To the contrary, I spent a lot of time defining what a scientist is. My bachelor's is in biotechnology and molecular biology. I generally do not think it is appropriate in a modern context to label someone as a "scientist" if they do not have a graduate level degree in the natural sciences. I explained why in detail in my article.

Someone with a pre-med bachelor's degree may not be a doctor yet, however that person would be right to point out that it is inappropriate to present a celebrity, without any sort of medical degree, as if he or she were on the same level as an experienced surgeon.

Bill Nye is an engineer, not a scientist. So for CNN to bring on Bill Nye to dismiss the arguments of actual atmospheric physicists is inappropriate. If he wants to critique their arguments with logic and data, then that is fine, but he should not be presented as if he has equal authority with actual scientists.

This is not an appeal to authority. At no point did I ever say that an advanced degree makes someone's argument correct - clearly that is not the case.

What I did here was call out CNN and Bill Nye for presenting Nye as if he had an authority that he simply does not have. Whether Nye is correct or not in his views about Global Warming is beside the point.

It would be like presenting an actor who played a doctor on TV 20 years ago, as if he were actually a well-acomplished surgeon in real life. And then using that feigned authority to dismiss real-life doctors.