Bill Nye has become a clown show.  I loved him as a kid, then his political antics destroyed that.  He glommed on global warming in the nadir of his career, much the same way Al Gore did, and the fame went to his head.  The man who once seemed so rational on TV used climate change as an excuse to justify tyranny.  Nothing says science like demanding that people who deny climate change be imprisoned.

He became a hyper-progressive, not just pushing “the end is nye” climate change hysteria, but promoting progressive gender nonsense as well.

For some reason I fail to understand, Jim Bridenstine, Trump’s nominee for NASA director, invited Bill Nye to be his guest at the State of the Union.

There has been controversy about the nomination of Jim Bridenstine since he was not a NASA employee but a Congressman.

I don’t care.  I don’t believe the someone has to be a “space professional” to be NASA director.  NASA is a goverment agency, and the skills it takes to run an agency are very different than the skills it takes to perform an EVA.

Besides, Obama picked Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, to be NASA director and the first thing they did was Muslim outreach.  They then focused NASA’s efforts onto climate change.  The NOAA already existed for that job.  Under Obama the shuttle was mothballed with no plan to phase something new in any time soon and the James Webb Space Telescope was back burnered.  It was ruined as a agency and when Trump was elected, the proof was the bellyaching of Rouge NASA employees.  I thought real space scientists would be excited about going back to the moon and then onto Mars.  Turns out they just wanted to do more climate change data fudging.

Obama had sucked the Right Stuff out the NASA and if a Congressman can put it back in there, I’ll support that 100%.

A real scientist would be excited to meet the potential future director of NASA.  I know I would.

Well for the women of 500 Women Scientists, that was unacceptable.

Bill Nye Does Not Speak for Us and He Does Not Speak for Science

By attending the State of the Union with NASA administrator nominee Jim Bridenstine, the Science Guy tacitly endorses climate denial, intolerance and attacks on science

500 Women Scientists is a progressive, Social Justice organization.

500 Women Scientists is a grassroots organization started by four women who met in graduate school at CU Boulder and who maintained friendships and collaborations after jobs and life took them away from Boulder. Immediately following the November 2016 election, we published an open letter re-affirming our commitment to speak up for science and for women, minorities, immigrants, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA.

500 Women Scientists works to build communities and foster real change that comes from small groups, not large crowds. Our Local Pods help create those deep roots through strong, personal relationships. Local Pods are where members meet regularly, develop a support network, make strategic plans, and take action. Pods focus on issues that resonate in their communities, rooted in our mission and values.

So as typical progressives, there was no amount of interaction with the other side of the aisle that is acceptable.

As scientists, we cannot stand by while Nye lends our community’s credibility to a man who would undermine the United States’ most prominent science agency. And we cannot stand by while Nye uses his public persona as a science entertainer to support an administration that is expressly xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, ableist, and anti-science.

That’s not the language of scientists.  That is the language of social justice activists.  Anti-Science is a weasel phrase for “doesn’t tow the line on man made climate change.”  Saying “NASA is about space exploration and I’m going to stop wasting resources on being redundant to the NOAA and start heading back to the moon” is not anti-science.  Obama did worse to NASA than Trump ever could.

Also, “but Trump.”

Scientists are people, and in today’s society, it is impossible to separate science at major agencies like NASA from other pressing issues like racism, bigotry, and misogyny. Addressing these issues should be a priority, not only to strengthen our own scientific community, but to better serve the public that often funds our work. 

Nope.  Science is a methodology used to better understand how the universe works.  Good science gets repeatable results.  If you want to be taken seriously as a scientist, do good science.

Bridenstine’s anti-science record and his stance on civil rights, and to implicitly support a stance that would diminish the agency’s work studying our own planet and its changing climate. Exploring other worlds and studying other planets, while dismissing the overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change and its damage to our own planet isn’t just dangerous, it’s foolish and self-defeating. 

Bridenstine wants to put people on the moon and on Mars and has tried to expand the area of commercial space exploration.  To me that sounds like good policy for NASA.

Since he doesn’t want NASA focused on climate change, he’s anti-science.

Further, from his position of privilege and public popularity, Bill Nye is acting on the scientific community’s behalf, but without our approval. No amount of funding for space exploration can undo the damage the Trump administration is causing to public health and welfare by censoring science. 

Calling climate change quackery, “quackery” is not censoring science.

No number of shiny new satellites can undo the racist policies that make our Dreamer colleagues live in fear and prevent immigrants from pursuing scientific careers in the United States. And no new mission to the Moon can make our LGBTQ colleagues feel welcome at an agency run by someone who votes against their civil rights.

The job of NASA is satellites and missions to the moon.  If you let Dreamers and trans bathrooms stop you from putting satellites in space and men on the moon, you are the anti-science problem.

As women and scientists, we refuse to separate science from everyday life. We refuse to keep our heads down and our mouths shut. As someone with a show alleging to save the world, Bill Nye has a responsibility to acknowledge the importance of NASA’s vast mission, not just one aspect of it. He should use his celebrity to elevate the importance of science in NASA’s mission—not waste the opportunity to lobby for space exploration at a cost to everything else.

As a man I can tell you that the mission of NASA as defined by The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, which created it is:

• The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space;
• The improvement of the usefulness, performance, speed, safety, and efficiency of aeronautical and space vehicles;
• The development and operation of vehicles capable of carrying instruments, equipment, supplies and living organisms through space;
• The establishment of long-range studies of the potential benefits to be gained from, the opportunities for, and the problems involved in the utilization of aeronautical and space activities for peaceful and scientific purposes.
• The preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and space science and technology and in the application thereof to the conduct of peaceful activities within and outside the atmosphere.
• The making available to agencies directly concerned with national defenses of discoveries that have military value or significance, and the furnishing by such agencies, to the civilian agency established to direct and control nonmilitary aeronautical and space activities, of information as to discoveries which have value or significance to that agency;
• Cooperation by the United States with other nations and groups of nations in work done pursuant to this Act and in the peaceful application of the results, thereof; and
• The most effective utilization of the scientific and engineering resources of the United States, with close cooperation among all interested agencies of the United States in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort, facilities, and equipment.

If NASA is busy with social justice, it’s not doing space exploration.  I want space exploration.

The true shame is that Bill Nye remains the popular face of science because he keeps himself in the public eye. 

On this, we agree.

Bill Nye does not speak for us or for the members of the scientific community who have to protect not only the integrity of their research, but also their basic right to do science. We stand with others who have asked Bill Nye to not attend the State of the Union. Nye’s complicity does not align him with the researchers who have a bold and progressive vision for the future of science and its role in society.

No one is stopping you from doing science because of your race, gender, sexual orientation, or etc.  It’s that your social justice science sucks.  You are the same kind of people that are currently destroying math.  Stop trying to destroy science too.

At a time when our ability to do science and our ability to live freely are both under threat, our public champions and our institutions must do better.

Only your bad science is under threat.

I’m embarrassed by these 500 Women.  They aren’t scientists.  They are social justice warriors in lab coats.

This letter is a tragedy, and I don’t feel like taking lessons on what is science from people who believe that a man can become a woman by identifying that way.

The only thing about this letter that makes me nod my head in approval is watching the progressive mob tear one of it’s most vocal members down for shaking hands with a Republican.