Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Bill Nye seems to think he has failed to reach people with his demand for urgent action on climate change, but he blames others for creating the conditions which led to his failure.
Bill Nye on his climate change education efforts: “I am a failure”
“The Science Guy” looks back on his 1990s TV show, and why climate change education has not reflected policy change
Between hosting “Bill Nye the Science Guy” and serving as CEO of The Planetary Society, Bill Nye’s career as a science educator means he is also, inherently, an activist when it comes to combating climate change.
Nye joined Jeremy Binckes on “Salon Talks” to discuss his efforts raising awareness around climate change over the years, and to scoop a new documentary film that chronicles his rise from lively children’s show host to national science defender and advocate.
“I am a failure!” Nye exclaimed when reflecting back on the shows he created over two decades ago about the Earth’s warming.
Nye blamed the fossil fuel industry for creating the schism between climate deniers and believers, saying “they have worked so hard to introduce doubt.” He went on to say that he believed climate change was discovered in the 1970s, “and we’ve done virtually nothing about it all this time.”
…
Read more: https://www.salon.com/2017/10/23/bill-nye-on-his-climate-change-education-efforts-i-am-a-failure/
Every time you read an assertion that people only doubt because the “fossil fuel industry” has created doubt, in my opinion you are seeing first hand the utter contempt climate enthusiasts have for people’s ability to weigh the evidence for themselves.
The reality is climate enthusiasts have destroyed their own credibility, with their outrageous omissions of adverse data, with their barrage of painfully wrong predictions over the years.
How many hilariously broken “end of snow” predictions did the fossil fuel industry sponsor? How many ice free arctic deadlines have come and gone?
If climate enthusiasts want their claims to be treated seriously, they need to start getting things right once in a while.
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Bill Nye, clown, failure loser. SAD !!!
Bill is a fine example to the youth of today – as a failure.
He is suffering from Audiencism: thinking that having an audience and getting paid for it makes you being right. Commonly seen in actors and journalists. Sorry Bill, you’re just an employee, not some kind of prophet.
Yeah. The Prophet is Hansen, if we believe in what Seth Borenstein wrote down in 2007. 🙂
Actually, if there was any truth, or evidence in their predictions, they might have been believed as ‘prophets’! But, as it stands, there failed predictions stand as testaments to their deceptive behaviour, and confirm their actual standing as ‘false prophets’. No right thinking person follows a false prophet!
End of snow and ice free Arctic? Seems Big Oil is still banging away with doomsville-
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/bushfires-getting-worse-across-nsw-report/ar-AAtX3jj
Too bad MSN has absolutely no understanding of science and just reports tripe.
Well seen Bill. You gullibility is forgivable. But seeing enemies in natural events and inventing conspiracies to sell your beliefs? Oh boy, that’s bad Heinrich Kramer style. Get well soon Bill.
Bill who?
True. I had no idea before I read wuwt.
This is a simplified cross section of a jet engine.
The engines are susceptible to mechanical vibrations at specific resonance frequencies. While working as a mechanical engineer at Boing Bill Nye applied principle of the (sound) ‘quincke tube’ to invent: ‘Hydraulic Pressure Resonance Suppressor’ (possibly section numbered 61-66) first used on Boing 747.
vukcevic
Very impressive. But it’s a racing certainty he didn’t do it alone. Indeed, he is likely to have been amongst a team tasked with developing the technology rather than just Bill applying the principles himself.
Could also be accidental, the piece indicated in 61 – 66 resembles an elbow macaroni. Perhaps he was just eating a bowl of Mac n Cheese and a piece fell on his drawing set. Viola…
Well it looks like something bent out of a piece of scrap aluminum sheet to me. I don’t see anything resembling say a Rolls-Royce Spey engine out of an RAF F-4H Phantom .
No wonder it doesn’t work.
G
I hope he proves to bee a failure and his statements are wrong.
So far he does not disappoint my hopes!
Bill was on a late night BBC radio show recently, answering questions from listeners about science, he came across as quite nice and normal until someone asked an innocent-sounding question about warming of other planets in the solar system, at which point he turned into a monster, spewing the D-word, and blaming one (unnamed) person in particular, the whole thing to be revealed in this new film about him. So sad.
I don’t think the ‘oil companies’ care a toss about AGW bickering. They might counter sue, perhaps, on which case watch out.
So I learn Obama did virtually nothing during his 8 years? Good to know. Also good to know some people don’t believe in climate. Beyond funny.
In moderation. Oh please, I just quoted a ‘believers and deniers’… (bangs head)
You can’t use the “d” word and not end up in moderation. By now, that should be obvious. Even if you quote the article. Using an algorithm that triggers on words means it doesn’t matter where the word came from.
