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Ad Hominem Attacks

In the past six months, those who advocate climate action have been subjected to personal attack by Fox News hosts.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has served as a regular punching bag for Fox News hosts and their guests. In one exchange between Sean Hannity and former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile, she jabs the network for its obsession with AOC, joking that programs have mentioned ”AOC well over 3,000 times.” For Ocasio-Cortez’s acknowledgment of the climate crisis and support for the Green New Deal, Fox News has accused her of “capitalizing on a fear” and “pushing doom and gloom day and night.” She’s been called a “radical nut job”, “Scary-o-Cortez” and “dumb and totally ignorant of everything.”

While Ocasio-Cortez is by far the most vilified and attacked climate advocate, she is not the only one. Another example is provided by science communicator Bill Nye. After appearing on John Oliver’s HBO program, “Last Week Tonight,” Nye was Hannity’s “Villain of the Day.” A guest on “The Ingraham Angle” suggested that calling Bill Nye a scientist was akin to referring to “George Clooney as a doctor or Harrison Ford as an archaeologist.” Tucker Carlson suggested that Nye’s appearance was just a stunt to get his own Netflix series.

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KATIE PHANG (HOST): What do you say to people like Tucker Carlson who not only have the facts wrong, but use their huge platforms to spread disinformation about climate change?

BILL NYE (GUEST): It's deeply concerning and so the challenge -- the science is settled. The challenge there with conservative media is what -- how do we reach people who might be watching it? Now, the people who already made up their minds, accept everything their conservative talk show hosts tell them, they're probably not reachable right away. But, there's got to be people who watch it with skepticism, who watch it with stroking their chins and those are the people I very much want to influence, want the scientists of the world to influence before the upcoming elections, because if you want to do something about climate change, everybody, it's voting. And we are in a situation where we have lawmakers who are in denial about the science of climate change and it's very concerning.

The Washington Post

‘You Idiots’: Bill Nye’s Fiery Message to Leaders Stalling on Climate Change

Gone was the Nye of the ’90s, the man whose show was a middle school substitute teacher’s secret weapon. This was the Science Guy, circa 2019, complete with a profanity-laden sermon.

Washington Post

May 14, 2019 · 3 min read

an 519

Last weekend, Bill Nye appeared on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for a segment about climate change. Nye issued a blunt warning that action must be taken to reign in climate change, or else there will be unavoidable dire consequences. The segment went viral, and, predictably, right-wing media lashed out at Nye:

While an onscreen chyron read "Climate Hysteria," Fox host Jesse Watters said of Nye: "If it was a real crisis, he wouldn't be joking like that."
Frequent Fox guest and climate-denier Joe Bastardi: "It's just crazy, are you angry?"
NRATV's Dana Loesch: "If the planet is on 'blanking' fire, and we're all going to die in 10-12 years, then how is it that the only action you want to take is to take people's money?"
Redstate ran the segment under the headline: "WATCH: Fake Reporter John Oliver and Fake Scientist Bill Nye Try To Sell You a Fake Crisis"
Glenn Beck's The Blaze: "Bill Nye loses it and melts down over climate change, goes on expletive-laden rant during late-night show"

Meanwhile, climate change is still pitifully undercovered in mainstream media.

mechanical engr w/ some physics

Bill Nye will release a new book titled “Unstoppable.” As only Bill Nye can, he uses the book to explain the science behind climate change, debunks popular myths, and asks readers to take action in their own lives to create a sustainable future. The book is shot through with optimism, but Nye has no illusions about what lies ahead. The message is simple: Climate change is real; humans are causing it; and we have no choice but to build a better and cleaner world.

http://ecowatch.com/2015/09/03/bill-nye-tar-sands/

texas flood attacks

But conservative groups such as the Young Conservatives laid into Nye for blaming climate change for the floods. The conservative Twitter-tracking group Twitchy seethed over Nye’s comment, calling it “so predictable:”

Although just last year it was drought in Texas that was caused by global warming … What’s even funnier is that Nye thinks his alarmism that blames every, single weather event on manmade global warming is just what’s needed to convince more people that the alarmist camp knows what it is talking about.

Other users got just downright nasty:

180 on gmo?

715 update: http://www.alternet.org/environment/bill-nye-glyphosate-we-accidentally-decimated-monarch-butterfly-population

If you watched the Bill Nye video, Eyes on Nye—GM Foods, or read the chapter in his new book, Genetically Modified Foods—What the GMF?, you’d be sure that Nye has grave concerns about genetically engineered foods or GMOs (genetically modified organisms). But, after a recent visit to the world’s largest biotechnology seed company Monsanto, Nye appears to havechanged his mind.

During a backstage interview with Real Timer Miles Leicher, after an appearance on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Nye said:

“There’s a chapter in there [his new book] which I’m going to revise. It’s about genetically modified food. I went to Monsanto and I spent a lot of time with the scientists there and I have revised my outlook and I’m very excited about telling the world. When you’re in love you want to tell the world.”

Nye is referring to this chapter from his book:

“Genetically engineering food is controversial, as it should be. If you’re asking me, we should stop introducing genes from one species into another … Although we can know exactly what happens to any organism we modify, we just can’t know what will happen to other species in that modified species’ ecosystem.”

Nye said he plans to make the changes to his book this fall. He concluded the interview by saying, “Let’s change the world,” and then flew off like an airplane.

http://ecowatch.com/2014/11/10/john-oliver-bill-nye-climate-change-debate

no links

Bill Nye on the Monsanto Eco Disaster: ‘We Accidentally Decimated the Monarch Butterfly Population’

Monsanto's glysophate doesn't just kill weeds — it also kills other plants that pollinator species depend on to survive.

