www.lamebook.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/planet-of-pains.jpg
Words. Just words. (above)
Millennial DOING:
“I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” — Chevy Camaro
(youtube)
(check out the end — glance at the house and… — just like the NY Times article I posted above told us)
Taking care of the planet was already taken care of — by mom and dad (not that AGW was ever a real problem, but that would be the mentality, here). Yay! On to BIGGER AND BETTER THINGS! Like driving a GAS-powered car and making money (and don’t you try to dip into my pocket, Big Wind and Sneaky Solar).
Just for you Janice.
Some people buy muscle cars.
And some people build their own.
Thanks, davidmhoffer (see, I remembered to squishitalltogetherlikeyouorderedmeto) 🙂 .
That was pitiful — passed by a Golf. Well, good for the Golf-that-can-go. Talk about a sleeper…
As long as the earth endures, there will be: motorheads and gearheads who are into LIBERTY!
#(:))
Remember the Golf Mk.1 (I assume a GTI) was built in a time before massive increases in emission controls. The Golf Mk. 1 is HUGELY lighter than the Golf Mk. 6 GTI. So no surprise there IMO.
I am not surprised the Golf beat the Nissan (It is a Datsun after all), but I suspect the Porche 911 GT3 probably wasn’t being pushed that hard IMO (Driven the Porche Carrera S4. Dealer in the UK in Swindon let me borrow one. I dropped off my LandRover Discovery COVERED in mud. I was wearing my boots. I had to drive the Porche home in my socks).
Janice, cars like that are fine, until they get to a bend in the road (Heh! Tongue in cheek). Would be great on the nullarbor here in Aus which is about 1100kms long and straight!
Yeah yeah.
I once had a Triumph Herald. The Herald was the Triumph family car. Same frame and drive train as the Triumph Spitfire but with a bread box for a body, less expensive heads on the engine and missing 30-40HP.
My top speed was 63mph (101kph), only it took me over a mile of flat, or better, slightly downhill road to reach that speed.
The only way I could safely enter and merge into Interstate roads, even with tricky Dick’s 55mph max speeds, was by never slowing down!
The great thing about Triumph Spitfires and Heralds back then was that they could take almost any curve at top speed.
One did need to show some sanity though. Technically, I could turn my steering wheel enough so that my Herald would do a doughnut in place. Perhaps better described as pulling a U-turn within a sidewalk. Turning the wheel that far at speed not only ruins front end alignments, it can pop tires off rims and roll the car. Not good in a convertible.
Back to interstates; I used to floor the Herald whenever approaching an interstate entrance or turnpike. And I’d keep that pedal floored, scooting around slow pokes until I was on the road and in the right lane, (slowest drivers).
Pulling that interstate entrance, it’s easy to seem like one is blowing past Vettes, Porches, Lamborghinis and Z cars. The truth is those cars aren’t even trying.
The same goes for goofballs who don’t mind forcing pea shell cars way over the speed limits just so they can appear to blow by real cars. All of the fake moves, fancy low wall tires and plastic spoilers still doesn’t make them a real car.
As the video clearly demonstrated, those cars easily overtook the pea shell, just by goosing a little gas into the engine.
There is a large shopping center nearby where I live. For over a decade, tiny car aficionados have been meeting over there and showing off their toys with all the glitz they’ve installed. Every now and then a challenge is issued, spotters are posted and a few tiny cars stage a drag race.
As only tiny cars with miniscule engines can drag race. It sure makes for a looong quarter mile with noisy mosquito like buzz machines. whrhrnnng.shiff.. whrhrnnng shff whrhrnnnggggg.
Be still, my beating heart…
Oh for the days when cars rumbled to life and one could feel the idle growl waiting to roar.
Few cars can truly challenge a hot bike at any speed. A quick twist of the throttle and the bike flashes by on one wheel. But no one cares about zipping past pea shells with dorky guys driving them. Perhaps if a foxy redhead lady was driving, but then we’d only zip up to the window and grin.
