Lots of warmists
I was at a performance of the Bill Bryson Show “Many a True Word” at the State Theatre in Sydney last night, in which the author was interviewed by Ray Martin, and read passages from his books. It was entertaining, if you were of the Left and a warmist, that is.
Almost the first thing Martin quoted from Bryson’s Down Under was that no-one outside Australia seems to know who the Prime Minister of Australia is. “Kevin Rudd?” Bryson quipped. Gentle laughter from the audience. But when Martin mentioned Tony Abbott, there were actually jeers and boos from the partisan crowd, and the resident ‘sand artist’ on stage had a disparaging puppet with budgie smugglers and big ears. Cannot imagine the same kind of treatment being meted out to, for example, Julia Gillard, can you? But Tony’s just a thick bogan and fair game for the intelligentsia of Sydney, right?
If that weren’t enough, there were video clips from some of Bryson’s pals interspersed within the interview. The first was president of the alarmist Royal Society, Sir Paul Nurse, a well-known climate propagandist who stitched up James Delingpole on an episode of Horizon (see here). The programme was based on the typical ‘science under attack’ line, with Delingpole misled into believing it would be an investigation with ‘no preconceptions’, when in reality it was the usual BBC alarmism, criticising ‘deniers’ for daring to ask awkward questions of The Cause. Watts Up has more here.
If that weren’t enough, the third clip was of another of Bryson’s ‘pals’, failed end-of-pier crystal ball reader and Gaia freak, Tim Flannery. Go here for a list of all the posts on ACM that deal with this twit. My evening was going rapidly downhill by this point.
To finish off, Paul Nurse was back on video for the Q & A session at the end, to ‘ask’ Bill why politicians wouldn’t listen to scientists – a question which sounded more like a plea. “Who is the science minister?” Bill asked. “We haven’t got one,” replied Ray, followed by a general shaking of heads in disbelief at the morons we now have in charge here in Australia. Politicians in the last Labor government listened to ‘scientists’ like Flannery, and we ended up with pointless carbon taxes that did nothing for the climate, and sent our economy into a tail spin.
And yes, we do have a science minister, it’s Ian Macfarlane, under whose portfolio science falls (see here).
With friends like those, Bill, there’s not much hope.
Australian Climate Madness 
As long as the money flows then they will never stop, there will always be a few fools who will pony up money when asked so the Climate Change alarmism will keep going, we just don’t have to listen to it. N
They should have asked who the Science Minister is in Barack Obama’s administration – the answer is NO-ONE !!!!!!
Among the people Mark Twain didn’t like “……… scientists who deduced too much from too little evidence,……..”
I’ve long enjoyed reading Bill’s books and thought he was smart enough to avoid this sort of stuff.
Ah well, I guess all controversy is good publicity. Ho hum.
Maybe if Australia had a Minister for Snow, we’d have more snow.
Correct Bernd, I said a few times that if spending money could change the weather then we would have invented weather control, just spend more when its hot and the planet would cool and spend less when it’s cold and watch it warm up, I am sure that they all see how pathetic their argument actually is, they just keep saying it to keep the money flowing. N
For all ACM followers who enjoy a good belly laugh, check out this gentle little video of Tim Flannery and Bill Shorten – courtesy of Michael Smith News. I doubt that Corio MP Richard Marles would screen it at a local barbecue. The audience demographic is interesting too – hardly blue-collar Alcoa workers from Geelong, are they?
Link
These revelations about Bill Bryson’s warmist tendencies are distressing. I have enjoyed many of his books over the years. You can decide for yourself by reading his thoughts on places you have also visited.
Last year whilst on holidays I bought “A Short History of Nearly Everything” and could hardly put it down – a clear and well researched history of science, with lots of fun details and a good statement of Science and The Enlightenment.
But now Bill’s a warmist. His problem is simply that he admires scientists and gets sucked into their belief system when he hangs out with them. Likewise Robin Williams from the ABC’s Science Show and many from the Australian Skeptics. They see a false dichotomy – on one hand there are Scientists (white coats, hard working, honest, dedicated etc) and on the other side there are Quacks (faith healing, water divining, seances, 7-day creationists, endless hoaxes and scams).
Unfortunately it’s all coming undone for the white coat brigade. Plenty of examples – allowing poor quality peer review, embracing post-normal science, writing dud papers to gain prestige, applying the precautionary principle as science, claiming the science is settled and failing to state the null hypothesis correctly.
I would love to see Bill Bryson write a book on the current state of science, especially climate science. There are plenty of jaw-dropping stories to makes his book a good read. Like going to the Antarctic to observe global warming but having to be rescued from the sea ice.
Sounds like you were tricked into attending an ALP fund raiser. Ask for a refund. I would.
What truly bothers me is that to be a warmist, all it takes is a willingness to believe in the tooth fairy and the want to follow a crowd.
Hardly a rigorous and/or disciplined intellectual pursuit….
Being a sceptic requires rigour, effort and a willingness to think for ones self, and also the backbone to handle a constant barrage of insults and harassment by unthinking warmist drones.
I’d love to see them out on stage in a truly neutral debate and have them defend their position without help from “phone a friend” or “ask the audience”.
We need acts, not words. I liked Bill Bryson’s A Brief History Of Nearly Everything, but after reading his eulogy about Socialism and what a pity it is that it has not worked out as well as planned I was seriously put off. To find out about him being a warmist does not come as a surprise. So what can I do about it? I will never buy, read, talk or even mention any book by him and will strongly encourage my family and friends to do likewise. In the same way I will never watch a film on TV, nevermind paying to see a film at a cinema, which features Sean Penn or Vanessa Redgrave, totally despicable human beings.