‘The Planet’s on F***ing Fire:’ Bill Nye tells adults to grow up and tackle climate change

Bill Nye, famous for teaching science to kids, has shed his nice teacher persona in order to give adults a grave warning on climate change.

Bill Nye - "Earth could go up another four to eight
degrees. What I’m saying is the planet’s on f***ing fire.”

During a segment on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, Nye appeared to don his lab coat and glasses in the traditional ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ way, but this time he spoke directly adults: “By the end of this century, if emissions keep rising, the average temperature on Earth could go up another four to eight degrees. What I’m saying is the planet’s on f***ing fire.”

During the segment Nye also his frustration towards lawmakers that have stalled on climate change legislation, saying that they needed to do something. After lighting a globe on fire, he stated: “There are a lot of things we could do to put it out – are any of them free? No, of course not. Nothing’s free, you idiots. Grow the f**k up.

Read the story from Nation of Change by Alexandra Jacobo - “‘The Planet’s on F***ing Fire:’ Bill Nye tells adults to grow up and tackle climate change.”

Bill Nye believes NASCAR could change the world

This NASCAR, if it was electric,
could change the world.

I have roots in the southern United States. My mom was from Durham, North Carolina, and my sister, nephew, nieces, spouses, their exes, kids and more kids live in and around Danville, Virginia. Around there, it’s a big deal to go to the races. The boys of various ages, and occasionally some of the girls and women, will pile into vehicles to go see races in South Boston or other tracks nearby. I’ve been to the track in  – the ‘paper clip’ – which is still the shortest track on the NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) circuit. It’s less than a kilometre long, only half a mile. But it is exciting. The cars go just crazy fast, and they are amazingly loud … or LOUD!! But beyond the heart-pounding, Are-these-cars-going-to-jump-the-barrier-and-kill-me? exciting quality of it, it’s depressing – leastways depressing for me as an engineer. Because here I am trying to envision the smart, efficient transportation technology of tomorrow, and there is NASCAR doing the opposite – celebrating a very old transportation technology of yesterday.

Despite the excitement, NASCAR kinda breaks my heart. It’s a celebration of old tech. It uses gasoline-burning instead of electron-flowing. I wish NASCAR were more like NASA. I wish NASCAR were more about the future instead of the past. I wish NASCAR set up Grand Challenges to inspire companies and individuals to create novel automotive technologies in the way NASA does to create novel space technologies. At NASA currently, there are challenges to come up with techniques to mine an asteroid, build a better space suit, and survive the radiation environment in deep space. Those competitions are like races, with winners getting significant grant money. Or look at Google, which created the Lunar XPrize, a genuine competition to see which private group can land a robot on the Moon and send pictures back. There’s no reason why NASCAR couldn’t be like that: a race with rules designed to reward the coolest, most advanced vehicle technologies.

Read the Bill Nye story on Aeon - “If NASCAR embraced electric cars it could change the world.”

Palin claims she is equal to Bill Nye, the "Science Guy"

Sarah Palin - climate change denier and
yet highly influential among Americans.

Of all the causes Sarah Palin has embraced in her varied career as hockey mom, Alaska governor, Republican vice-presidential nominee, Fox television commentator and Donald Trump supporter, none perhaps may be as bold or – as she still likes to say, “rogue” – as trying to take down a much-beloved children’s television personality: Bill Nye the Science Guy.

But that was where hardcore climate change denial landed Palin on Thursday: a wood-panelled committee room in Congress where she disputed the credentials of a hugely popular science educator who has designed devices for NASA and been awarded several honorary degrees.

“Bill Nye is as much a scientist as I am,” Palin told the gathering. “He’s a kids’ show actor. He’s not a scientist.”

And that was not even the low point of the event.

Read The Guardian story - “Climate change denier Sarah Palin: 'Bill Nye is as much a scientist as I am'.”

(Sarah Palin’s sincerity combined with her idiocy makes my shoulders droop – climate change is an issue that needs to lift us above the simplistic, populist, emotive responses such as those exhibited by Palin – Robert McLean.)