Denier can be typed with skill so it doesn’t trigger work for our host. I just didn’t realise I quoted the word in the first place:-(
How is governments raising trillions in green taxes and spending these trillions on windmills, solar panels and subsidised electric cars considered not taking action? Levels of CO2 emissions haven’t fallen for the simple reason that these things don’t work. All this money could have been saved by listening to those of us who said at the start that they wouldn’t work instead of covering their ears and shouting the ‘D’ word at us. Meanwhile the non problem that all this expensive crap was supposed to prevent continues to be a non problem.
Bwahahahahahaha failure
It needs a make-over by http://www.m4gw.com/
The Original Mike M
Fantastic.
That made me laugh.
Here’s one more they made but you won’t find at their site because of a legal threat –
It’s not only Bill Nye who’s a failure. It’s the whole climate catastrophists’ shebang, including Al Gore and the IPCC.
What remains is a dictatorial imposition on everyone to obey the commandments of CO2-demonization faith.
Who hired Bil Nyed as their spoke person? His paycheck depends on his ability to con as many as he can.
Is that thing he keeps dangling under his chin the screw of a windmill?
The problem the “science guy” has is the science. Based on the paleoclimate record and the work done with modeling, one can conclude that the climate change we have been experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans over which Mankind has no control. There is no real evidence that CO2 has any effect on climate and plenty of scientific reasoning to support the idea that the climate sensivity of CO2 is really zero. If CO2 really affected climate one would expect that the increase in CO2 over the past 30 years would have caused at least a measureable change in the dry lapse rate in the troposphere but such has not happened. The AGW conjecture is just too full of holes to defend. The AGW conjecture is based on a radiative greenhouse effect that has not been observed anywhere in the solar system including the Earth. The radiative greenhouse effect is fiction as is the AGW conjecture. Mankind has been unable to change a single weather evernt let alone change global climate.
Hi.
Venus is a CO 2 model Candidate. How much CO2 IS too much? Nice. So all admit that CO2 is climbing and is due to human activity?
The high temperature’s at the surface of Venus is a function of the planet’s proximity to the sun, the depth of the troposphere, the heat capacity of the atmosphere, and gravity. Remeber that the surface pressure on Venus is more than 92 times what it is on Earth. The convective greenhouse effect on venus accounts for all of the measured high temperature. There is no additional warming caused by a radiant greenhouse effect attributed to CO2 whicn comprises most of the planet’s atmosphere.
Yes human activety is causing an increase in CO2 that all fife needs on this planet to survive. Human activity is releasing Carbon that has been locked away by fossil fuesl and making it available to plant life as plant’s supply of carbon. Plant life on this planet will do much better if we can first double athe amount of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere and then double it again to boost CO2 to .16% of the Earth’s atmosphere. There is scientific reasoning to support the idea that the climate of CO2 is really zero so that doubling the amount of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere will have no effect on climate.
“So all admit that CO2 is climbing and is due to human activity?”
Latest real science has human CO2 contributing about 15% of the HIGHLY BENEFICIAL rise in atmospheric CO2. That is good, because with all the new coal fired and gas fired power stations being built around the world, the atmosphere is not going to be denied much needed extra CO2
How much is too much? One heck of a lot more than we have now., that is for sure.
Plants thrive on 1200 ppm.. That would be a nice point for all life on Earth.
Unfortunately we will probably never reach again.
You are aware that CO2 has basically ZERO warming effect on our convectively controlled atmosphere, aren’t you ?
He is not a failure. For the generation that is following us has been brainwashed into believing all this stuff. I am at a major university and the average student here believes in climate change. Nyes comment that when the older generation dies off his stuff will triumph is correct. Where he failed is that he wont get to see it, cause that is very important to him. But dont kid yourself. It never was about science, it was only a convenient weapon to push an agenda. We fight on the field of reason and science, but that is not where this is being waged. Because of that, in the end, he will not have failed he just wont be around to see it.
You may be correct Joe – the “millennials” are, as a group, by far the dumbest crop we have seen in many generations. They just re-elected the Mayor of Calgary, a man whose public image is still positive – however, I have been in a small meeting with him and he is ignorant, opinionated, childish and vain. Residential taxes here have doubled in just seven years and the millennials apparently think this only affects homeowners, not renters like themselves – but then, like our Mayor, they probably live at home with their mom.
I wonder what future climate change will bring – my best guess is still what I wrote in 2002 – that we will see moderate, naturally-caused global cooling starting by 2020-2030. One wonders if the millennials will even realize the significance of global cooling in a world where catastrophic global warming has been their constant fear. If and when the boogeyman disappears, will they be too dumb to realize it?