By Lorraine Chow / EcoWatch July 23, 2015

COMMENT NOW!

Photo Credit: mr_coffee/Shutterstock.com

Bill Nye is back with part two of his radio appearance, where he and co-host Chuck Nice delve even deeper into the Science Guy’s controversial flip-flop on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

You can listen to the StarTalk podcast below where Nye points out some of the “unintentional consequences” of GMOs, such as the widespread decimation of the monarch butterfly due to the use of herbicides, as well as the threat of monocultures to pollinators such as the honeybee.

Here’s what they talked about in the second part of Nye’s appearance:

On the “accidental decimation” of monarch butterfliesfrom the use of glyphosate

“People developed this herbicide called glyphosate that kills all the weeds, and kills all of everything except the plants that have this cool gene in them that allows them to grow right through it. We also killed the milkweed, and the milkweed is what the monarch butterflies rely on. So we accidentally have decimated the monarch butterfly population, reduced it over the last two decades by 90 percent … We don’t want that where you are accidentally wiping out a potential pollinator species.”

TAKE ACTION: Tell the EPA to keep glyphosate off your plate

On the threat of GM-seeds flying into organic farms by the wind

“This is the concern of certain organic farmers, that these seeds end up in their soil and they get contaminated. [But] if you’re not planting them on purpose, there’s just not that much contamination. And the infamous cases, where when people claim they got canola growing that flew into their fields accidentally and started growing, there’s substantial evidence that those cultivars were carefully cultivated. That is to say, one guy claimed that these seeds flew into his field, but they really didn’t—he really planted them.”

On the use of GM-seeds in other countries

“In India where there’s a lot of subsistence or near-subsistence farming, in Africa where there’s a lot of close-to-the-bone farming, everyone embraces genetically modified seeds because they get much higher yields and they are not subject to these pests and these plant diseases that are troublesome for farmers.”

RELATED: El Salvador Farmers Successfully Defy Monsanto

On the use of genetically modified animals for scientific experimentations

“We do genetically modify animals — we’re talking about lab rats that glow in the dark, those little mice. These are very important to our research. These are very important to the way humans know our genes. On balance, I’m in favor of it, and I’m not a vegetarian and maybe one day soon I’ll become one. But I understand we raise animals to kill them and eat them routinely. By analogy we raise, especially mice, for laboratory studies that enable wonderful things. With that said I’m very sympathetic. There’s a line you draw. A rhesus monkey is very similar — and to me in many ways superior — to my old boss. So I understand when you don’t want to do experiments on that guy or gal … I think it’s still very important for humankind to have access to so called ‘laboratory models’ — that’s a noun they use to describe these rats and mice whose genes we have modified to understand our own genes.”

RELATED: Are You Ready for GMO Mosquitoes?

On the pros of genetically modified food

“The good side is, we get more yield per hectare or acre. In other words, we have less impactful farming. In other words, we affect the ecosystem less because we’ll produce more food on less land. We are using biology to fight pests and diseases rather than chemistry.”

RELATED: Can GMOs Help Feed a Planet Stressed by Climate Change and Overpopulation?

On the cons of genetically modified food

“The one that everyone has observed is the monarch butterflies, where we have reduced their population 90 percent not as as consequence exactly of raising genetically modified food, but by using this extraordinary effective herbicide that has killed the milk flowers, or milkweeds, which nourish the monarchs … Are there other insects that you infected accidentally by messing up their food source?”

Nye continued, “And the other unintended consequence [is] monoculture farming. Enormous tracts of a single type of plant make it very hard for bees, as pollinators, to get the job done. They got to go there, do that one crop, then there’s nothing to do. And somebody puts them back in a box and puts them in a truck and takes them to a different crop, and they just get beaten up, they can’t handle it.”

TAKE ACTION: Tell President Obama to protect bees from toxic pesticides before it’s too late

“The unintended consequences are things like the monarch butterflies and this monoculture farming, which affects the pollinators and our whole agricultural system. So these are things that are avoidable. So it’s good and bad, but it’s manageable. I just think it’s a necessary consequence when you’re going to have 7.2 billion [people] become 9.2 billion you’re join to have to do something to feed them.”

On the public’s fear of corporations controlling our food supply

“Bear in mind farmers make choices … they can buy seeds from this guy or that guy. And like everything else … things have gotten consolidated because international commerce has made it more efficient. And I understand our fear of corporations, but nevertheless, that is manageable through — dare I say it — regulation, where you would make it so the marketplace is generally fair. This seems like a very solvable problem … I’m not worried about The Man taking over the world because farmers make choices, and producing seeds with certain characteristics is a very competitive business. [For instance,] RoundUp is a very famous brand, but there are dozens of companies, several of them are in Asia that manufacture a very similar glyphosate salt that is well-suited as an herbicide. It’s a competitive business.”

Nye added, “Farmers choose what seeds to plant based on the ones that perform the best, not based on gunpoint from a corporation.”

RELATED: How Seed Laws Make Farmers’ Seeds Illegal

On the organic farming market and Whole Foods’ prices

“This is why the non-GMO movement has a place. We will see if that’s economically competitive. You can say corporations are squashing them. I don’t think so. You’ll find that organic farming takes more input than farming with genetically modified crops. So we’ll let the marketplace sort that out … They call it ‘Whole Paycheck’ because the food is so expensive, because it’s grown in small quantities with high input. So we’ll see what happens in the marketplace.”