A few years ago, the police really bore down on the tiny car racers after one race went bad. In the center of the shopping center, the main road takes a slow curve and one of the racers lost control, hopping the median and rolling across the oncoming traffic. Even though the oncoming traffic speed was only 35mph, the inhabitants of the rolled car did not survive their ride.
“ATheoK April 7, 2016 at 2:33 am”
A Herald? I had the GT6, awesome (Same frame as the Herald and Spitfire, but with that great 2ltr 6 engine. Mine was fitted with the 2.5ltr 6). Triumph’s were styled by an Italian, build by the British. So while they looked great, they rusted and fell apart as soon as you drove off the forecourt! LMAO!
Re: “lamebook” graphic above – that cute young woman could be the avatar for someone much older, possibly, with a much deeper voice, too… with gray hair, likely…
super computers will heal it by adding bright colors to every modelled grid cell –
new enhanced!
To
Alex on April 6, 2016 at 9:17 pm
millennial thinking
super computers will heal it by adding bright colors to every modelled grid cell –
new enhanced!
Thanks , Alex!
Maybe you can repost your comment with the bevor / after
1 your Screenshot
2 a Screenshot of the enhanced super modelled Planet
have fun
Alex,
It is a good example. I’m am just convinced that it is an example of a minority view.
Thanks for sharing.
Your WUWT friend (whether you want her or not, heh),
Janice
And they cant see it is a fake picture? I mean north America is quite a bit larger in the second image.
and pasted over the moon
I should wear my glasses more often. I thought that was a “polluted” image of the atmosphere at first. Serial, and I mean I am as serial as Al, these people are serial silly.
A little worse than that Patrick. The image of the USA is from a 2D map graphic, not from a space camera or any sort of elevated picture.
The photo shoppers don’t even use real planet parts.
Geez! We have turned the Western hemisphere into the Eastern!!
Has anyone on here ever met someone who denies climate ?
[snip – policy violation – despicable comment -mod]
I remember when great people like Armstrong and others would take pictures with the president after space walks and moon landings. Now heroes are shamed and state propoganist like Nye are held in high esteem.
The stupid among us are actually quit amazing. Look into their eyes, they have the confidence of fools.
Dunning Kruger effect. This explains so much of that which infuriates us.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=dunning+kruger+syndrome+wikipedi
Also don’t forget social pressure (in these days of Social Media) that more often than not demands that you fall in line with the media-supported CAGW narrative or else risk alienation or attacks from rabid eco-kookery.
“Modern liberalism is best understood as a movement of would-be believers in search of true faith. For much of the 20th century it was faith in History, especially in its Marxist interpretation. Now it’s faith in the environment. Each is a comprehensive belief system, an instruction sheet on how to live, eat and reproduce, a story of how man fell and how he might be redeemed, a tale of impending crisis that’s also a moral crucible.“
– ‘The Tyranny of a Big Idea‘, Brett Stephens
Someone’s always “saving” and “forcing” lately. Please do neither.
Bill Nye is an idiot, his interview with Lindzen was well, embarrassing, I was shocked that he was actually as thick as he was.
He is a perfect match for his two stupefied chums in that pic, one being the quite less than averagely intelligent Obama (not an exaggeration) and the Astrophysicist who has done nothing for Astrophysics in his whole career.
Basically three people who have never done anything for science (unless you count TV shows and Obama’s corruption of science via the EPA)
The three blind mice…
Couldn’t resist, another video of the Golf MK1
49psi on the blower? And you wonder why this thing performs the way it does. It will have to be 4×4 too…
Ok it is 4×4, 4motion, so looks like a Mk1. but not really!
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/01/19/scientists-actually-really-stupid-2-bill-nye/
Hello Charles!!! Hope you are well. All the best to you.
IMO, there’s a case of confounding variables. Older people are generally more conservative too.