Allan,
“ignorant, opinionated, childish and vain. ” You have just described most of the politicians I have known, even some of the ones I like.
JimG1,
Perhaps most politicians are as you say, but I have met a few who were capable and pursued the best interests of their people. These included:
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed.
Alberta Premier Ralph Klein.
Ontario Premier John Robarts.
The current crop who support global warming alarmism are a typical mix of leftist scoundrel and imbeciles. They have absolutely no scientific competence, are either corrupt or extremely gullible, and do not understand that when they needlessly drive up the cost of energy, they are destroying jobs and they are destroying lives. History will remember them with absolute contempt.
Not necessarily. There is always hope. A recent video showed college students getting punked by a reporter who asked them what they thought about Trump’s tax proposal. They all said it was bad. Then he asked them what they thought about specific items from (what he said was) Bernie Sander’s tax proposal. They all loved it. Then he informed them that those items were what Trump proposed. I was pleased (and surprised) to see that they acted like normal people when they realized that they were wrong.
I disagree that the next generation are all gullible fools.
Nothing focuses the attention quite like freezing in ones own home, or having the power go off when it runs literally every single thing that one needs to survive.
You can lie to people every single day of their lives, and they may have no reason to doubt the veracity of these lies.
But once they do, and they see that they have been lied to, they will immediately know the implications and see how far it goes, and at that point it will not matter how long they were fooled…they will know the truth.
Younger generations are never very far from distrusting what they have been told.
Besides, a lot of what we think these young-uns believe may be what they are willing to say on public…they have been cowed into never going against the herd in public, to be PC when their peers are watching or listening.
These are thinly held beliefs, and they are like clothes…no one goes outside without them, but it is not hard to change them as needed.
They evolve every day as it is.
That depends on whether they are smart enough to correctly assign blame for the problems they are having.
What will happen is that the government will blame the evil capitalists for putting profit over reliable power, and declare that the only solution will be for the government to completely take over the power system.
Then when employers start leaving because of a lack of affordable, reliable power, the government will blame evil capitalists for putting profits ahead of people and jobs, and the only solution will be for the government to start nationalizing employers.
And so on.
By the time they realize they’ve been lied to, it might be too late. Once the “State” gains the power and the people lose their power and freedom, it won’t be easy and may be impossible to get it back. Hopefully, I will be gone when the poo hits the windmill blades.
I concur.
Younger people like to rebel against the norm.
If environmentalism is the norm, it’s cool to trash it, I’ve tried it several times on high schoolers by criticizing the alarmist drivel in their textbooks and it works wonder.
What’s amazing is how easy to switch their views when you have their trust, that’s why the marxist teachers want to profit that opportunity window and prey on their students’ mind.
Joe Bastardi
“If a man is not a socialist by the time he is 20, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is 40, he has no brain.” Winston Churchill (allegedly).
We all live and learn, as indeed, I have as I was convinced of AGW until around 5 years ago when I started asking questions, because the things that were promised just weren’t happening.
And the things that are being promised now, just ain’t happening. And I’m with Allan MaCrae on this in terms of timing. There are a couple of credible predictions by a couple of credible individuals, namely David Dilley and Professor Carl-Otto Wiess, who reach the same conclusion by investigating similar phenomenons with different methods. They both predict a cooling trend beginning in 2019 – 2020, because it fits a pattern of climate behaviour repeated many times in the past.
In which case, by 2025 – 2030 there will be such a backlash from disillusioned and betrayed millennials, they will be chopping down winmills like there’s no tomorrow; which of course there will be!
We were all gullible at some time in our lives, but when we wake up, things like Brexit and Trump happen. Europe betrayed the UK and Clinton betrayed America, both were kicked into touch, as will AGW when the millennials wake up. And there are lots of them.
Just came across this post on wattsup, re “50 million climate refugees will be produced by climate change by the year 2010”. It did NOT happen, just like every others very-scary prediction by global warming alarmists.
The essence of science is the ability to predict, and the IPCC and its minions have a perfectly negative predictive track record – NONE of their scary predictions have materialized. That means that the IPCC has NEGATIVE scientific credibility, and nobody should believe anything the IPCC or its minions say.
What is it about the far-left that enables them to simply fabricate huge lies and then repeat them so often that gullible fools believe them and idiot politicians act on them? Goebbels would be proud of his successors.
http://www.psywarrior.com/Goebbels.html
Regards, Allan
https://wattsupwiththat.com/climate-fail-files/
The Claim: 50 million climate refugees will be produced by climate change by the year 2010. Especially hard hit will be river delta areas, and low lying islands in the Caribbean and Pacific. The UN 62nd General assembly in July 2008 said: …it had been estimated that there would be between 50 million and 200 million environmental migrants by 2010.
