Bill Nye is rallying a “small minority” group of Americans to get out and vote — the fraction of society he says embraces “critical thinking over baseless anecdotes.”
Nye, who became a household name in the 1990s with his popular show “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” has been active this election season criticizing Republican presidential candidates who doubt the dangers of global warming. Most scientists blame carbon emissions, largely from burning fossil fuels, for driving manmade climate change.
Nye has antagonized Republicans in recent years by allying himself with President Obama and dismissing those who have questions about man’s contributions to global warming as “deniers.”
Speaking to a gathering of non-religious believers on the Mall in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Nye stressed the importance of taking the environment and climate into account at the ballot box in November.
“Get out there and vote,” the science educator and environmental activist said Saturday at the Reason Rally in the nation’s capital, which attracted thousands of athiests. “Everybody this year, no matter what happens, please take the environment and climate into account when you vote.”
“And with all this I acknowledge we here at this gathering are in the minority — a small minority,” Nye continued. “Although the fraction of our society that embraces reason over unreasonable claims that embraces critical thinking over baseless anecdotes and science over anti-science — we are growing but we must keep in mind that we are a minority. Underdogs in the fight for reason.”
“There’s still a very strong contingent of people who are in denial about climate change,” Nye said in an interview with CNN in April, referring to presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump and then-candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich. “And if you don’t believe me, look at the the three people currently running for president of the world’s most influential country who are … climate change deniers,” he added.
In the past Trump has called climate change a “hoax,” and said the “concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
Nye also had a message for Americans who are feeling “cynical” about voting because they don’t like the choices in the 2016 election: “Just sit down and shut up!”
“Let the rest of us who want to participate and want to influence the future get out there and vote,” he said. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, a surrogate for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, also spoke at the event.
At an oil and gas conference in Bismark, N.D., last month, Trump threatened to, as president, put an end to U.S. participation in the Paris Climate Agreement, which had long been a major legacy goal for President Obama. “We’re going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement … and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs,” Trump said.
While the Paris deal is non-binding, it obliges the U.S. to provide billions of dollars for a fund to help other countries combat climate change.
In reply to Trump’s comment, Nye tweeted, “Seems that @realDonaldTrump is unaware that everyone on Earth shares the same air.”
Seems that @realDonaldTrump is unaware that everyone on Earth shares the same air. https://t.co/fxdZ80dge1
— Bill Nye (@BillNye) May 29, 2016
“You have a large fraction of us who have gone along with deniers, hardly questioning their inane argument and obstructionist policy proposals,” Nye said Saturday. “Furthermore, climate denial is generational. Very few young people embrace these silly ideas,” Nye said.