Since millenials have been indoctrinated since the cradle with this AGW crap, it is not surprising that it is a prominent part of their worldview.
One of the few advantages of getting old is the wisdom of experience. By the time millenials reach 50, they may have overcome their indoctrination and seen through it.
Seriously, the chart illustrates a broader issue. My local council (and the UK government come to that) is increasingly relying on internet-based communications, at the risk of leaving older people behind. The chart picks this up nicely.
Of course as the models projections do not occur, hopefully the millenials’ will have received enough education to ask “why not?”
Do these people ever put their brains into gear before opening their mouths? This is getting quite worrisome.
Are they saying that millennials don’t grow old?
Is it because they themselves are stuck in some permanent childhood Baby World?
And they’ve got an even bigger problem in that Western populations are aging as people live longer and have fewer babies
Here are some of the responses I get from most millennials:
‘never heard of gavin Schmidt.’
‘Sea level is rising 8 inches a year.’
‘Earth’s average temperature rose 2C since 2000.’
-a 30F day in Wisconsin in January had one person worried.
‘the IPCC is not funded by the UN.’
‘we need to start blowing up power plants.’
I think rather than blow up power plants, the old people need to shut them down now and let the millennials experience no power. No cell phone, no internet, no social media. Don’t wait until the government slowly shuts them down. Do it now and illustrate where this is all going. (If the plants can’t be shut down, then shut down the electrical usage at home—shut off a few breakers off and let your kids live the ideal life. Oh, and take those phones and tablets, car keys, etc. After all, it’s to save the planet.)
millennials are in debt ($1 trillion-plus in student loans) so good luck getting them to fund the $100 trilion CAGW scam….er energy transformation.
millennials who live at home and pay no bills might say they believe in CAGW (for what that’s worth) but, if sceptical parents pretend to agree and say the family is giving up smart phones, internet, etc in order to reduce the family’s carbon footprint, they’ll soon rationalise why there’s no point in actually doing anything…a bit like Canadian millennial(?) Madeleine!
5 Apr: Guardian: Madeleine Somerville: How I deal with the unbearable hypocrisy of being an environmentalist
It’s not easy living green without going completely off the grid, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do what we can – and accept that sometimes we’ll fail
This hypocrisy is a delicate balancing act. It speaks to the seemingly inescapable reality of this North American machine we’ve built and which now runs our life.
In order to avoid it, one needs to escape to the woods, go off the grid. You’ll subtract most of your environmental impact by doing so. I think everyone fantasises about it from time to time (I certainly do), but you’ll also lose priceless human connection and culture, alongside the ability to educate or inspire change in others.
The fear of navigating this cognitive dissonance, as well as the fear of armchair critics declaring that you’ve failed is, I believe, at the heart of many people’s reluctance to adopt more green practices…
I think George Monbiot summed it up best: “Hypocrisy is the gap between your aspirations and your actions. Greens have high aspirations – they want to live more ethically – and they will always fall short. But the alternative to hypocrisy isn’t moral purity (no one manages that), but cynicism. Give me hypocrisy any day.”
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/apr/05/environmentally-friendly-green-living-ideas
About: Sweet Madeleine
http://www.sweetmadeleine.ca/about/
Bill Nye would lose his faith in youth if he compared the lifestyle consumption of today’s youngsters compared with those that came before them. They expect higher standards and a greater quantity of everything. On paper, energy use is less but that’s down to fuel changes and efficiency, not a fundamental change in behaviour.
Judging by the ones that work for me, millennials would be hard-pressed to be able to spell “climate change” let alone “save the world” … as my old granddaddy used to say, “full of pizz and wind!”
Oh sure, just kick us in the stomach, you thug.
The Republicans will support AGW when they decide they want the power that goes along with regulating CO2 (and thereby almost everything, including the economy).
