Bill Nye tells students they 'have to change the world' in talk about climate change
Bill Nye speaks at the 2024 Rhodes Lecture presented by Barrett, The Honors College at the Tempe Center for the Arts on March 12. Photo by Samantha Chow/Arizona State University
Climate change may be a complex problem, but scientist, inventor and humorist Bill Nye broke it down into simple terms Tuesday at the Tempe Center for the Arts.
Nye, who was presenting the Rhodes Lecture as the 2024 John J. Rhodes Chair — put on by Arizona State University’s Barrett, The Honors College — told the audience a story about how he went to the 1964 world's fair in New York with his parents.
The fair included a giant board that kept track of the Earth’s population, and during the fair, it changed from 2,999,999,999 to 3 billion.
“Well,” Nye said, “as of right around lunchtime today, that number is somewhat bigger. It’s well over 8 billion. So, in my lifetime, it’s almost tripled. And that’s it, you guys. We have a very thin atmosphere, and 8 billion of us are breathing it and burning it. And that is making the world warmer.”
Nye, best known as “Bill Nye, The Science Guy,” spoke for more than 30 minutes at the event, which was titled “Climate Change and You,” and also included a panel discussion moderated by Tara Williams, dean of the Barrett Honors College.
Nye and the panel, which included Amber Wutich, President’s Professor and director of ASU’s Center for Global Health, and Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the Gila River Indian Community, addressed several topics that touch on climate change, including water use and overconsumption.
Nye noted that in the “audience’s lifetime,” the percentage of the atmosphere that is carbon dioxide, the most prominent greenhouse gas causing global warming, has increased from 0.03% to 0.04%. That seemingly tiny change, he said, “is changing the world.”
Wutich said overconsumption is playing a role in climate change, as well.
“We can afford to have this many people, but not this many people consuming so much,” she said. “And you can’t stop overconsuming by being like, ‘Oh, consume less.’ That does not work.
“Do we know why? Because, as humans, we are prestige builders. And our prestige and our performance of identity today is completely based around our consumption. Think about the car you drive, the house you live in, the clothes that you’re wearing. That’s how we show who we are.”
Wutich said humans can consciously consume less, but Nye and the panelists agreed that tackling climate change has to come collectively rather than individually.
After taking a sip of water from a recycled bottle, Nye said he would recycle the bottle and not waste the water but, “We must disabuse ourselves of the notion that if we just recycle water bottles, if we just recycle our newspapers, then everything will be fine. That’s just not enough, you guys.”
Nye said people often ask him what they can do about climate change. He tells them two things: First, talk about it.
“If we were talking about climate change the way we talk about a bunch of other stuff, we’d be getting (things) done,” he said.
Second, he said, is to vote.
The issue of water scarcity repeatedly came up in the panel discussion. Lewis said solving for the problem must be a communal response from the 22 Native tribes in Arizona, and other state, county and city governments and agricultural leaders.
He also said leaders need to treat land and water as Native Americans have for centuries, as the “creator’s gift to us.”
“We live respectfully with our water, our land, all the living beings and the animals as well,” Lewis said. “When we’re looking at this contemporarily, wasting water would be the worst thing to do. Disrespecting land is the worst thing you can do.”
Wutich said water scarcity disproportionately impacts poorer communities and asked the audience if they knew the saying, “Water runs uphill toward money.”
She said water-insecure communities have less capacity to solve problems with sophisticated engineering and are more likely to rely on social infrastructure, such as borrowing water from a neighbor or buying unregulated water from vendors selling from a truck or pushcart.
“These are the kinds of things that Gov. Lewis is telling us about, to nurture the land and to nurture our neighbors,” Wutich said. “What we’re finding is that, really, the heart of a successful response to water insecurity is resting in the social infrastructure and how we treat each other. This is the commitment and reciprocity that is so essential to surviving.”
Wutich touted the creation of the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative, part of Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at ASU. In November of 2022, the state of Arizona invested $40 million in ASU to lead this multi-year initiative that helps ensure a regional thriving future with a secure future water supply. Part of the Water Innovation Initiative is Arizona Water for All, which works with Arizona’s most water-insecure households and communities to improve water security.
Wutich, who leads Water for All, said the program is accepting Barrett College Fellows to help with research.
“These are important things that anyone sitting in this audience and associated with ASU can do now,” she said.
During the discussion, Williams asked the panelists what role universities and university students can play in addressing climate change and water scarcity.
Nye, again, put it simply:
“You guys have to change the world,” he said. “You have to do this whole thing.”
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