The Test: Did population go down in these areas during that period, indicating climate refugees were on the move? The answer, no.
The Proof: Population actually gained in some Caribbean Island for which 2010 census figures were available. Then when challenged on these figures, the UN tried to hide the original claim from view. See: The UN “disappears” 50 million climate refugees, then botches the disappearing attempt
The Change in claim: Now it is claimed that it will be 10 years into the future, and there will be 50 million refugees by the year 2020.
“What is it about the far-left that enables them to simply fabricate huge lies and then repeat them so often that gullible fools believe them and idiot politicians act on them?”
Because in spite of all the tech and such advances, humans are still basically gullible fools who love a good “end-of-the-world” threat. Much as Bill Nye did, most people will choose doom and gloom because then their own failures are not their fault. It’s historically the way people have lived for centuries. We can change the surroundings and advance our knowledge, but the basic human being remains unchanged.
ALLAN MACRAE
Forgive me if I’m wrong Allan (I’m not a scientist) but I understood the essence of science to be observation, not prediction.
Prediction grants one the opportunity to foil the system, to prevent what was predicted from happening.
Ergo prediction must be impossible !
QEDG
Hello HotScot – hope this is informative.
Yours aye, Allan
jaakkokateenkorva posted this diagram of the Scientific Method – Note both Observation and Prediction.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/10/25/can-open-and-honest-scientists-win-public-trust/#comment-2646445
Hi George,
As Yogi Berra said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” 🙂
Actually , successful prediction is entirely possible, as proved below.
_______________________________
RE a successful predictive track record. We published the following in 2002*.
“The ultimate agenda of pro-Kyoto advocates is to eliminate fossil fuels, but this would result in a catastrophic shortfall in global energy supply – the wasteful, inefficient energy solutions proposed by Kyoto advocates simply cannot replace fossil fuels.”
We also wrote in the same article, prior to recognition that the current ~20 year “Pause” was already underway:
“Climate science does not support the theory of catastrophic human-made global warming – the alleged warming crisis does not exist.”
Regards to all, Allan
* Source:
PEGG, reprinted in edited form at their request by several other professional journals , The Globe and Mail and La Presse in translation, by Baliunas, Patterson and MacRae.
http://www.apega.ca/members/publications/peggs/WEB11_02/kyoto_pt.htm
http://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/documents/KyotoAPEGA2002REV1.pdf
Allan Macrae:
I disagree.Successful prediction is NOT currently possible as no statistical population underlies today’s global warming models. Arrhenius created the errant alternative to probability theory and statistics that supports today’s global warming pseudoscience.
Hi again HotScot.
I presume you are in the UK, so you may find the following email of interest – sent to Lord NIgel Lawson, Chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation in London.
Excess Winter Mortality Rates in Britain are MUCH HIGHER than in Canada or the USA, which causes me concern, and should be a matter of great concern for your government.
Global warming alarmism has greatly increased energy costs in the UK, and this has contributed significantly to Excess Winter Deaths, which especially target the elderly and the poor. “Heat or Eat” is the term commonly used there, Excess Winter Deaths typically total 30,000 to 50,000 per year in the UK, vs 5000 to 10,000 in Canada, which has more than half your population.
Notwithstanding some unresolved past grievances with the perfidious English, who killed 90% of our men at Sheriffmuir in 1715, blew up our castle in 1719 and later expelled us to Canada, I am somewhat conciliatory towards the UK and am opposed to the cruel practice of killing off your elderly and your poor before their time. 🙂
Best, Allan
______________________________
Hello again Lord Lawson.
RE my statement below:
“One key point you might wish to emphasize is the very high Excess Winter Mortality Rate in the UK, which is several times that of Canada and the USA, in part due to your excessively high energy costs.”
I expect I’ve sent you this reference before, but here it is again
“Cold Weather Kills 20 Times as Many People as Hot Weather”, September 4, 2015
by Joseph D’Aleo and Allan MacRae
https://friendsofsciencecalgary.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/cold-weather-kills-macrae-daleo-4sept2015-final.pdf
Best regards, Allan
ALLAN MACRAE
Your letter to Nigel Lawson did make me chuckle. And yes I am in the UK.
It’s a pity he didn’t use the details from your letter instead of blathering on about the science of climate change, of which he seems to know very little, when he appeared on the BBC, forcing them to apologise to the alarmists for his ‘inaccurate’ statements.
