"Hey Bill Nye, What Keeps You Up at Night?"
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This week's question arrives via Big Think producer Elizabeth -- What's Bill Nye frightened of? In two words: climate change.
Bill considers its potential consequences a major cause for concern. He also feels a whole lot of frustration watching American leaders dawdle rather than commit to taking action to prevent (or at least prepare for) its effects. This is why his work as CEO of the Planetary Society is so rewarding. At the Planetary Society, he can help support efforts such as the Europa mission so we humans can find a place to live after we mess this rock up so much it becomes uninhabitable.
Until then, climate change will remain the thing that keeps Bill Nye up at night.
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BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY:
Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life. In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle's home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live." This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®" was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING-TV, Seattle's NBC affiliate. While working on the Science Guy show, Nye won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. The show won 18 Emmys in five years. In between creating the shows, he wrote five children's books about science, including his latest title, “Bill Nye's Great Big Book of Tiny Germs." Nye is the host of three currently-running television series. “The 100 Greatest Discoveries" airs on the Science Channel. “The Eyes of Nye" airs on PBS stations across the country. Bill's latest project is hosting a show on Planet Green called “Stuff Happens." It's about environmentally responsible choices that consumers can make as they go about their day and their shopping. Also, you'll see Nye in his good-natured rivalry with his neighbor Ed Begley. They compete to see who can save the most energy and produce the smallest carbon footprint. Nye has 4,000 watts of solar power and a solar-boosted hot water system. There's also the low water use garden and underground watering system. It's fun for him; he's an engineer with an energy conservation hobby. Nye is currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest organization.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Elizabeth Rodd: Hi Bill! So you know me as a producer at Big Think and my question for you is my favorite question for all of our guests, which is, “What keeps you up at night?”
Bill Nye: What keeps me up at night? Climate change. Climate change keeps me up at night. Everywhere I look there are opportunities to be addressing climate change and everywhere I look we are not doing it. And by we, I mean not just humankind writ large, but my United States where I grew up, where I went to engineering school, where I worked as an engineer trying to make the world better for somebody. And we are missing all these opportunities. It’s just crazy-making. And this is, by the way, why I’m very proud to be the CEO of the Planetary Society. We are accomplishing something in space. We are getting things done in space and I claim that space exploration is good for everybody. So it’s not the Apollo era. We are not devoting 10 percent of the world’s largest government funding to this one thing. We’re spending about 0.4 percent. It would be nice if it were 0.5 percent, but we’re spending a reasonable amount of our intellect and treasure on learning about the cosmos. And the Planetary Society works very hard to direct that expenditure in what we think is the best, most efficient way. Today, by the way, right now is the press conference about what instruments will be put on the Europa mission. This is a spacecraft going to the moon of Jupiter called Europa looking to see if it’s habitable. Is there a chance there are living things there? Such a discovery would change the world...
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