Guest Post by Bob Tisdale
For those not familiar with Dancing With the Stars, it’s a television dance contest that pairs professional dancers with celebrities. Bill Nye was a celebrity dancer for 2013’s Season 17. Nye was eliminated in the third round after he and his partner scored the lowest points in the first three rounds. (Also see the HuffingtonPost article here about Nye’s injury in the second round.) Nye is probably most famous for his acting role in the kids’ science program Bill Nye the Science Guy that ran from 1993 to 1998. See Bill Nye’s other acting credits on the IMDb webpage here.
With his celebrity status, Bill Nye has become an outspoken activist intent on curbing greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit much-speculated-about global warming and its hypothetical climate-change impacts. In his recent HuffingtonPost blog post Why I Choose to Challenge Climate Change Deniers, his celebrityness takes on Marc Morano and meteorologist Joe Bastardi and attempts to make hypothetical human-induced global warming and climate change focal points for the upcoming U.S. elections.
The Dancing With the Stars celebrity’s recent blog post begins (my boldface):
As you may know, I am very concerned about global warming and global climate change. The science of global warming is long settled, and one may wonder why the United States, nominally the most technologically advanced country in the world, is not the world leader in addressing the threats enumerated by the U.S. military, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and others. I hope people will take the facts we face into account as they head to the polls this year.
And his post concludes:
Contrary to Mr. Bastardi’s statement, carbon dioxide certainly does affect the Earth’s climate in a big way. I hope you will consider both Mr. Morano’s and Mr. Bastardi’s tendency to change the subject along with their misjudgment, or apparent misjudgment, of atmospheric and planetary science as you head to the polls this year.
Global politics created the much-ballyhooed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (a political entity, not a scientific one) and now Bill Nye is attempting to influence the U.S. presidential election with the output of that political entity. For those new to the politics behind the hypothesis of human-induced global warming and climate change, see the Introduction to my free ebook On Global Warming and the Illusion of Control – Part 1 (25MB .pdf). The Introduction begins:
Politicians and activist scientists have endeavored to destroy our perception of one of Nature’s most humbling, wonder-inspiring rewards: the gift of weather in all its forms…benign and violent. The grandeur of weather is being used by politicians and activist scientists to bludgeon voters and to frighten the gullible.
A closing question: Does anyone care about the political opinions of an actor who appeared on Dancing With the Stars?
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Typo in headline – Bill Nye
And no I don’t take any advice from dancing with the stars participants.
Thanks, Roger. Fixed it.
With modern WWW practices, people should really double check the title as it is often engraved forever in the URL.
I know it was a QWERTY typo rather than a Freudian slip but I rather liked “Bill Bye”.
If only.
Apparently Bob Tisdale cares enough to post this on WUWT. What is the big deal with Nye having a personal opinion, he has that right, just as you have the right to disagree with him. What’s up is with this silly outrageous outrage?
Saul, Nye can say and believe what he likes, but when such a faker, with easy access to the media propagandises the young and the easily led then I figure people need to care and be ready to counter the rubbish he spouts.
Nobody said he didn’t have a right to an opinion, the article is about whether anyone else should care about his opinion.
Nye is and has been influential, so his opinion matters. Unlike yours.
Ah but the difference is Nye is willing to lie in public. So you have no issue with someone lying to influence public opinion?
What’s the big deal with you supporting people who hate the truth?
The issue is not an opinion, the issue is one based on lying and being dishonest.
So why do you hate the truth and come here suggesting that it ok for someone to lie and attempt to change public opinion based on lying?
So the outrage would be silly here if Nye was not lying and a dishonest person. We certainly reached a low point in society when you attempt to deflect the issue about people’s right to an opinion (issue was NEVER about someone’s right to an opinion).
The WHOPPER of the part you are leaving out is the dishonesty and lying part.
So you have no problem with people who lie and are dishonest and no problem with such opinions being used to influence people?
Cleary you have no issues with lying and dishonest people and are willing to uphold their dishonestly at the same level of those who speak the truth?
The difference here is Bob cares about the truth, and so do the readers here.
Regards,
Albert D. Kallal
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
Albert, well said!
Of course Bill Nye is entitled to his opinion. What is extremely questionable is why a guy with no real science background, essentially a publicity gadfly, is given such widespread access to media pulpits. When they have to enlist guys like Bill Nye as one of the faces of their communication efforts, it is a good sign they have nothing.