A little asides: I was a Glasgow Cop 35 years ago and one of my best mates in the job was Alan MaCrae so I always feel a homesick pang when I see you posting. And I also find your posts interesting, if for nothing else but the opportunity for my 2 brain cells to develop some friction. 🙂
Hi again HotScot,
Actually, I think Lord Lawson is quite well-informed about the subject of alleged global warming – I did not see his interview on BBC but have no doubt that the harsh criticism he received was based on leftist ideology rather than science.
The BBC, like our CBC in Canada, is so far left that it surprising they even allowed Lord Lawson to speak, and the resulting backlash was not only predictable but inevitable, no matter what he said.
In Canada, Kentucky Fried Chicken sells a “CBC Bucket” – consisting entirely of left wings and a$$holes. 🙂
If you are so inclined, drop by Eilean Donan Castle, which was fully restored a century ago, and enjoy your memories of your mate Alan MaCrae in his ancestral home. Some rental apartments were recently added in the castle, or you can stay in the MacRae hunting lodge nearby,
http://www.eileandonancastle.com/
http://www.conchrahouse.com/
Here is a picture of the old place.
Best, Allan
http://sites.psu.edu/gaylepassion/wp-content/uploads/sites/18298/2015/03/1408622223_531388_5.jpg
‘National Science Defender’. BWAAAA. How very Orwellian of them.
Bill Nye will never live down becoming the any-orifice-is-OK guy. He jumped the shark on that one.
I mean seriously… Bill “Some Butt Stuff Sex Stew Sit Up On It With Lots of Smear” Nye?
Ugly fat old women and dirty old Nye. They’re so unattractive, they have to make up for it with terrible vulgarity
Bill Nye’s “I am a failure!” is classic passive aggressive posturing in an attempt to appear as a martyr for The Cause, which itself is portrayed as the victim, in a stunningly audacious projection. Indeed, perhaps the final Big Lie of Big Climate is to try to appear as small and courageous. Because everyone likes the underdog, right? Mikey Boy is another who employs this tactic. It is pathetic.
It’s how they rope in the university kids, too. The campus is portrayed as an island of reasonable people in a sea of ideology, with anti-intellectualist barbarians always at the gate. The precise opposite of the usual reality — an island of ideology in a sea of more or less reasonable people, where the barbarians are kings of the castle.
Yet parents send their kids to be indoctrinated. Parents and alumni support this fully.
And the poor kids end up living their parents basements.
Bill Nye’s kid’s science show seemed to be based on the premise that kids have a short attention span. It was all short, wiz-bang presentations. It didn’t teach them much and it surely didn’t help them increase their attention span. Teach them to hold a thought long enough to actually think about it?
Mr.Wizard, on the other hand, held kids attention by presenting things that held their attention.
Sheri
My daughter, a recent BSc Zoology graduate, now studying for her Masters, is a healthy sceptic of everything.
I made sure of that.
It’s guys like Bill Nye (who wants jail time for “deniers”…look up Lysenkoism), DiCaprio and Gore who have continued to erode the false foundation laid by Hansen and Mann. It wasn’t their intention, but it’s been the outcome. The rest of us should take the opportunity to make sure our kids are inoculated to the propaganda they learn in school about the anthropogenic portion, and set the path for finding the truth amongst the agenda-driven barrage. True science welcomes skepticism. Hopefully I’m doing my part.
A favorite Bill Nye event of mine is his appearance earlier this year on Tucker Carlson’s show. At about 5:18 below he says “Another ice age? Ain’t gonna happen. Because of you and me.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN5L2q6hfWo&w=560&h=315%5D
If there was a magic lever to pull to prevent earth from going through another ice age what person in his right mind would not pull it?
jpatrick
Wow!
That’s the best Nye can do? What happened in 1750 to change the climate so much? The industrial revolution, usually cited as the start of rising CO2, didn’t start until 1900 or so. Bill Nye has introduced another stunning revelation none of us new about? 150 years earlier something happened, so what is it that happened?
“The industrial revolution…..didn’t start until 1900 or so.”!!!
5 minutes down the road from me is the original Ironbridge built 1779, iron cast at Coalbrookdale just around the corner. Not that I support the notion of CO2 having much effect on temperatures merely adding a piece of industrial revolution dating info.
John, UK.
I happily accept that, and of course you are entirely correct, including that we were burning considerable amounts of coal before 1900 or so. Which almost entirely contradicts the contention that CO2 began rising after the industrial revolution (IR). The IR is credited with beginning in the 1700’s but as far as I can gather there is little evidence of increasing atmospheric CO2 until 1900 or so, which is most often cited as the beginning of the IR.
The whole subject is like an ever changing shoreline used at the alarmists convenience to prove any point they care to make.