Last night on Last Week Tonight John Oliver had on the main guy going around shaming climate change deniers of late: American hero Bill Nye, the science guy. Citing recent polling data showing that one if four Americans are skeptical of climate change, Oliver broke out the knives.
“Who gives a sh*t? You don’t need people’s opinion on a fact,” Oliver proclaimed. “You might as well have a poll asking: ‘Which number is bigger, 15 or 5?’ or ‘Do owls exist?’ or ‘Are there hats?'” He added: “The only accurate way to report that one out of four Americans are skeptical of global warming is to say, ‘A poll finds that one in four Americans are wrong about something,'” he added.
Taking exception with the fact that cable news shows usually pit Nye one-on-one against a denier — which creates a statistical illusion — Oliver brought out 96 other scientists to back Nye against 3 climate change deniers, a more representative sample — “in the interest of mathematical balance,” as Oliver put it — of the scientific community on the issue. Enjoy.
