BILL NYE GETS POLITICAL FOR THE PLANET

When Bill Nye “The Science Guy” goes viral on the internet, it could be for several reasons.

But for the last several years, Nye has come into the public eye to express his anger over the lack of policy attention our current climate situation has gotten. In his latest skit, Nye, a beloved childhood hero for millennials and Gen Z’ers, goes on an explicit rant where he finally musters up the courage to call us a bunch of #&$! idiots. He makes it clear that he’s not here to explain elementary school science anymore.

It’s really funny, but it’s a message everyone needs to hear – politicians, adults, teens, kids – everyone.

Sure, Nye is synonymous with children’s science shows we watched throughout our public education years, but he’s passionate about the stuff he does – even if he’s pissed off. He has the right to be mad. I’m surprised he hasn’t been pulled this off during one of his Fox News interviews. His description of the “world exploding” exactly reflects most people who know the reality of our climate situation and their anger towards climate change deniers.

There’s no time for these kinds of talking points and giving time for these talking points is something almost exclusive to America. The rest of the industrial world understands that there’s a climate issue more serious than we are prepared for. Unfortunately, America isn’t about to let that knowledge regulate the energy industry. Nye is a celebrity, but nobody, not even a celebrity, should put their greed or fame ahead of their own (and our) existence; I think that is the most frustrating part of the whole climate change debate.

This message that Nye is trying to send is like an R-rated version of the plea a class of California elementary kids gave to Dianne Feinstein (U.S. senator from California) not long ago. Feinstein’s response was the run-of-mill political platitude with a dash of ignorance, the “I know what I’m doing; don’t tell me how to my job,” response. That lack of transparency doesn’t work in the age of Donald Trump and “fake news.” The problem about having a lot of aging politicians and business executives discuss and debate climate change is that they know that, more than likely, they won’t be alive to care about or see the consequences.

This isn’t the first time Nye has gone viral over debate about climate politics, and if things don’t shift regarding our actions to climate change, this won’t be the last, either. A lot of politicians are shifting their plans to primarily combat climate change, but it shouldn’t stop there. Nye has inspired generations to pursue science – we would be letting him down if we didn’t face the biggest scientific challenge in our history with what we’ve learned from him.