On any given day, you can turn on the Science channel and hear NASA scientists talk about all the possible ways the Earth may get destroyed: From Coronal Mass Ejections to gamma ray bursts to wandering black holes to our planet’s core eventually stopping. But when it comes to global warming, it’s a sacrosanct subject. At least on Facebook, where the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) this week pounced on users who even hinted that global warming wasn’t catastrophic, occurring, or occurring at a much slower rate.
And it wasn’t even NASA’s Facebook page being defended, but rather Bill Nye the ‘science guy’s,’ who recently entertained the idea of jailing climate skeptics for “affecting my quality of life.” Marc Morano, the reporter and filmmaker behind the upcoming documentary Climate Hustle, interviewed Bill Nye and confronted him on certain statements made by climate activists, such as “jailing skeptics as war criminals.” Nye responded: “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.” (See video)
To highlight to everyone that Nye tried to make a wager with Morano that was rejected, Nye posted a link on his Facebook page to the article. In the article, it accused Morano of not putting his money where his mouth is by refusing the bet, but after Examiner contacted Morano, he said it had nothing to do with what the article, or Nye, insinuated.
Morano, who also runs Climate Depot, said in an emailed statement that “Nye’s temperature bet is pointless on many levels. First off, given the geologic history of the Earth, how does one year here or there or even a decade prove anything? Second, Nye is implying that ‘record’ temperatures that are not outside the margin of error of the dataset are somehow meaningful. Even former NASA climatologist James Hansen admitted “hottest year” declarations are “not particularly important.”
Internet users flocked to Nye’s Facebook post and left an “onslaught” of comments casting doubt on official figures released by NASA over the years. Over 800 comments were listed as of press time under Nye’s original post (see photo), many expressing doubt over NASA’s ability to remain impartial when it comes to global warming theory. Users wrote of their utter disdain for NASA and its continuing practice of trying to hide the hiatus by jiggering its own data.
NASA also used the specious “appeal to authority” argument when responding to Facebook users, though many of them were having none of it. One user wrote under Nye’s post, “Right. Despite NASA confirming that fossil fuels are actually cooling the planet’s temperature, and that there’s more ice than in the last century on the polar ice caps. And the fact that the so-called rises of the sea levels have not materialized…”
NASA, for whatever reason, immediately jumped in and replied, “Do not misrepresent NASA. Fossil fuels are not cooling the planet.” NASA went on to quote research, and used the infamous hockey stick graph that has been debunked by many esteemed climatologists. It brought out all the usual props and climate change shibboleths to show that global warming is occurring. More disturbing was that it wasn’t even their Facebook page, but rather Bill Nye’s, who has a B.S. in mechanical engineering, and not climatology or meteorology.
What NASA can’t explain away is the global warming hiatus since 2000 that even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a bureaucratic branch of the U.N. created to prove global warming is occurring, acknowledged the pause in its last assessment report. NASA even rewrote its own historical data to make the hiatus disappear. The most recent study done regarding the “pause in rising temperatures” showed there has been a global warming slowdown from 2000-2014.
Another user commented: “When 16 state attorney generals are forming a committee on how to prosecute ‘deniers’ I probably wouldn’t take that bet either.” Another wrote, “When NOAA literally changed decades of temperatures how can you make a bet? Heads I win, tails you lose. Bill Nye has debated Morano on other outlets and [Nye] has always looked silly, unprepared, and without facts.”
NASA was ‘ruthless’ in its defense of Nye’s Facebook post. In response to another comment, the agency wrote, “NASA does not ‘fudge’ numbers. All data requires statistical adjustments to remove bias. Temperatures are adjusted to coordinate time of day, remove the urban heat island effect, account for station moves, etc. This is all very clearly documented. These adjustments are performed to make the data more accurate.” More on that here.
Others who deal with numbers for a living have looked at the historical temperature record and say it’s been “exaggerated.” In late February, prominent statistician Dr. Terence Mills, professor of Applied Statistics at Loughborough University, released a report that shows “global average temperatures will remain relatively unchained by the end of the century.”
He shows how the Earth’s temperature “tends to naturally fluctuate and climate change enthusiasts are focusing on a period between 1975 and 1998 – when the global temperature rose by 0.5 degrees Celsius – as a basis for global warming predictions.” Mills analyzed the “average temperature of every year since 1850” and he was “unable to find evidence to support the projected changes in the climate which was predicted by the IPCC.”
One question still remains: Is it a government agency’s responsibility to monitor free speech and shut it down when it doesn’t comport with your own viewpoints? Apparently under this administration it does.