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Nye urges audience to change the world
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“The key to the future is not doing less; it’s in finding ways to do more with less.”
Pop scientist Bill Nye, best known as “Bill Nye the Science Guy” for his iconic ’90s educational television program, urged students to tackle the problems of the 21st century yesterday in an appearance that attracted more than 6,000 to Alumni Arena, including more than 1,500 students from 50 local high schools who received free tickets from UB.
An ardent environmentalist and host of “Stuff Happens” on Discovery’s Planet Green channel, Nye was the final speaker in the 2008-09 Distinguished Speakers Series. His visit coincided with the national celebration of Earth Day.
“Citizens of Buffalo, students, kids of all ages…please consider the following,” he said, echoing a catchphrase from his famous television program. “I want you to change the world.”
Opening with images of Earth as seen from Mars, Nye said that for members of the “space generation”—those born after the launch of Sputnik by the former Soviet Union on Oct. 4, 1957—images of Earth as seen from space are no longer as shocking as they were for his parents’ generation. But he said it’s important not to forget that these images really show us “a whole other world.”
In comparing Earth to Mars, as well as its other neighboring sphere, Venus, Nye dubbed the Earth the “Goldilocks planet,” neither “too hot” for human life, like Venus, nor “too cold,” like Mars.
“But that’s changing,” he added, noting that in just the past few decades, the Earth’s carbon-dioxide levels have risen from approximately 300 parts per million to nearly 400 parts per million. This is a fact that’s been confirmed by many scientists, he said, including a team he met in Glendale, Colo., that measures the Earth’s atmosphere over tens of thousands of years using tiny air bubbles trapped deep beneath the ice in Siberia, Greenland and Antarctica.
“They will tell you until they’re ice blue in the face that the world is getting warmer and that carbon dioxide is increasing at a rate that is faster than ever in history,” said Nye.
The Earth’s atmosphere is particularly vulnerable to greenhouse gas emissions since it’s so thin, he added, citing a description of the Earth’s atmosphere as similar to the “varnish on a globe” by Carl Sagan, under whom Nye studied astronomy as a student at Cornell University.
If climate change continues unabated, many states and cities in the U.S., including Florida, New Orleans and Houston, could soon find themselves “knee-deep” in water, he said.
While existing technologies, including wind turbines and fuel-efficient cars, offer some serious answers to climate change, Nye also pointed out some challenges whose solutions could not only “change the world,” but also make their inventors’ “Bill-Gates rich.” He urged students to turn their interest in science toward helping create more-efficient solar panels; appliances that don’t drain power from outlets when not in use; stronger and more lightweight building materials, such as carbon nanotubes; heating systems that generate warmth using sunlight; new farming practices that reflect the true cost of raising meat versus vegetables—no more $1 Big Macs and $5 salads, he said—and batteries that last significantly longer than those currently used in most devices.
“Traditional environmentalists want you to do less, but that message is not very popular,” said Nye. “The key to the future is not doing less; it’s in finding ways to do more with less.”
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