Morning Joe Tuesday featured a discussion with Bill Nye, known as the Science Guy from his television days, and his new book, “Unstoppable.” The book is about getting America to lead on fighting Climate Change, particularly in transitioning from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy. Scarborough on Climate Change, threw to Nye, “It gets more complicated when you look at the situation in China and the situation in India. How important is it now that not only do we obviously, conserve more here in the United States but also have the impact to get China and other developing countries to curb their emissions as well?”
Nye made his claim that “if the United States were in the lead, if the United States were out in front in wind energy, solar energy, either concentrated solar, solar-voltaic, solar panels, the one thing the United States exports for better or for worse is our culture. Everybody in the world knows who Mickey Mouse is.” On the subject of China, India, and the other developing countries though? We shouldn’t be “whining that China’s doing this and India’s doing that” but instead be out in front. Nye also took a shot at presumably the Iraq War, and Obama’s war against ISIS, when he said “we wouldn't have to have a standing army on the other side of the world to ensure we have a supply of fossil fuels.”
Scarborough did reply that China is the #1 Emitter of Carbon, but Nye argued that “the world's climate is getting warmer. Are you down with that?” That’s when Nicolle Wallace jumped into the fray, wondering:
The American people put job creation, economic growth, national security, the deficit and government spending and health care way ahead of this issue. So if you want to lead, where is the public support for doing the very difficult things? And how do you also confront confusion? This morning there's a report from NASA, hardly a wing of the Republican party that, the Antarctic ice is growing.
Nye replied, “I submit there will be an enormous awareness come Paris, in December. People around the world will be talking about it, and people in the United States will be talking about it. And so the Antarctic ice is growing meanwhile the Arctic ice is shrinking, meanwhile incidentally, it's difficult to tie any one weather event to climate change.”
Scarborough would finish out the segment opining that “it is a generational issue that the further we move forward and the move years that we have one record breaking hot year after another, as we move forward over the next three, four, five years, I do think just like your book, "Unstoppable," I think this becomes an issue that's unstoppable for both parties.”
See the relevant transcript below.
2015-11-10-MSNBC Morning Joe
JOE SCARBOROUGH: And with us now Bill Nye, famously known as the Science Guy, he’s out with his latest book, "Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World," and a lot of this book has to deal with climate change. Tell us about it Bill.
BILL NYE: So the world’s climate is changing and we want to get to work on it so that everybody in the world has electricity and everybody in the world has clean water. So this is gonna take everyone in the world working together. Now both of my parents were veterans from World War II and they’re both interred at Arlington Cemetery. And they were considered part of the greatest generation because they just stepped up and got 'er done and I submit we can do the same thing now. We could be the next great generation --
SCARBOROUGH: It gets more complicated when you look at the situation in China and the situation in India. How important is it now that not only do we obviously, conserve more here in the United States but also have the impact to get China and other developing countries to curb their emissions as well?
NYE: Here's my claim, Joe. If the United States were in the lead, if the United States were out in front in wind energy, solar energy, either concentrated solar, solar-voltaic, solar panels, the one thing the United States exports for better or for worse is our culture. Everybody in the world knows who Mickey Mouse is. If the United States were not burning fossil fuels, instead were getting all its energy from wind and solar, let's say and maybe if you want, a little nuclear, knock yourself out, then we would be leading. And instead of, what strikes me and of course I love you all more than life itself, instead of whining that China’s doing this and India’s doing that, the United States would be out in front. And by the way, we wouldn't have to have a standing army on the other side of the world to ensure we have a supply of fossil fuels. It’s a huge opportunity.
SCARBOROUGH: I actually didn't know my voice sounded that way when I quoted scientific carbon emissions, Bill. It's just pure science. Right now China’s number one emitter.
NYE: It's pure science. In terms of pure science, the world's climate is getting warmer. Are you down with that? So what are you guys gonna do
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, I'm down with that. I'm also down with the fact that man obviously contributes to it. I'd asked a question. I'm wondering what we do to get the rest of the world on board?
NYE: Lead. That's my suggestion.
NICOLLE WALLACE: You look at the polls and the American people put job creation, economic growth, national security, the deficit and government spending and health care way ahead of this issue. So if you want to lead, where is the public support for doing the very difficult things? And how do you also confront confusion? This morning there's a report from NASA, hardly a wing of the Republican party that, the Antarctic ice is growing. How do you navigate some of the questions among the general public and how do you make more than 8% of the public go along with that --
NYE: This is where I say leadership. The president's first Facebook post was about climate change. And I submit there will be an enormous awareness come Paris, in December. People around the world will be talking about it, and people in the United States will be talking about it. And so the Antarctic ice is growing meanwhile the Arctic ice is shrinking, meanwhile incidentally, it's difficult to tie any one weather event to climate change but it's almost 60 Fahrenheit this morning in New York in November. So the issue is complicated or rather the physics or the science of climate change is complicated. When Greenland loses ice as its doing, it deflects the Gulf Stream and when there's a nor'easter, you get more snow in Boston. It's complicated but it's not impossible to understand. And so what I ask you guys is, what's going to happen when you want to get the millennial votes? Millennials are very concerned about climate change. Are the conservatives just going to let those votes go or is somebody going to have an epiphany in the spring, hey, I changed my mind.
SCARBOROUGH: I think it is a generational issue that the further we move forward and the move years that we have one record breaking hot year after another, as we move forward over the next three, four, five years, I do think just like your book, "Unstoppable," I think this becomes an issue that's unstoppable for both parties. We're up against a really hard break. I'd love to have you come back as part of a bigger panel and discuss this because it's a critical issue and as always, we love having you on. Bill Nye, thanks so much.
