Bill Nye: Science Guy
Judging by the documentary “Bill Nye: Science Guy” and the renewal of Nye’s Netflix talk show, it seems that this former host of a zany and popular science program for kids has completed his transformation into a righteous crusader against what he sees as a powerful anti-science current in contemporary America.
A generation of youngsters was entertained and enlightened in the 1990s by his show, “Bill Nye the Science Guy.” But, as we see in this film, his tone and mood have changed. There’s now an urgency, a sense that we are in peril because fundamental truths about how the world works are being ignored and ridiculed.
One of Nye’s major themes these days is climate change, and we watch him visit Greenland where he witnesses the extraction of ice cores, considered to be among the most compelling evidence in favor of global warming.
The same subject is touched on in the sequences that will most amuse or enrage audiences, Nye’s debates with creationist Ken Ham, who is way outside the scientific mainstream in believing that the Earth is about 6,000 years old, and that humans and dinosaurs coexisted.
Ham has a sizable following. In Kentucky, he runs a theme park called Ark Encounter, the centerpiece of which is a gigantic replica of Noah’s Ark, and the movie’s footage of that structure is an eye-opener. Visiting the park, Nye is saddened, saying that what he sees there isn’t science, doesn’t make sense and is likely to mislead young people.
To a lesser degree, the film — directed by David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg, who specialize in science documentaries — offers some personal material about Nye. He was ambitious from the get-go, and he isn’t pleased with some of the offshoots of fame, such as pesky admirers asking for selfies. He remains a great admirer of astronomer Carl Sagan, a champion of skepticism and the scientific method.
Throughout the movie, it’s suggested that Nye’s focus on work has had a deleterious effect on his social life. Some of Nye’s issues are no doubt the result of lifelong fears that he may be struck by a neurological condition called ataxia that runs in his family, but which so far has not affected him.
In trying to bring the light to the likes of Ham and his supporters, Nye is obviously fighting an uphill battle. Best of luck to him.