The TH Interview: Bill Nye the Science Guy
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 01.23.08
He’s one of the world’s foremost scientific educators and comedians, and if you’ve spent time in a science classroom recently there’s a good chance you’ve been exposed to the magic of Bill Nye. I caught up with him recently, and learned what he has to say about the growing green movement in America, his friendly eco-competition with neighbor Ed Begley Jr., the current group of presidential candidates, and why swing dancing (yes, swing dancing) is his favorite form of eco-friendly exercise. But mostly I found that he’s as fun in person as he is on TV. Enjoy!
TreeHugger: So many of us grew up watching you on television or have heard about your friendly eco-competition with Ed Begley. Can you tell us a bit about what you’re up to now, and how you’re making your own life greener?
Bill Nye: Well, I have this house that I keep working to make greener and greener… I’ve got a 4 Kilowatt solar system to run my electricity, I pre-heat my hot water with a solar energy system, I’ve got a low water use garden, grow my own vegetables, and instead of driving I ride my bicycle. In fact, when we’re done talking I’m going to get on my bike and ride over to a meeting I have to attend. And I don’t even go to the gym for exercise anymore. Instead I go swing dancing! I’ve found that it’s just an incredible form of exercise, and the girl to guy ratio is terrific in these kinds of places. So I say to every man in America, get into swing dancing! I mean, you’ll find that there are literally loads of women just waiting for you to grab them and dance with them. It’s incredible!
TH: Yourself and Ed Begley Jr. are neighbors who have been engaged in a friendly sort of neighborhood eco-competition. Who would you say is winning the eco-smackdown between Bill and Ed?
BN: I’m crushing him! Well, maybe not quite crushing him… But he certainly has motivated me to do better. I just finished putting in one of these Pergolas in my backyard, and the slats are even made of recycled plastic that’s expected to last like 300 years… So I hope that will be long enough…
TH: I’m willing to bet you get the chance to try out all kinds of fun new stuff before the rest of us… What great new eco-toys have you had the chance to test out recently?
BN: Well, when I was out walking past Ed’s house I saw that the folks from BMW had brought over this new 7-series that runs on hydrogen and it was incredible. You just press a button and you’re off and driving. And not that I’m saying hydrogen is the answer either, but it’s these small steps that all add up. The thing is where the innovation is going to come from… And being a patriot I’d just as soon see American engineers be the one’s to figure this whole thing out, though it’s certainly not necessary for that to be the case… And don’t you worry a bit, the truth is that somebody is going to get really, really rich off of all of this. But like I said; being a patriot I’d just as soon see that be Americans rather than someone else.
TH: Given the fact that environmentalism in America has a history of often running hot and cold, where do you see the environmental movement heading from here?
BN: Well, environmentalism in the past was constantly focusing on asking people to simply do less. And perhaps rightly so; but the truth is that to be successful we have to find ways to do more with less… And that’s why emerging fields like nano-technology are so promising. You’re talking about materials that are 10,000 times the strength of steel but weigh just one-sixth of it. Imagine if you could get it to where they were just 10 times the strength of steel and you can see where the potential lies…
TH: What do you think are some of the biggest problems facing both the environmental movement and science itself in America today?
BN: How about the fact that we have presidential candidates who don’t believe in evolution?! Just look at the guy who won the other night in Michigan [Mitt Romney]… I mean, how can you have someone running for President of the United States of America who doesn’t believe in the overarching theme in all of life science? He likes his antibiotics and he likes his cell phone, but he doesn't believe in evolution?
TH: So which candidate has the best handle on science?
BN: None of them do. But you can’t expect a presidential candidate to know everything. The problem is that if you elect someone who doesn’t believe in evolution then they’re going to go out and hire people who are scientifically illiterate to be a part of their administration, and that’s where you get into trouble. But those who do believe in evolution are likely to hire people who are scientifically literate and who will give them the advice they need to make rational decisions.
TH: Why do you think Americans struggle with basic scientific realities like global warming and evolution?
BN: Books have been written… But I really can’t tell you. The truth is that my friends in Europe just can’t believe (the lack of scientific acceptance) though. And they simply can’t understand how the richest, most powerful country on earth can be led by someone who doesn’t believe in basic science.
