Tucker Carlson’s heated debate with Bill Nye, “The Science Guy”

The last time we checked in with Bill Nye, “The Science Guy”, he was indicating that jail might be an appropriate place for climate change skeptics in an interview referencing the targeting of Exxon Mobil:

..Was it appropriate to jail people from the cigarette industry who insisted that this addictive product was not addictive, and so on?”“In these cases, for me, as a taxpayer and voter, the introduction of this extreme doubt about climate change is affecting my quality of life as a public citizen,” Mr. Nye said. “So I can see where people are very concerned about this, and they’re pursuing criminal investigations as well as engaging in discussions like this.”

Nye was Tucker Carlson’s guest last night, and this statement was referenced in FNC host’s introduction of the science-based entertainer:

The main point of inquiry that Carlson was attempting to have Nye answer was specific proof that human beings are the cause of the climate changes that are allegedly occurring. In response, Nye unleashed a flood of non-sequitors, and was upset when Carlson succinctly returned to the main question several times.

Despite Nye’s assertions that skeptics have “cognitive dissonance”, many scientists are “underwhelmed” by the evidence for man-made climate change. In fact, over 300 recently petitioned President Trump to abandon the UN Climate Change agency.

…In a Thursday letter to the president, MIT professor emeritus Richard Lindzen called on the United States and other nations to “change course on an outdated international agreement that targets minor greenhouse gases,” starting with carbon dioxide.“Since 2009, the US and other governments have undertaken actions with respect to global climate that are not scientifically justified and that already have, and will continue to cause serious social and economic harm — with no environmental benefits,” said Mr. Lindzen, a prominent atmospheric physicist.

And, unlike Nye, these petitioners have degrees in actual climate science.

Carlson continued to hammer Nye on what the climate would look like without man…then Nye painted a dire picture of man causing wine grapes to grow in Britain:

“The climate would be like it was in 1750. And the economics would be that you could not grow wine-worthy grapes in Britain as you can today because the climate is changing. The use of pesticides in the Midwest would not be increasing because the pests are showing up sooner and staying around longer. The forests in Wyoming would not be overwhelmed by pine bark beetles as it is because of climate change. That’s how the world would be different if it were not for humans”.

I assert anything that expands wine country is a net positive, but that must be my “cognitive dissonance” kicking in. Furthermore, there is no proof that the climate would be as it was in 1750, when the world was coming out of a Maunder Minimum sun cycle scientifically known to impact global temperatures.

Because I hold a degree in geology, and spent many days of my college career puzzling out the glacial history of the Great Lakes region, Nye’s statements about ice ages were especially astonishing.

Nye kept insisting that man has accelerated the rate of global warming to the point we will never have another Ice Age. The reality is that we are in an “Interglacial Period“, and the start of Ice Age is theorized to be the result of a number of factors:

…During the present ice age, glaciers have advanced and retreated over 20 times, often blanketing North America with ice. Our climate today is actually a warm interval between these many periods of glaciation. The most recent period of glaciation, which many people think of as the “Ice Age,” was at its height approximately 20,000 years ago.Although the exact causes for ice ages, and the glacial cycles within them, have not been proven, they are most likely the result of a complicated dynamic interaction between such things as solar output, distance of the Earth from the sun, position and height of the continents, ocean circulation, and the composition of the atmosphere.

In fact, this interglacial period may still have between 8,000 and 42,000 years of delicious warmth left.

Nye should be grateful they don’t jail entertainers pretending to be something that they are not, as this episode clearly shows he has little understanding of science.

Tags: Science, Tucker Carlson

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