Bill Nye to Tucker Carlson: Humans Cause '100 Percent' of Climate Change
Bill Nye, a mechanical engineer and "science guy" television personality, appeared on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Monday evening to discuss climate change. Pushed by Fox host Tucker Carlson on exactly what percentage of climate change is caused by humans, Nye gave a very unscientific answer — 100 percent. He said climate "deniers" suffer "cognitive dissonance," but maybe it is the "science guy" himself who cannot accept that there is reason to doubt climate change.
When Carlson asked, "to what extent is human activity responsible for speeding up [climate change]?" Nye responded, "One hundred percent. Humans are causing it to happen catastrophically fast."
The problem with this answer should be obvious from a scientific perspective. During the show, Carlson acknowledged that the climate is changing, and even that human activity might be contributing to it. But as he explained, "the core question from what I can tell is, why the change? Is it part of the endless cycle of climate change or is human activity causing it?"
If human activity has an impact, then to what degree? Carlson asked, "Is 100 percent of climate change caused by human activity? Is it 23.4 percent? It's settled science, please tell me to what degree human activity is responsible."
Rather than pointing to a specific number, Nye hemmed and hawed. He argued that "instead of happening on timescales of millions of years, or let's say 15,000 years, it's happening on the timescale of decades, and now years." But the self-described "science guy" dodged the fundamental question — to what degree is human action exacerbating climate change? And how can we be sure?
Bill Nye, a mechanical engineer and "science guy" television personality, appeared on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Monday evening to discuss climate change. Pushed by Fox host Tucker Carlson on exactly what percentage of climate change is caused by humans, Nye gave a very unscientific answer — 100 percent. He said climate "deniers" suffer "cognitive dissonance," but maybe it is the "science guy" himself who cannot accept that there is reason to doubt climate change.
When Carlson asked, "to what extent is human activity responsible for speeding up [climate change]?" Nye responded, "One hundred percent. Humans are causing it to happen catastrophically fast."
The problem with this answer should be obvious from a scientific perspective. During the show, Carlson acknowledged that the climate is changing, and even that human activity might be contributing to it. But as he explained, "the core question from what I can tell is, why the change? Is it part of the endless cycle of climate change or is human activity causing it?"
If human activity has an impact, then to what degree? Carlson asked, "Is 100 percent of climate change caused by human activity? Is it 23.4 percent? It's settled science, please tell me to what degree human activity is responsible."
Rather than pointing to a specific number, Nye hemmed and hawed. He argued that "instead of happening on timescales of millions of years, or let's say 15,000 years, it's happening on the timescale of decades, and now years." But the self-described "science guy" dodged the fundamental question — to what degree is human action exacerbating climate change? And how can we be sure?