On Sunday's edition of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, the show's eponymous host recruited renowned science communicator Bill Nye to help highlight the seriousness of global warming with a simple experiment—and let's just say the tone was a little different to his usual family-friendly fare.
Oliver, discussing the "Green New Deal," said that despite the challenges of the proposed stimulus package which aims to address climate change and economic inequality, it has succeeded in kick-starting a debate about the issue in the country.
"But that won't mean anything unless that talk now turns to actions and putting a price on carbon could potentially be one of them, although let me reiterate, it will not be enough on its own by a long-shot," Oliver said, referencing the idea of a carbon tax which has been proposed as one way to reduce fossil fuel emissions.
"We're going to need a lot of different policies working in tandem and we have to take action right now," the host warned. "But you don't have to just take that from me. Instead, I'm happy to say that Bill Nye has actually agreed to help drive the urgency home at this point by actually doing one of his enjoyable, light-hearted demonstrations. So Bill, please, please, do you have a fun experiment for us?"
The show then cut to a segment with Nye—safety glasses on—standing behind a desk, on top of which stood a globe, a fire extinguisher a bucket of sand and a fire blanket
"By the end of this century, if emissions keep rising, the average temperature on Earth could go up another four to eight degrees. What I'm saying is the planet's on f****** fire," Nye said while nonchalantly setting the globe alight with a blowtorch which had been hidden under the desk.
"There are a lot of things we could do to put it out, are any of them free?" he asked, gesturing towards the other items on the desk. "No of course not, nothing's free you idiots, grow the f*** up. You're not children any more. I didn't mind explaining photosynthesis to you when you were 12 but you're adults now and this is an actual crisis. Got it? Safety glasses off motherf******."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Aristos is a Newsweek science reporter with the London, U.K., bureau. He reports on science and health topics, including; animal, ... Read more
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