Science guy

I went out to a movie this afternoon, *Bill Nye: Science Guy*. It is a documentary about what the host of a popular kids science show is doing now.

The show ended a while ago. Even so, when science teachers need a break they still play an episode for the class. Nye joked during a convention of science teachers that he taught many of their classes. Nye is also still highly popular with the youth. Frequently when he is in public kids pull out phones and ask for a selfie with him. He is good at leaning in, smiling, and moving on.

So the movie talks about his show, how it developed, and what it did. It also talked about his family, showing family movies that include his parents, brother, and sister and what they are doing now. We even see a session with a researcher asking him what fame has done to him.

And we see what he is doing now. And that is trying to combat the strong antagonism to science in our society. That antagonism comes from two sources, those denying evolution and those denying climate change.

We see Nye go to the Creation Museum and debate its founder Ken Ham. Everyone thought Nye easily won the debate – everyone except Ham’s supporters. All Ham had to do was bellow, “But that’s just wrong!”

Nye went to the Ark Encounter, another of Ham’s projects and tried another debate. Nye was criticized for that because afterword Ham told his followers we’re being attacked by Nye and donations shot up. Nye lamented the garbage this place feeds our kids…

Nye went off to Greenland. He saw the effects of climate change and spent time at the research facility that drills into the ice cap (down to two miles) and analyses the ice and air trapped in it to show climate history and how the level of carbon dioxide correlates with temperature.

Nye tries to engage Joe Bastardi, Meteorologist for Fox News and climate change denier. What was interesting during these scenes was watching Bastardi’s son Garrett, who is in college studying Meteorology and grew up watching Nye’s show. A little bit of internal conflict there.

One more thing Nye is doing is preside over the Planetary Society, which advocates for humans in space. This organization was started by Carl Sagan, whom Nye admires. The Society floundered after Sagan died until Nye took over. Sagan proposed the idea of a light sail. We see a clip where Sagan presents the idea to Johnny Carson. But the one attempt in Sagan’s life failed when the spaceship carrying it fell into the sea. Under Nye the Society got the idea going again and actually got a light sail launched.