Hey Saul, just curious if you folks in Quebec would be willing to help get Alberta it’s 270 billion in transfer payments in the last decade back? I see our PM (?) has bailed out Bombardier (owned by one family in Quebec) and yet is leaving the 60,000 unemployed Albertans hanging out to dry? You know, the people who have carried Canada’s economy for the last decade? What’s up with that silliness?
Saul, nobody here is questioning his right to have a personal opinion and I think you know it.
Furthermore, some of us love it when Bill Nye claims the mantle of “climate science” spokesman and vents his idiotic opinions, for example that the IPCC received a scientific Nobel Prize and other embarrassing drivel.
When scoundrels pull cheap political tricks it is only logical that people fight back by political means.
Hurray for Bill Nye the Climate Guy!
Avanti!
Sure, we all have the right to be an idiot in public, but when we are, others have the right to ridicule us without mercy.
Indeed my grand children get faked out by this appeal from authority. It takes hours/days/months to get rid of the phoney science that is being taught through the media and the education system and to teach them to LISTEN CRITICALLY and not just accept the “unprecedented” spin from all sides.
Bill Bye seemed oddly appropriate.
..Funny, that was my thought too ! LOL
Bill Lye would have been better 😁
I grew up in a dancing family, my grandmother being one herself and running several studios over her career. Dancing with Bill Nye? Just…ew.
Yah, but… Pamela… Bill’s partner was paid to dance with him. And no-one knows how many rounds of Rock-Scissors-Paper the female professional dancers went through to see who would wind up with Bill for the season. Well, she lost and probably figured they were going down early, so I trust she asked for extra pay to make up for her lost TV exposure time.
P.S. Pamela, do you think she took out extra insurance for her feet that season? As a professional, I’d think she would recognize her peril.
Pretty funny, HR! 🙂
Bill Bye–
Wish fulfillment? A consummation devoutly to be wish’d.
Thanks, Lance. I fixed the typo.
Dang, it was better the first way.
Bill Nye being asked a question by one of his Global Warming followers.
She starts with “our science guy Bill Nye” baaahahahaha
CNN needs to be torn down, lying liberal monstrosity.
It is always useful to hear how people define themselves. Here is Bill Nye in all his scientific glory:
Given that this sordid CAGW affair is very little science and whole lot of politics, I am grateful that such a scientific nitwit is arguing for the alarmists. We can’t always be picky about political alliances but it would be quite embarrassing to have him on the skeptical side.
The first obvious problem is that the IPCC did NOT win a “scientific” prize; it was the Nobel PEACE prize, by definition political.
Like his friend Al Gore Bill is either ignorant or disingenuous; and neither is acceptable in a spokesperson.
Good point George. I was about to note the same thing. Of course Rachel Maddow is not so gauche to say that to Nye. Journalistic integrity takes a back seat to getting the message out.
George & Tim, I understand your point but it’s clown cars all the way down.
I like it that Bill Nye is rising as a spokesman for global warming. I want him to be on TV every day. Maybe he will bring some of the atmospheric models he’s building and show them in front of live audience.
obviously the IPCC didn’t “discover” climate change, or any thing else for that matter.
Bill Nye–clown sans face paint.
JVC
I think the old ham actually believes it. He couldn’t fake it like some of them do. He’s as good at acting as he’s at science.
Exactly CW. Bill Nye is the Pee-Wee Herman of the alarmist proponents and I personally Love it when he gets on the air. Imagine if he was replaced by a person that didn’t look like a cartoon character and has some credentials and enough knowledge and gravitas to actually enfluence people? I say keep Pee-Wee front and center and in the public limelight! Every time he gets on TV he helps characterize the alarmists as clowns. How can one not look at that guy I wonder why the alarmists can’t come up with someone better?
Rachel is looking most manly tonight…what bathroom pray tell does he/she use? it would be very hard to grab the locks of hair on the back of her neck to mount and pound her backside
blah blah blah blah black matter anti matter you don’t matter.
does anyone care about the opinions of an actor who faked a greenhouse effect experiment on tv and fooled millions of kids? isn’t that empirical evidence that he is a liar.
Dancing with the court jester
Nyet Nye!
As neither Mr. Morano’s nor Mr. Bastardi’s are standing for election Bill Nye is coming across more and more like the village idiot he is.
Actually, I think Bill is the guy they have the village idiot keep an eye on.
Hummm, did somebody say actor? 🙂
http://www.funnyordie.com/articles/f2c4b71b7a/reddit-proves-once-again-that-bill-nye-is-a-goddamn-meme-machine?_cc=__d___&_ccid=bb434193-c462-43e6-9480-838d37145d35
He doesn’t act. He plays himself on TV. No “acting” required. He’s not a dancer, obviously. He’s also not a scientist. He does absolutely NOTHING well, or with any observable skill, except resemble an old, dry, tree or a perched buzzard. Every time I see the character Professor Proton (played by Bob Newhart) on the Big Bang Theory, I find myself thinking Bob is more likeable, more entertaining, and probably smarter than Bill Nye when it comes to science, and that I’d most likely prefer his imaginary TV show to Bill’s real one any day.
ossqss May 20, 2016 at 6:56 am
Some of those are hilarious. Part of me hates promoting anything to do with this Gye, but clearly some se him for what he is.
Let me lay out Nye’s answer to every scientific question re AGW
“Tell me, has CO2 increased? Has Warming increased?”
ROFL
This is his same argument when he argued with Lindzen and Bastardi.
Hilarious
The best, funniest adverts I’ve ever seen were for beer. However because I don’t like beer, they had no effect on me other than alerting me to the brand name. PR people and celebs think that popularity attracts the public, but it only encourages them to veer in a direction they were already going. When the cost of cutting CO2 arises, most people including box ticking believers balk. Climate change just isn’t a big issue for most people. Bill Nye is deluded.
That’s why many costs are disguised.
Perhaps Nye and the rest will end up much like Falstaff beer.
Falstaff was looking to expand their distribution and sales so they engaged an ad agency to develop an ad campaign. The campaign was extremely successful and lots of people bought Falstaff as a result.
Small problem. Their beer sucked. They tried it and never went back. Worse, it was so bad that it became a running joke. Even long time Falstaff drinkers stopped buying it.
It’s a bit like those part work magazines, where the first copy is really affordable and exciting with a free toy. After you’ve signed up you find it criminally expensive, boring and with dubious reward.
I care because he gets media attention and can influence the public. He needs a big takedown by one of our good guys.
Bill Nye has been ‘taken down’ more than the Brooklyn Brawler on the WWE. He has even scored numerous ‘own goals’ by his own incompetence. The trouble is for the MSM none of that matters. He is their ‘go to guy’ on climate discussions and he will continue to be as long as he totes water for the CAGW team. (There’s an Adam Sandler “The Waterboy” analogy in there somewhere.) He will continue to be that irritating ‘stone in the shoe’ for a long time. Thankfully, he is very incompetent. And easy to make fun of.
Mark – Helsinki
May 20, 2016 at 6:57 am
Let me lay out Nye’s answer to every scientific question re AGW
“Tell me, has CO2 increased? Has Warming increased?”
ROFL
This is his same argument when he argued with Lindzen and Bastardi.
Hilarious
========================================================
Simple answers
Has CO2 increased? Over the last 18 years—YES
Has Warming increased? Over the last 18 years—Not without adjustments to the temperature records
my point is, no one argues that both are true over 60 years, and he think answering yes to both proves his point, that’s how much of a moron he is.
You cant fix stupid
Personally I love destroying Seth Borenstein of AP on twitter with logical questions re his claims, he runs and hides every time but to be fair he has not blocked me.
Silly Bill, answering a question with another question is for philosophers! 😀
Anyone else can and should be called out for giving a non-answer. 😐
This is equivalent to saying, “Does anyone care about climate information presented by retirees?” or “on weatherman’s blogs”
Content is what matters, not the background of the person presenting it.
Take the discussion up a notch, please.
Wasn’t it about 3 years ago that Bill went big for CAGW?
If so, is he trying to punish us for voting him out so quickly?
“A closing question: Does anyone care about the political opinions of an actor who appeared on Dancing With the Stars?”
Considering the US elected a former actor who starred in Bedtime for Bonzo as President, and a former WWE wrestler as governor of Minnesota, I’m not sure how this question is relevant.
That particular president compares very well with Tony Blair, the EU-loving Cameron, the twitter-boy recently elected by far-seeing Canadians, or France’s Jacques Chirac the facilitator of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear ambitions and serial bribe-taker.
