Environmental activist and science educator Bill Nye turned his attention to rhetoric on the campaign trail, scrutinizing Republican presidential candidates for failing to acknowledge a serious problem facing the United States: climate change.
In an interview with CNN published on Friday, when millions worldwide are celebrating Each Day —an annual event to demonstrate support for environmental protection —Nye said while more people are aware that climate change is a serious problem facing the country “than ever before,” we still have a long way to go.
“There’s still a very strong contingent of people who are in denial about climate change,” Nye said. “And if you don’t believe me, look at the three people currently running for president of the world’s most influential country who are … climate change deniers,” he said of the GOP presidential hopefuls Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich.
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However, of all the candidates, Kasich did acknowledged that humans contribute to climate change, but said he is not sure how much.
“I think that man absolutely affects the environment, but as to whether, what the impact is… the overall impact — I think that’s a legitimate debate,” the Ohio governor said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We don’t want to destroy people’s jobs, based on some theory that is not proven.”
But, In 2012, Kasich said the Environmental Protection Agency should not regulate emissions and that states and private companies should work to control the output of carbon emissions.
Cruz and Trump both argue that they don’t believe in climate change. Trump, who has been outspoken on the issue, posted on Twitter, claiming that “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
Trumps’ theory doesn’t sit well with Nye, who called it “lazy-thinking.”
“If only there were 60 people we could just track down who are responsible for everything being screwed up that would be great, but that’s not how it is,” he said. “The world’s getting warmer because there’s 7.3 billion people tying to live the way we live in the developed world … by continuing to burn fossil fuels.”
Khorri Atkinson