A severe winter storm about to strike the northeast is caused by global warming? That's the unsurprising suggestion by climate change enthusiast Bill Nye on MSNBC, Monday. The TV personality appeared on The Cycle to discuss the New England Patriots and Deflategate. Changing the subject, he condescendingly asserted, "I just want to introduce the idea that this storm is connected to climate change. I want to introduce that idea. I know there will be certain viewers who will become unglued."
After noting that he "just wants to introduce the idea," Nye conceded, "Now, proving any one storm is connected, especially cold-weather events is quite difficult." He added, "But I just want to present that."
According to Nye, "the very strong winds that will be associated with this storm in the next couple of days, these could be connected to climate change." Considering that this is a snowstorm in winter, Nye was careful to avoid the term "global warming." Cycle co-host Toure cheered, "I love you for bringing that in."
In 2010 [1], Nye denounced climate "deniers" as "unpatriotic." In 2014 [2], he appeared on NBC to denounce global warming skeptics.
A transcript of the January 26 comments are below:
The Cycle, 1/26/15 at 3:34 PM EST:
[Nye was on to discuss Deflategate. Shifts to global warming.]
BILL NYE: I just want to introduce the idea that this storm is connected to climate change. I want to introduce that idea. I know there will be certain viewers who will become unglued. They are throwing things at their television sets and so on. But the economic effect of storms like this is huge. You cancel half the flights out of the world's -- one of the world's busiest airports, certainly the eastern seaboard is a very busy area economically for airplane travel. And so when you start having these storms and you don't have the infrastructure to deal with it, you are costing your society a lot of money.
And we're in the developed world where we can handle this stuff. So I just want to introduce the idea that the strong winds that we had in southern California, the very strong winds that will be associated with this storm in the next couple of days, these could be connected to climate change. Now, proving any one storm is connected, especially cold-weather events is quite difficult. But I just want to present that. And both of these stories for me –
TOURE [interrupting to close the segment] Bill, I love you for bringing that in. Thank you so much, Bill.
— Scott Whitlock is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Scott Whitlock on Twitter. [3]