OGDEN, Utah, April 3, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” ran to the stage set up in Weber State University’s Dee Events Center Wednesday morning as the crowd of roughly 5,000 fans let out giddy cheers and deafening applause.
The younger students grew up with Nye’s addictively entertaining science videos — like the one where he explores the freezing properties of liquid nitrogen by applying it to a squishy marshmallow, then chewing the sweet to make “steam” flow out his nostrils.
Nye attributes his approach to acquaintance Carl Sagan, the late astrophysicist who agreed to meet with Nye after a pleading letter.
Sagan agreed to give Nye a few minutes, and listened to the younger man’s educational career dreams before imparting advice:
“‘Focus on real science.’ He said kids resonate to science,” Nye recalled. “And that one piece of advice just really informed my whole science guy show.”
The questions submitted for Nye’s WSU appearance, and read by WSU physics professor Stacy Palen, touched on topics including vaccines, global warming and the likelihood of alien life. See a few of Nye’s answers below:
Vaccines
“Vaccines are this 300-year-old technology,” Nye said, asking if vaccination should be a personal choice, and answering his own question.
“NO!”
“You have to get vaccinated, for crying out loud,” Nye said, noting the virulence of measles as an example, and saying that society must have rules to protect the health of others.
You can’t drive on the left side of a road in America, he said. You can’t choose where to relieve yourself; you have to use a toilet.
“This whole idea that regulations are inherently wrong, what are you talking about? No, you want all the regulations you need, but not extra regulations.”
Sharing science-based information
Someone asked what to do if people reject fact-based arguments.
“If you meet somebody who insisted that astrology has real predictive qualities, and you show them all the evidence that there’s more that 12 kinds of people in the world,” Nye said.
“It takes about two years, somebody who believes in ghosts, for that person to come around.”
Be firm but patient, Nye suggested. And listen.
“Uncle Steve, I love and respect your opinions, but they’re wrong.”
Climate change
Global warming probably won’t kill us in the near future, Nye said.
“It’s not that the world’s going to end because of climate change, it’s just that things are going to suck.”
The climate has changed before in the Earth’s history, Nye said.
“It’s the speed at which things are changing. That’s the problem.”
New Orleans and certain Florida cities may lose acreage to the sea, he said. Wealthy people who live near the shore will move inland, displacing the poor, he said.
In the Midwest, rising temperatures will force farming operations to move north over the coming decades, to places where the railroads and other farming needs are not yet in place.
Aliens
Asked why we haven’t encountered aliens, Nye cited Fermi’s Paradox, which holds, in part, that the time humans have been around is less than a blink of an eye compared to the age of the galaxy, and it could just be a matter of waiting.
“The answer is time,” Nye said, also noting that NASA funding is currently at a far smaller percentage of the national budget than it was in the early years of the space program.
Nye also noted that the large oceans on Jupiter’s moon Europa could hold some form of life.
“If they found something alive there, it would change the way everyone feels about being alive.”
Taking action
Nye also told his listeners that he has done his best to spread fact-based science information, and that saving the world will be up to them.
He urged his listeners to vote, and put people in office who would make Earth-sustaining decisions.
“I want you to change the world.”
Bill Nye is expert about none of the things he is saying. His statements are not any more authoratative than mine. I have no idea why people give him a stage or any credence.