Bill Nye has a hot take on global warming. (YouTube screen grab via Last Week Tonight)
Bill Nye has finally reached his burning point.
The famed “Science Guy,” who used far-less-salty language while explaining science to children during his television heyday on PBS, wants us all to “grow the f— up” now because the planet is on fire and this is serious.
Nye shows up in the latest episode of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” on HBO in which the host spends 20 minutes talking about the challenges facing the environment and the terrifying headlines everyone sees — and apparently glosses over — on a daily basis.
Oliver uses news clips to illustrate some of the ridiculous debate surrounding the Green New Deal while also spelling out just what the piece of legislation would hope to achieve when it comes to climate action.
Nye first shows up at the 10:20 mark of the video below to explain “the complicated logic behind carbon pricing.”
“When we release carbon, say, by burning coal or driving an SUV, all of us pay for that in the form of things like fires, floods and crop failures. Putting a fee on carbon creates incentives to emit less carbon, and, more importantly, it also incentivizes the development of low-carbon technology, which is huge, because that’s vital to reducing emissions globally. And because for some reason, John, you’re a 42-year-old man who needs his attention sustained by tricks, here’s some f—ing Mentos and a bottle of Diet Coke. Happy now?”
Nye returns at the 18:30 mark, but he’s clearly run out of patience, so he resorts to burning a plastic globe and unleashing a few F-bombs to get his point across.
“I’ve got an experiment for you. Safety glasses on. By the end of this century, if emissions keep rising, the average temperature on Earth could go up another four to eight degrees. What I’m saying is the planet’s on f—ing fire. There are a lot of things we could do to put it out — are any of them free? No, of course not! Nothing’s free, you idiots! Grow the f— up. You’re not children anymore. I didn’t mind explaining photosynthesis to you when you were 12. But you’re adults now, and this is an actual crisis, got it? Safety glasses off, motherf—ers.”
Watch the full video here: