Hey Bill Nye, 'Let's Save Planet Earth before We Move to Mars' #TuesdaysWithBill. | Big Think

'Let's Save Planet Earth before We Move to Mars' #TuesdaysWithBill

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As the public face of science for so many people, Bill Nye frequently encounters people who are eager to explore Mars and establish a human population on the Red Planet. Big Think fan Sam Whitehead wants to know what explains this enthusiasm? We are by our nature explorers, says Nye. Human history is the history of expanding beyond known boarders in search of something else. But our usual enthusiasm for terrestrial adventure does not automatically translate to a martian expedition.

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BILL NYE:

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:

Sam: Hi Bill. My name is Sam. My question for you is why are we trying to live on Mars and re-create Earth there by making an atmosphere and soil and water we can drink and such? Why can't we take those ideas, that motivation and direct it at our own planet that we clearly need the help with? Why is it easier to start fresh on another planet than to get people talking about our own?

Bill Nye: Sam. Sam, you are my man. Sam, you're thinking as I do. I meet a lot of people. I am the CEO of The Planetary Society. We advanced space science and exploration. I encourage you to join. And as I say about The Planetary Society, we are not crazy. You meet a lot of people. I meet a lot of people who want to go to Mars and make it like Earth, just as the very idea that you're questioning. And I think people, first of all, just don't grasp the scale of it. It's a planet. It's a whole planet. It's not a wetland that you can reclaim and build a parking garage on top of, it's a whole planet. Furthermore, this planet where you and I are from is perfectly suited to us. We, our ancestors and their ancestors and so on grew up here tuned to these environments, to these climates that we have here on earth. And so people want to go to Mars in the spirit of adventure. Now, as you may infer from my accent I'm from the United States and a lot of my ancestors came here from Denmark and Europe and they set up shop in what the colony of Massachusetts and then they went all the way across North America through Wyoming, the state of Wyoming and now to the West Coast to Washington state and California. And they did that in this great tradition of a pioneering spirit is keep going, keep expanding, keep spreading out and humankind has done that. Everybody is from Africa. Our ancestors are all from the continent of A...

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