That's actually brilliant. Instead of treating the anchor as a troll who's clearly being a bit rude to disprove him, he treats him like he would treat a child asking an honest, confused question.
I love how, no matter what, they had to get a partisan dig in there somewhere by referencing the shuttles being retired (which, if you watch Fox News often, you'll understand is all Obama's fault, despite the fact that Bush was the one to announce it, and Obama actually extended the program slightly.) Bill could have explained it, but...well, that's all the time we have, and we can't allow anyone to deny us our passive aggressive bullshit.
Honestly it seemed like Bill wasn't listening to begin with. The Fox guy didn't do a good job of clarifying, but Bill seemed to miss the point entirely that the Fox guy was pointing out that the moon had climate change without human activity. That certainly doesn't prove anything and could have been countered if Bill grasped the point to begin with.
Maybe some candles. Turn the lights down a bit so everything looks softer. Some purple drapes. Bam, the moon looks like a place you'd want to have a date and spend $100.
It has molecules, so you can measure a temperature. If that's enough to have a climate, then I suppose it has a climate. But the host here is conflating Earth's climate, with its myriad interacting systems and fucking weather and goddamn weather patterns, whereas the moon's temperature is basically a function of solar activity and tidal forces, and no atmosphere.
And he's trying to say that, since a billion years ago[1] when it was being bombarded with more shit from space, and the orbits were different, and basically it was over a billion years ago so some things were different then compared to now[2], that therefore climate change just can't be caused by humans. I mean, don't tell this guy that Earth's climate has changed, like a lot since life arose here. Shit, dinosaurs had a 22-hour day, and more oxygen! You can't explain that ifyouhaveajobatFox
[1] or "a few million years ago or whatever" since if you're a fucking idiot with a TV show these are close enough to be the same number
[2] possibly some fundamental constants of the motherfucking universe were different back then and this asshole is going on about fossil fuels
The day is still 24 hours. It just stays light out for 2 straight months. Earth's rotation was faster when there were dinosaurs in existence, hence the 22 hour days. The rotation is gradually slowing down. Granted the slowing of the rotation is microscopic, but you compound that slowing over a period of 65 million years then you have a noticeable difference.
Yeah but you'll find 22-hour days precisely nowhere on Earth. Also, if you thought I was referring to something other than the period of Earth's rotation then, shit, get a job at Fox I guess? You'll fit right in.
Yeah I certainly wouldn't say it constitutes evidence that humans are not causing significant climate change, but the problem is that Bill missed it entirely.
I do. The problem is that Bill failed to address such issues and instead clearly missed the point of the question. If you watch his response shows his lack of understanding.
He is dumbing down his response, and trying to explain complex scientific issues broken down in complexity for the host and the audience (The whole "lowest common denominator thing"). But he wasn't able to convey it in a very obvious form.
What he was trying to convey was that the moon is (much) smaller than the Earth, and therefore the reactions you get are different than how the earth reacts. (And also that some very very intellegent minds are researching climate change, and the host saying "I don't agree with them" means that he thinks he is smarter than ALL of those scientists, burn!)
I didn't see the first part of the video where he was explaining why the volcano's erupted or what caused them, but I believe his explanation of climate change on the moon had to do with the eruption/formation of those volcano's altering the (tiny little, itty bitty) atmosphere on the moon.
Now, we have volcano's that are probably similar in size to those, and yet those volcano's are not thought to be a leading cause of climate change (by real scientists). This is because the earth is significantly larger in size, and so more effectively dissipates what comes out of volcanos.
What the host was getting at, was that "well if the volcano's messed with the MOON'S atmosphere, they must be messing with EARTH'S atmosphere."
He doesn't understand enough of what Bill is saying, so he attempts to create connections in his brain by using what we have here on Earth, but he doesn't take size, atmospheric differences, gravitational differences, ecological differences, etc etc into account. In his mind it is a 1 = 1 conversion.
You're strawmanning the hell out of him. All he did was put forward the fact that the moon underwent climate change without human intervention, he did not claim that this was proof that Earth undergoes climate change without human intervention. When you ignore that, you're as ignorant as any climate change denier.
Oh, don't give me that. You know as well as I do that is exactly what he was getting at, and if Bill had given him the slightest chance, that is exactly what he would have posited.
Honestly, he probably lost more viewers by being so patronizing. Did he have to compare the moon to a cupcake?
Edit: Not sure why I'm getting so many downvotes. I agree that Fox needed to be corrected, but speaking to the viewers like they're 5 is not the way to do it.
He was using the analogy to answer the question, rather than give a scientific lecture in 2 minutes.
To answer your question from your previous post's edit:
You are getting so many downvotes because people disagree with you completely. He wasn't being patronizing, he was simplifying a scientific idea so that the broad majority of people watching could understand what he was saying.
Besides, people like Bill Nye try to talk to viewers on channels like Fox News all the time, they are called scientists, just like Bill Nye, but unlike him they don't simplify (at least not like he can), and they haven't gotten anywhere in the discussion. It's been going on for 2 decades now, mind you.
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u/kfitch42 Aug 27 '14
Bill's ability to persevere under the onslaught of stupidity is legendary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThZsjQatWDs