Let Bill Nye Explain How Climate Change Caused Texas Flooding With A Cigarette Analogy

Bill Nye The Science Guy is on the case of the Texas and Oklahoma flooding that has destroyed local infrastructure and housing. The beloved, bowtie-sporting, talking head of pop-science has always enjoyed shaming climate change deniers. Whenever an extreme whether event happens, Nye’s Twitter lights up to highlight the connection between such human behavior and nature’s wrath. His reaction to the Texas and Oklahoma floodings is no exception:

He brings up an interesting point about how climate change has been so politicized. Nye regularly wonders whether forecasters are forbidden from uttering those two words.

Nye stopped by CNN to to speak with Carole Costello, who asked if Nye’s “strategy” in tweeting about climate change was to make deniers “freak out.” Nye’s analogy-filled response draws upon the causalty link between cigarettes and cancer:

“Suppose you had somebody running for congressional office in your district who insisted there was no connection between cigarette smoking and cancer. Would you vote for that person? You might, but if this person were adamant — ‘No, the scientists who studied cigarette smoking, they don’t know what…’ — if they were adamant, would you vote for them? And so, in the same way the connection between climate change and human activity is at least as strong as cigarettes and cancer. And so, I just want everybody to keep this in mind: that it’s very reasonable that the floods in Texas, the strengthening storms, especially — the president was in Florida — these things are a result of human activity making things worse. It’s very bad.”

Bill also emphasizes the dollars required to help communities recover from extreme weather disasters. Perhaps this part of the discussion is a strategy. Climate change deniers won’t easily be swayed by emotion. But if these disasters begin to directly effect taxpayers’ pocketbooks, they may start listening.

(Via Mediaite & CNN)