Bill Nye plumbs for solar-powered desalination as the 'key'

Desalinating seawater has been hailed as the solution to addressing freshwater scarcity, but the technology has yet to be scaled.

Big Think, which bills itself as a “knowledge forum,” hosts a series, Tuesdays With Bill Nye, where viewers ask Nye questions about a range of popular topics. This Tuesday, Nye answered a question from a young girl in Minnesota who wanted to know if we can desalinate water for human consumption on a massive scale.

Read the EcoWatch story - “Bill Nye: Solar-Powered Desalination ‘Could Be Key to the Future’.”

Bill Nye sees climate deniers as 'absolutely toxic'

I

Bill Nye - "Unstoppable".

n a new interview, Bill Nye has once again spoken out against climate deniers, calling them “absolutely toxic” and demolishing their favorite, do-nothing “I am not a scientist” excuse.

The former Bill Nye the Science Guy host shared these thoughts while speaking to Salon about his new book, "Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World". The book, out Nov. 10, pleads with today’s generation to take immediate action on climate change.

During the interview, Nye explained to staff writer Sean Illing that the goal of his new book is to “change the world!”:

“Really, that’s what I’m trying to do. Obviously, this book isn’t going to change the world, but it is part of the bigger idea that we all have to think optimistically about this. We’ve got to go into this knowing we have a hard challenge but that we’re going to win this fight, and we’re going to save the Earth for humanity.”

Read the EcoWatch story - “Bill Nye Is ‘Unstoppable’.”

Schwarzenegger and Bill Nye tackle the 'stages' of climate change

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ill Nye teamed up with Arnold Schwarzenegger to confront climate denial head on in an episode of National Geographic’s Explorer, Bill Nye’s Global Meltdown.

Arnold Schwarzenger - head-to-head with
Bill Nye about climate change.

The episode opens with Bill Nye telling his psychiatrist, Arnold Schwarzenegger, “I don’t know, I’m just not myself lately. Everything seems so meaningless and empty.”

“Go on,” says Schwarzenegger. “I know the planet is getting hotter and hotter,” says Nye. “And I know we’re going to have forest fires and droughts and floods like you’ve never seen. We’re going to have storms and hurricanes and species are disappearing.”

Nye, exasperated, concludes, “Sometimes I just want to close my eyes and pretend it’s not happening.” Schwarzenegger’s prognosis: “It sounds to me like you are suffering from climate change grief.” Schwarzenegger tells Nye he is dealing with the first stage of grief: denial.

Read the EcoWatch story - “Bill Nye + Arnold Schwarzenegger Confront Climate Denial Head On.”

Deniers are not skeptics!

Those uncomfortable with the concept of human induced climate change have been called many things, among them “skeptics” and “deniers”.

The terminology has frequently been conflated, mainly by the media, to the extent that that in the eyes of many those two words have effectively he same meaning.

However, they don’t!

That difference is being point out by Fellows of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

An email from a physicist, climate change researcher, and Fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Dr. Mark Boslough, makes the point.

He wrote: “Bill Nye and many other skeptical scientists (including me) have an important message: Climate science deniers are not skeptics.

“Last month a group of 48 of us published an open letter because some members of the media are still misleading the public by wrongly using the term “skeptic.” “The New York Times, for example, recently called Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) a skeptic — even though he believes in the absurd notion that climate change is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated.”

“As scientists, we practice and promote scientific skepticism. As Fellows of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, we encourage informed citizens to do the same. But those who reject the facts on climate change are not skeptics — they’re deniers.

“We are insisting that journalists report truthfully on climate change and those who deny the science behind it. Can you add your name to support our letter?

“Sign your name to tell the media: Stop referring to climate science deniers as “skeptics.”

“Truth in climate reporting is already catching on among some news outlets. Recently, NPR and CBS both resisted using the term “skeptic” when it did not apply, and replaced it with the word “denier.” Now, we in the scientific community are asking other major publishers and broadcasters to do the same — and with strong, widespread public support, we can raise the bar for factual accuracy in climate reporting.

“It’s time for our media to recognize climate science deniers for what they are,” he wrote.

The Centre for Skeptical Inquiry discusses the letter in its story: “Deniers are not Skeptics”.