Last week, media personality Bill Nye “the science guy” waded into meteorology, claiming that man-made climate change is directly responsible for the strength of hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
“It’s the strength [of these hurricanes] that’s almost certainly associated with global warming,” Nye told Dan Rather in a radio interview. “Global warming and climate change are the same thing. As the world gets warmer and there’s more heat energy in the atmosphere you expect storms to get stronger.”
Nye doubled down on this statement. “The more heat energy in the atmosphere strengthens the storms, Dan,” he said. “We are all gonna pay for Harvey, we’re all gonna pay for Irma, one way or another.”
.@BillNye explains to @DanRather how climate change contributes to the strength of hurricanes. #DanRathersAmerica pic.twitter.com/0MfMOxHDmS
— Radio Andy (@RadioAndySXM) September 6, 2017
Ph.D. meteorologist Ryan Maue noted this statement, adding a thinking emoji.
"The more heat energy in the atmosphere strengthens the storms, as you'd expect" 🤔 https://t.co/rClFVh6iw0
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) September 7, 2017
Maue destroyed Nye’s claims with one damning sentence: “Bill Nye confuses the oceans with the atmosphere. #FakeScience”
Bill Nye confuses the oceans with the atmosphere. #FakeScience
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) September 7, 2017
The meteorologist noted that “hurricanes form over the ocean.”
On Sunday, Bloomberg’s Sahil Kapur reported that President Donald Trump was asked whether climate change caused the hurricanes, and he had no answer.
From the White House pool report transcript:
Q: Are the storms the result of climate change?
POTUS: [No answer]
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 10, 2017
Maue himself addressed Kapur, declaring, “The answer is no. Hurricanes are not a result of climate change. Next question, Sahil.”
The answer is no. Hurricanes are not a result of climate change. Next question, Sahil. https://t.co/sPXu58LJjC
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) September 10, 2017
He further added, “If you believe climate change causes hurricanes, then you’re an idiot.”
I enjoy having intelligent followers to stimulate debate. However, if you believe climate change causes hurricanes, then you're an idiot.
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) September 10, 2017
Maue admitted that warmer oceans provide more energy, making the hurricanes stronger. But he also cited a statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) discussing the purported link between hurricanes and climate change.
“In less than 5-minutes, you can read NOAA’s updated thinking on global warming in hurricanes & impress your friends,” Maue tweeted.
In less than 5-minutes, you can read NOAA's updated thinking on global warming in hurricanes & impress your friends.https://t.co/I908S7hCgb
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) September 10, 2017
So what did NOAA conclude? “It is premature to conclude that human activities — and particularly greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming — have already had a detectable impact on Atlantic hurricane or global tropical cyclone activity,” the organization reported.
Note: NOAA firmly accepts the debatable link between climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, and it still has to admit that it is “premature” to argue that climate change has worsened Harvey and Irma.
Naturally, NOAA felt the need to clarify: “That said, human activities may have already caused changes that are not yet detectable due to the small magnitude of the changes or observational limitations, or are not yet confidently modeled.”
Notice the hedging: “Human activities may have” caused changes “that are not yet detectable due to the small magnitude of the changes.”
In other words, when Bill Nye makes it sound like Harvey and Irma are the natural comeuppance for evil fossil fuel companies polluting the atmosphere, he is taking extreme liberties with the available science. Indeed, he is actually harming the reputation of science by spreading lies in its name.
This is nothing new for Nye, of course. The guy is infamous for his Netflix show “Bill Nye Saves the World,” which promotes sexual orgies, gender confusion, and anal sex in the name of science. When Netflix republished Nye’s old show, “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” it edited a segment on gender to remove a discussion of gender being linked to DNA and biological sex, in order to promote transgenderism.
Nye has insisted to Fox News host Tucker Carlson that humans cause “100 percent” of climate change — an absurdly unscientific argument — and even suggested in a Los Angeles Times interview that older people need to die to advance the cause of climate change.
This most recent case suggests, yet again, that calling Bill Nye a “science guy” is an insult to science.
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