And we don’t have a true free market here in America either… If we want to have that we have to let the price of gasoline be what it should be. And that would certainly make all of these other technologies be more attractive to businesses, and make people reconsider the choices they make as well.
TH: If there was one popular myth about the environment that you could personally eliminate, what would it be?
BN: That global warming is just a myth.
TH: And maybe you can give us one great eco-experiment or investigation that you can suggest our readers try at home to better understand environmental issues?
BN: You know, I did some research into what were the most heavily traded commodities in the world. The first, of course, is oil… But the second is coffee, which surprised me. It’s not something you need, like wheat or rice, but something you can choose to buy… So I’d ask you to keep a running record of how much you spend on coffee and bottled water for a week or even a month, and compare them. It’s amazing what you’ll find… And if you can convince people to change some really basic habits you can really change the world… Just think of the enormous impact coffee consumption has on the planet.
Bill Nye is currently working on an original series for Discovery’s upcoming Planet Green television network.
Bill will have thought to make a tour world-wide, because to many of us it would enchant to us to attend some of his conferences. Mainly to listen what must say about the Green Movement !!!
Very cool stuff.
I especially am behind the idea of ... Americans should be the leaders in innovation. We used to be there, now all the fgn companies are coming out with cool stuff and we have to catch up. The ways to dig ourselves out of the economic hole we are in is within our grasp, I'm sure.
Even if GM said "sorry we crushed them folks, here they are again," and re-introduced the EV1 with better batteries and a couple of body styles, it would be successful.
I mean the engineering is all done.
Bill Nye is great. I grew up watching him make science interesting, and now I'm glad he's entered this arena.
Bill Nye ROCKS!!!
always in his own unique way.
Wanting the US to be the one to find the solutions to the energy problems is not being patriotic, it is being nationalist.
A patriot is one who supports the ideas behind the country no matter what, a nationalist is one who supports the country no matter what.
I hope you provided a link to the story about Mitt Romney for clarification as you don't seem to correct Mr. Nye about Romney's stance on evolution. The story points out that Romney DOES believe in evolution, and even opposed teaching intelligent design in the classroom. The article quotes him as saying to the effect that evolution should be taught in the science class, and any other aspect such as what drives it would be more appropriate to a philosophy/religion class. Romney is also backing research into fuel efficiency and alternative energy. Not saying he is the most green candidate, but give him and honest look before dismissing him entirely.
I'm not a Romney fan either, but clearly he was confusing Romney with Huckabee who in fact does not believe in evolution.
Huckabee won in Iowa, maybe the confusion was Michigan vs Iowa.
Either way, his point is the same... it's a shame that someone who is so scientifically deficient can do so well in American politics, (not that that is a surprise given two terms of G. W. Bush).
With regard to the issue of coffee, much more energy is wasted keeping coffee warm than in the initial boiling of water to make it. If everyone in the U.S. who makes coffee at home or at as part of their business would simply put it in a thermos instead of letting it sit for hours on the coffee appliance's hot plate or steep in a electric large coffee pot we could save hundreds of millions, if not billions in energy costs. At the risk of being redundant here is a post I put on this site previously on the issue.
I have recently been doing some research on saving energy at my home and I found this energy cost calculator at this website that I found to be very useful.
http://members.tripod.com/~masterslic/appliance.html
Here's an example of what I found out using the calculator,
I looked at my coffee maker. A typical 10 cup coffee maker uses 900 watts. I would usually make coffee in the morning and leave the coffee maker on to keep the coffee warm until an automatic shut-off switch would turn it off after two hours. Calculating this usage it turned out that I was spending $13.92 a month or $167.23 a year to keep my coffee warm.
According to the calculator that is 1.8 kilowatts a day, over a years time that is 657 kilowatts a year. If this is multiplyed by 2.19 lbs of CO2 per kilowatt (for electricity generated by a diesel powered generator) it turns out that 2 hours a day with the coffee maker on over a year's time is 1438 lbs of C02 a year.