Yet other sources indicate that the nuclear reactor sold to Irak was by design proliferation resistant (and France refused to sell another reactor which could be used to make weapon Pu), and that its destruction started a nuclear weapon program in Irak!
Also, I am not sure what “Uranium Breeding” means.
And we all know Saddam is a saint (well, half saint half mass criminal) and cannot lie, and that he is not crazy.
It really is sad the way leftists really have to stretch for an insult.
Would that be the same actor who served as the president of the screen actors guild and was a very successful governor of California.
The one who did radio commentary for years, always writing his own speeches?
As to Minnesota would would expect from a bunch of leftists.
I stated a fact, Mark, do you have evidence that it is incorrect? He didn’t write his own political speeches, Peggy Noonan wrote them.
So let me see, it’s ok for folks here to only focus on Bill Nye’s dancing and acting work, and ignore the fact that he is a degreed engineer who worked for Boeing? And I when I do the same for Reagan, I am insulting. Hmmm, what’s the word I’m trying to think of… oh yeah, hypocrisy.
Right on Chris. Everyone should know that only those with law degrees who have spent most of their career drawing from the public spigot are qualified to hold public office.
That Reagan was President of the Screen Actors Guild and later Governor of California is small potatoes compared to the fact he acted in several B grade movies.
Every actor of that era acted in several B grade movies. It’s how they earned the chops necessary to be considered for the A grade movies.
Whenever skeptics who don’t have scientific backgrounds are criticized about their lack of relevant education, the person making the comment is attacked. An example is Christopher Monkton, who has a degree in the classics, or Marc Morano with political science. We should not criticize them for their lack of background in atmospheric sciences, right? Yet when Bill Nye comments, his lack of background is fodder for the exact same critical comments. I’m simply pointing out the hypocrisy of that position,
“I’m simply pointing out the hypocrisy of that position,”
which exists only in your imagination.
The “science guy” is part of the “consensus”. He has no respect for dissenting positions.
So he is bound by every and each part of the “consensus” table of laws, including “only climatists”, period.
I had made an earlier comment to this article, but it never showed. I assumed it’d been held up for moderation, but now I think it failed to register. So I’ll try one more time.
As much as I enjoy piling on Bill Nye for his scientific illiteracy and communication incompetence I really don’t see the point for criticizing him for participating in some mindless reality show. I think that says more about the shallowness of American culture at present than about his lack of credibility as a science communicator. As far as I know, Dr. Neil DeGrass Tyson has never appeared on “Fat Guys in the Woods” but he still in misinformed about climate science.
Nye is so bad that he probably helps convert thinking people to climate skepticism. Like Napoleon said, never interupt the enemy in the process of making a mistake.
Boris Spassky, the chess grandmaster, had a similar one: Don’t punish an opponent’s mistake right away in the hope that he will go on to make a bigger one.
I think so myself, Rud. The counter argument is that some people will believe anything as long as it’s said by a “scientist” on TV. That is true but I think that on balance he hurts “the cause”. I have that much faith in our fellow citizens.
Bill Nye, the lyin’ science guy.
drop the science and you have it.
He is on par with Canada’s current Prime Minister ( I capitalized PM as I still hold some respect for the office ).
I guess the vote rigging effort did not work out any better than the faked CO2 experiment / video production with Al Gore.
“A closing question: Does anyone care about the political opinions of an actor who appeared on Dancing With the Stars?”
Answer: In general, I don’t pay much attention to the political opinions of actors.
I pay much more attention to the political opinions expressed by the international cadre of commenters here on WUWT. It’s very helpful to get their outsider’s perspective. (My thanks to all of you non-U.S. contributors.You’ve slowed my political knee-jerk reactions to knee-twitches and for that I am grateful.)
I don’t even care much about the acting performance of most actors.
Today they are mostly superfluous, and can be replaced by computer models too.
Remember they are trained fakers.
g
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that apparently care what Bill Nye says about global warming or he wouldn’t be out there, being reported on constantly. Never underestimate the power of clueless celebrities. Look at alar. They may be wrong, they may be foolish, but they are effective.
Like Vani Hari, the “food babe”…
Mr. Wizard >> Bill Nye
I think “the people” already are speaking on this. Like him or not, Trump’s victories suggest that changes from the abuses of the last 48 years (starting with 1963) aren’t going over well with voters. Groundswell? We’ll see.