On Tuesday night’s roundtable on the Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, the late-night liberal host had Bill Nye “the Science Guy on as his guest to talk about the 2016 Presidential election and how the Republican candidates haven’t made climate change an important election issue. Nye claimed that the GOP candidates were climate change “deniers” because they were funded by “the fossil fuel industry.”
Wilmore began the segment by asking Nye why climate change “isn’t being taken seriously in this election.”
Nye then dove into his political conspiracy theories on the GOP and climate change “deniers:”
“That's great question. I think people are fascinated with the uh... activities in the Republican -- [ laughter ] party. They haven't gotten around to the issues.” He continued: “But all of them have been adamant deniers.”
Nye continued to claim that Republicans “ignore the data” because they are “funded by the fossil fuel industry.”
These guys are in denial. They're adamant. They don't see the connection between carbon monoxide methane and the world getting warmer. They ignore all the data. So it's very troubling, you guys, and it's really the conservatives have gotten funded by the fossil fuel industry, and there's been this -- there's big concern that the number of people in the voting populous is not very high with respect to climate change. They've heard it. They don't remember it. They set it aside in their minds. That's because of the success of these deniers who have worked so hard funded entirely by the fossil fuel industry. You can look at their 990s.
Wilmore then asked Nye, “How can we get people to stop making this a political issue?”
Nye responded by talking directly to the journalists in the studio audience and pleading with them to ask the candidates about climate change:
Out there is some hard-hitting investigative reporters. And you'll -- we recognize you because you wear knit ties and they're loose. [ Laughter ] [ Applause ] I want you to ask the candidates about climate change directly. What are you going to do about climate change?
Nye continued his conspiracy theories about how the Republican candidates were now going to try to woo millennials by suddenly talking about how important climate change was in this election:
So along this line, everybody, while you're out there, don't be surprised, after the conservatives, the Republicans, pick somebody, this person goes, well, I've been thinking about it and climate change is a big issue. Because I don't think they can quite get enough -- I don't think the party can quite get enough votes without millennials. Climate denial is almost entirely generational. Only now and then do you meet a young person -- nobody your age is a climate denier. Very few. It’s all old people.
Wilmore disagreed that views on climate change were generational saying, “I don't know. I may have to disagree with you a little bit. I think a lot of it is ideological.”
