MAN WORTH LISTENING TO
Is here to save us all
Bill Nye, everyone’s favourite Science Guy, is back to save the world.
BILL NYE COULD PROBABLY TRADEMARK THE PHRASE “Change the world!” He says it several times throughout our conversation, and he’s definitely used it before: it was the key objective in the first staff memo for his ’90s PBS show Bill Nye the Science Guy. What’s more, he really means it. While millions of kids were zoning out to his zany explainers on air pressure and moon cycles, he was trying to influence public policy. “We just had a Reagan administration that took solar panels off the roof of the White House because they believed it was unaesthetic hippie energy,” says the engineer-turned-tv host. “I was very concerned about the future of the US. That’s why I sought to influence kids.”
Well, the world has indeed changed since Nye’s show ended in 1998, but not necessarily for the better. As President Trump questions the validity of manmade climate change and touts “alternative facts,” an anti-science movement is bourgeoning in the US. And so, Nye has returned — only, this time he’s here to teach adults. In recent years, he’s become somewhat of a science warrior, willing to debate anyone on TV who expresses scepticism about evolution and global warming. On his new Netflix talk show, Bill Nye Saves the World, he tackles a range of topics — from the environment to sex to alternative medicine — in an effort to refute anti-scientific claims espoused by politicians, religious leaders, or titans of industry. In other words, he’s trying to change the world again. And his timing couldn’t be better.
Hey Bill!
Hello! Can I just say, writ large: I love Canada! Love going there, love Shreddies. We can’t get Shreddies in the US.
Whoa. You guys don’t have Shreddies?
I know, I know. You wonder why things are so screwed up in the States? Well that’s part of it right there. No Shreddies. Whenever I’m in Canada, I buy Shreddies and bring them back. The people at customs are quite familiar with this. I wrote to Kraft asking them to sell Shreddies here. The response kills me! It’s so Canadian: ‘We’re sorry, so sorry, very sorry’ — like four sorries in three sentences!
They should be sorry. You need your fibre.
Let me look in the pantry here. Oh gosh. I’m down. I’ve got a quarter of a box left. Well, this evening a colleague from Montreal is coming. She almost always brings several boxes. But if there are no Shreddies, my world continues to spin.
Speaking of which, your new show’s called Bill Nye Saves the World. What are you saving the world from?
From ourselves. The biggest threat to humankind right now is climate change. And it’s not because the world hasn’t been warmer, or that there wasn’t once more carbon dioxide. It’s the speed at which it’s happening. That’s the problem. You know, half the people in the world live on seacoasts. So, as the ocean gets bigger — which happens as it gets warmer — people are going to have to leave or to make enormous investments to maintain current harbours and commerce. In the developed world, we’ve got a shot at that. But in the developing world, people are just going to migrate somewhere else. There’s going to be lots of hardship. Quality of life is going to go way down because we can’t move people around fast enough.
Another migrant crisis? Sounds messy.
Well, to Canada’s benefit, the best places to raise wheat and so on are moving north. So Saskatchewan, Manitoba, these places are going to be even more productive. But Canadians need to know: the tar sands are about the worst thing on earth. One study I saw said if you don’t consider the tar sands, Canadians are among the world’s lowest carbon footprint people in the developed world. But then, if you include the tar sands, a Canadian is the world’s worst climate citizen. So, we just authorized more