Bill Nye "The Science Guy" appeared on CNN's "Crossfire" on Tuesday with environmental advocate Van Jones and economist Nick Loris, where he and fellow scientists were accused of "bullying" by host S.E. Cupp.
According to The Space Reporter, the segment began with Cupp showing data from a recent Gallup poll that showed that a majority of Americans – 64 percent – do not think global warming poses a serious threat to their way of life. Cupp then asked Nye why the climate change messaging and "scare tactics" he and Jones espouse have failed to persuade, and how they might change that messaging.
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Nye said that one way to think about the problem is economically, and called out the enormous cost of Hurricane Sandy and the tornadoes in the plains states.
Nick Loris of the Heritage Foundation rebutted Nye's implication that severe weather is becoming more severe and frequent, saying that both the National Climate Assessment (NCA) and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) remained inconclusive on the supposed upward trend in both hurricanes and tornadoes.
"I’m not a denier, I’m not a skeptic," said Loris. "What I’m saying is, climate is changing – yes, man-made emissions are in some part to that – but we haven’t seen these extreme event trends. The observed data doesn’t prove that."
"So I disagree," said Nye.
"The policy prescriptions, these greenhouse-gas regulations coming down, prohibiting building new coal fire power plants, is just going to make us less equipped, less economically prosperous to be able to handle these problems, whether they're more frequent or not," said Loris. "Even the IPCC says there's no [increased] frequency or intensity when it comes to hurricanes."
"Hurricane, schmurricane," said a flustered Nye, unable to refute Loris.
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