In a screen grab from HBO, scientist Bill Nye can be seen setting fire to a globe to prove his point about climate change.
Bill Nye the Science Guy is giving us all a stern talking to about the seriousness of climate change and he’s not being polite about it.
The childhood favorite scientist made a guest appearance on “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” on Sunday to discuss the Green New Deal, introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and Senator Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts.
Nye wants us to know “by the end of this century, if emissions keep rising, the average temperature on Earth could go up another four to eight degrees.”
Nye puts the condition of Earth bluntly by saying the planet is practically on fire, demonstrating his point by burning a globe with a torch.
“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,” Nye said.
One way Nye says the government could find funding for the Green New Deal is through “carbon pricing.”
“When we release carbon, say, by burning coal or driving an SUV, all of us pay for that in the form of things like fires, floods and crop failures,” Nye explains. “Putting a fee on carbon creates incentives to emit less carbon, and, more importantly, it also incentivizes the development of low-carbon technology, which is huge, because that’s vital to reducing emissions globally.”
Nye was stern in getting his message across on the show.
“You’re not children anymore. I didn’t mind explaining photosynthesis to you when you were 12. But you’re adults now, and this is an actual crisis, got it?”