The famous Bill Nye is getting another TV show, and the liberals herald it as a means of salvation. If this seems extreme to you, you aren’t alone. Before the show airs and we have to hear countless rave reviews, let’s do a review of our own. Just how much of a science expert is Mr. Bill Nye?
Education
Let’s start by looking at Mr. Nye’s education. He studied mechanical engineering at Cornell where he earned a B.S. He also often likes to note that he took an astronomy class that was taught by Carl Sagan. Now, that is certainly worth some bragging rights among astronomy enthusiasts, but it is a far cry from making him an expert in the field.
Even in mechanical engineering, he lacks a professional degree. His B.S. is enough to qualify him to work under the supervision of an expert, but he cannot legally sign off on designs without furthering his education.
This is probably the part where you expect to see more academic achievements, but there are none to report. Bill Nye is a man with a B.S. in engineering. While that is a degree worthy of respect, he is not a qualified expert in any field.
Scientific Career
Before we dive into this, we should make a quick note: engineering and science are not identical fields, but they have many overlaps. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll count Mr. Nye’s engineering work as scientific work, since it isn’t really a stretch.
After graduating from Cornell, Nye was hired by Boeing. While there his most notable work was starring in training films. He did engineering work as well, but he isn’t officially credited with any designs. This is pretty normal for members of a design team who are not professional engineers.
Since his time at Boeing, Nye has been in a lot of scientific discussions, but he has no research credits. He does own a patent, however. He designed a magnifying glass for children that is basically a plastic bag full of water.
Entertainment
So far, Nye’s career and education are respectable, but far from impressive. His real calling, it turns out, is in entertainment. While Nye was living in Seattle, he started working with a local sketch comedy called Almost Live!
It was there that the persona of “the Science Guy” was born. The character had repeat appearances on the sketch show until eventually his popularity scored him his famous television show: Bill Nye the Science Guy. He starred in the show for 5 years and was in 100 episodes. For anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure, the show was an educational tool geared at teaching kids fundamental scientific concepts, and it was largely within the scope of Nye’s qualifications.
Since the show made him an international star, Nye went on to do much more work in the entertainment industry. He appeared in Disney roles, voiced animatronics at Epcot, appeared in numerous TV shows and has been a guest speaker countless times.
His fame ultimately led to a number of honors and honorary degrees. To understand the value of those honorary degrees, consider this: Nye has applied numerous times to work at NASA, and he has been rejected on every occasion. So, after looking at Nye’s career and education, you might start to wonder if he’s really qualified to make many of his claims about political and scientific topics.
Scientific Gaffes
Nye has had a few public snafus in regards to his stances on politically charged scientific issues. His most famous is in regards to GMO foods. Nye was famously and publicly against the use of GMO foods in the U.S. Despite how unscientific this point of view is (literally all food in the world is genetically modified), he was one of the leading voices in the movement against GMOs.
In 2015, Nye met with Monsanto representatives, and after a discussion that has not been released to the public, he reversed his stance. He has regularly been criticized by multiple parties for this switch, and rightly so. Regardless of why he changed his mind, he made it clear that he was a public voice for an issue, despite being wholly unqualified to comment on the topic.
These days Nye mostly focuses his voice on climate change alarmism. He’s exactly as much an expert on that topic as he is on GMOs, and as such his opinions are not to be taken as a reliable source.
This finally brings us to the crux of the whole issue. The left continues to try and hide behind scientific figures to support their claims, but in reality they are promoting the voices of celebrities. When actual experts in a field voice qualified opinions, such as Dr. Judith Curry, they are run out of their field.
~ Liberty Planet
