Bill Nye Quotes (1955-)

“When people, some of them very intellectual, claim that evolution is not true, I get a little nervous.”

“We want to get young people excited about inventing so they'll be future inventors, and change the world.”

“How could there be billions of stars more distant than 6,000 years, if the world is only 6,000 years old?”

“The Earth has never warmed this fast. We need to see how much we can change the world in the next 20 years.”

“The Earth is just a speck of sand in the universe. And there's no cavalry coming over the hill to rescue it.”

“When you have a portion of the population that doesn't believe in (evolution) it holds everybody back, really.”

“I might be trying to change the world, but I also better be funny while I'm doing it. I've never lost sight of that.”

“I will assert that U.S. economic growth is in lockstep with science and technology and, by extension, science education.”

“Nature is bottom up. It's compelling and complex, and it fills me with joy and it's inconsistent with the top down view.”

“I can be educational, but if I'm not funny and entertaining, too, who's going to come and listen to me or watch me on TV.”

“When you compare Mars to Earth, and Venus to Earth, you can see the problem [earthlings face]. We do not want to become Venus.”

“It is this fragile nature of the earth's atmosphere that I want everybody to appreciate. It's what I call your place in space.”

“I'm an educator. You do what you have to do to get what you are saying across, and if that means being funny, that's what I do.”

“The single biggest impact a person can have on the Earth is driving a car, either driving a fuel-efficient car or just driving it less.”

“The more we learn about volcanoes, the more we learn about the earth. Learning about the earth is more important than it has ever been.”

“When people start rejecting the fundamental understanding of the world that scientific process brings you, well, that's bad in my opinion.”

“I encourage you to look at the world around you and think about how it works. My friends, you can go forth and make this world a better place.”

“Carbon dioxide has never entered the atmosphere so fast. In 1976 the carbon dioxide level was at 0.03 percent. We've lived through a change to 0.04 percent.”

“Please, you don't want to raise a generation of science students who don't understand how we know our place in the cosmos, who don't understand natural law.”

“It's not cool ... or it's not cool enough. The world is getting warmer, that's all there is to it. I want you guys to stop this. I want you to change the world.”

“People like to grab stuff, hold things in their hands and make things happen. Children’s museums are ideal for these kinds of things. There’s nothing more fun, to me.”

“What we want to do is not just less, but do more for less. I want the United States to lead the world in this. The more we mess around with this denial, the more we lose."”

“The passion and beauty and joy of science is that we humans have invented a process to understand the universe in a way that is true for everyone. We are finding universal truths.”

“Without clouds we wouldn't have rain. Without rain there is no water, no crops and no food for you and me. Humans would not exist without the sun, heat, water and oxygen from plants.”

“If we continue to eschew science ... we are not going to move forward. We will not embrace natural laws. We will not make discoveries. We will not invent and innovate and stay ahead.”

“We have overwhelming evidence that the climate is changing. That you cannot tie any one event to that is not the same as doubt about the whole thing. There is no debate in the scientific community.”

“I say to the grownups, 'If you want to deny evolution and live in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we've observed in the universe that's fine. But don't make your kids do it.'”

“"The problem is we have this thin atmosphere and a lot of people trying to breathe it. It's this thinness of the atmosphere that has allowed humankind to accidentally change the climate of the planet.”

“I went to Monsanto, and I spent a lot of time with the scientists there, and I have revised my outlook, and I'm very excited about telling the world. When you’re in love, you want to tell the world.”

“The invention process is a great exercise for kids. It compels them to define an actual problem, formulate an original solution, develop a product, and share the results or products with their friends and peers.”

“You don’t need a PhD in climate science to understand what’s going on, that we have overwhelming evidence that the climate is changing. That you cannot tie any one event to that is not the same as doubt about the whole thing.”

“It will take more time for the change we have to effect, but we don't have more time. The carbon dioxide on Earth, just in the last four years, has increased from .03 percent to .04 percent. And the change will have a significant impact on everyone.”

“Spacecraft sent to Mars, Saturn, Mercury, the moon, comets, and asteroids have been making incredible discoveries, with more to come from recent launches to Jupiter, the moon, and Mars. The country needs more of these robotic space exploration missions, not less.”

“I just want to remind us all there are billions of people in the world who are deeply religious, who get enriched by the wonderful sense of community by their religion. But these same people do not embrace the extraordinary view that the Earth is somehow only 6,000 years old.”

“There are major issues that people - as taxpayers and voters - will have to make informed decisions on in the near future. They will need to understand the science and the ethical considerations to form their opinions. Some of these are issues that will affect humanity for decades to come.”

“Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology. It's like, it's very much analogous to trying to do geology without believing in tectonic plates. You're just not gonna get the right answer. Your whole world is just gonna be — a mystery. Instead of an exciting place.”

“I don't want people memorizing the planets or counting how many plants there are in the world. But I want them to know that the world is 4.56 billion years old, and I want them to know how we know it is 4.56 billion years old. It's wonderful and exciting, and it creates a reverence for nature. When I see people reject all that, it's kind of creepy.”

“I stand by my assertions that although you can know what happens to any individual species that you modify, you cannot be certain what will happen to the ecosystem. Also, we have a strange situation where we have malnourished fat people. It’s not that we need more food. It’s that we need to manage our food system better. So when corporations seek government funding for genetic modification of food sources, I stroke my chin.”

“Was it appropriate to jail the guys from Enron? ... Was it appropriate to jail people from the cigarette industry who insisted that this addictive product was not addictive, and so on? ... In these cases, for me, as a taxpayer and voter, the introduction of this extreme doubt about climate change is affecting my quality of life as a public citizen. ... That there is a chilling effect on scientists who are in extreme doubt about climate change, I think that is good.”