Yes Bill, and they have had good training with debt management (see below) and excellent propaganda instruction in schools, including rigged science experiments that you had a hand in.
From WSJ:
More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments
New figure raises worries that millions of them may never repay more than $200 billion owed
The graph shows it is politics, not age that determines your belief in climate change. This is only logical, because “climate change” is not a scientific term, it is a political term.
What is the formal scientific definition of “climate change”? Is this the same definition used by the press and politicians? Does this definition include natural variability or is it limited to only human caused changes?
Unless and until there is a formal definition for the term “climate change”, what is there to debate? No one is even certain what they are talking about.
Any debate on “climate change” should start by defining the term, because it is this lack of definition that has turned a scientific debate into a political debate.
For example: imagine that the word “and” had two different meanings. It could mean “and”, or it could mean “or”. Try this out on a few sentences to see the effect. Logical argument flies out the window. This is the same thing that happens when there are multiple definitions for “climate change”, none of which are agreed.
I grew up watching Don Herbert – The Original Mr. Wizard. Having no Science Background, he thoroughly researched every experiment and show demonstration, using scientists and engineers to validate the methods he used on every program. Having only a background in the Entertainment Industry, Don was aware of his inadequacies and therefore sought out knowledgeable sources before allowing anything to be broadcast. Bill Nye, on the other hand, has taken his Ego as “The Science Guy” to mean that he is actually a Scientist. As noted previously, the best he can claim is a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. I have watched several of Bill Nye’s Shows and it is very obvious that he knows virtually NOTHING about most of what he presents. When he appears before Legislative Committees, he claims to be a Scientist, but he is nothing more than a far Left Entertainer with no scientific credentials.
“……Climate denial is almost entirely generational. Only now and then do you meet a young person — nobody your age is a climate denier. Very few. It’s all old people.”
Let me say first of all that I’m not a scientist here. To me however, alarmists like Bill Nye who are labelling
and mischaractarizing people who are skeptical of the CAGW theory (Deniers!! Skeptics are only old people!!) are displaying either an ignorance of the scientific method as a standard part of scientific discourse or are attempting to supress the application of the scientific method to the theory.
If it is the latter, then it becomes patently obvious to me that alarmists like Nye probably realize all to well that they have something (and probably plenty) to hide when claiming the theory is proven or at least has scientific validity. It doesn’t takes a Phd in a scientific field to reason this out and undestand it.
If Nye truly understands the scientific method and scientific discourse the way he should (or claims to), he would not be making the above quoted statement. A true understanding of science and how scientific discourse works with the scientific method (at least as I understand it) does not and should not involve this kind of behavior. Either that, or he has joined those who have caused the CAGW theory to morph into a religion or ideology in a quest to achieve political ends. In the case of the latter, ignoring, suppressing or badmouthing the falsifying scientific evidence becomes standard behavior in one’s defense of the Holy Faith and one’s political ends. Money, power and control.
Whatever it is that is going on Nye’s head, making such statements demonstrates the clown that he is when trying to pass himself off as someone with qualifying scientific credentials in the area of climate science (and probably other scientific fields as well).
Again, I am not a scientist. But from following WUWT as long as I have, it is not difficult at all for me to see right through this guy. In climate science at least, he has all the credibility of a three dollar bill.
…..and I would like to thank Anthony, the scientists and everyone else here at WUWT who have all enlightened me enough about the climate to see right through Nye and his climate alarmism.
Not sure why anyone would pay attention to what Bill Nye says, but on this topic he may be closer to be correct than he ever is on science related subjects.
Our kids believe the CAGW theme. Last week I was talking to one of our young electrical engineers and she too was surprised anyone didn’t believe climate change was a threat to be worried about. When intelligent, educated (particularly technically educated) people have bought into the storyline so completely, I’m not sure there is anything we can do.
Yes, but if she graduated in the last decade, she also probably believes in when when encounters a microaggression she needs to seek her closest safe space…