In order to correct this I bought a thermos carafe ($6.00) and started to put my coffee into the thermos after it was brewed. This allows me to turn off the coffee maker quickly. It takes about 15 minutes to brew the coffee and get around to putting it into the thermos; my costs were reduced to $1.74 a month or $20.90 a year. That's a savings of $12.18 a month or $146.33 a year.
CO2 emissions are reduced to 179 lbs of C02 so I have made 1259 lbs reduction in my CO2 emissions.
Next, I tried it on a coffee pot at my son's school. Their coffee maker uses 1090 watts and they leave the coffee maker on for 8 hours a day. This turns out to be about $824.00 a year to keep the coffee warm!
The CO2 emissions for this is 4782 lbs or over 2 tons of CO2!
And if you own a store:
I noticed a local store that uses two coffee makers that are likely in 1090 watt range and they are on for at least 10 hours a day. I did the calculations for the two and it came out to $2,000 dollars a year on energy costs!
The CO2 emissions a year are over 4 tons!
In order to save this money and reduce the CO2 emissions stores can buy high quality stainless steel pump thermoses for $50.00 to $60.00 each and save a substantial amount of money each year and recduce the emission of tons of CO2 into the air.
Here is an example of a stainless steel pump thermos,
http://www.thermos.com/Product_detail.aspx?CatCode=PUMP&SubcategoryID=8&ProductID=517#
And here is the cost of the thermos,
http://www.helpfindit.com/cgi-win/dream55.exe/~i058000215478
There may be better thermoses out there, this one is just for an example.
(Note: I live on an island in the South Pacific where electricity is .25 cents a kilowatt hour so you may not save as much, but I'm sure there will still be worthwhile savings and reductions in CO2.)
Try the calculator out and see how much you will save using a thermos.
Well, given that uneducated people tend to breed at a higher rate than college graduates (mostly because of a head start, teen pregnancy hinders collegiate entry, college postpones family life by 4-8 years, also ignorance leads to more unsafe sex...) it's not surprising that the ignorant can outvote the brilliant. Ignorance breeds faster...Darwin in action, eh? This, though, points to another sad trend in America...our crumbling school system. We are falling behind at an alarming rate.
A over-50, never-married guy looking for girls (at swing dances)? Well, we can all extrapolate from the info. Good thing he's got trees to hug!
Brad, there was a movie about that called Idiocracy. Basically, a prediction for the United States in 500 years.
I have been searching for a definition of "Going Green" to use in an article I am publishing for local education on "Going Green". Can you provide definition I can use.
In response to your coffee ideas:
Cool!
But I think what really needs to be taken into account is the energy used to grow and transport coffee. Your ideas are good ones, but by supporting organically grown and managed coffee farmers and sales you can do even more to help reduce the overall impact.
Perhaps try going without coffee once a week or only drink it when you really feel you need a boost. I know people take their coffee very seriously so I don't want to get too involved, just some ideas...
Bill Nye, your an inspiration to all Americans who are not yet enviromentaly involved. Your great on T.V. and helpful, too. When we watch your movies we`re learning how science truely affects our world and daily life in a funny way. That is so amazing that you are intrestined in science enough to take it off screen into the real world,setting an example for us all. Thank for the good advice!! Thanks treehugger for the interview info.!!
I love Bill Nye, I grew up with him as well, the only thing I don't necessarily agree with is his view on evolution. I am a God fearing man and I am also going to school for Electrical Engineering. I do believe science is amazing and I know how it can help us to save this great Earth that God put us in charge of, but just because I don't believe in evolution, doesn't mean I don't understand science. I hope more people embrace science and God. I don't need to think I came from a monkey to realize that people and things adapt to a changing world.
Evolution doesn't say people came from monkeys.
I remember watching Bill Nye back in 3rd-4th grade, Im 21 now attending college and this is the first i've heard of him since he stopped his show. In a comical way most of my peers, environmentally conscious or not, still think he's awesome. I kinda hope Bill tries to make a comeback with the environment being his platform, I'm sure it would at least spark some sweet t-shirts at urban outfitters.
For starters: Bill Nye truly is Lincolnish.
Secondly, anyone else get the notion that if we just do what he says--we'd all be ok?
Bill Nye the science guy rocks.
Keep on trucking BIll.
MAYBE MAYBE one day this planet will start to heal.
I hope so..
ED