April 17, 2017 5:32 pm

Bill Nye Leads the Fight Against Climate Change On StarTalk All-Stars

StarTalk All-Stars is here to help you fight against climate change and discuss the future of climate science. Bill Nye returns to the hosting chair, joined by climate scientist Dr. Radley Horton and comic co-host Chuck Nice to answer fan-submitted Cosmic Queries on climate change.

Photo of Bill Nye, Chuck Nice and Radley Horton in the StarTalk All-Stars Studio, by Ben Ratner.

Shown: Bill Nye, Chuck Nice and Radley Horton in the StarTalk All-Stars studio. Credit: Ben Ratner.

During the episode, numerous topics came up under the umbrella of climate change but a few conversation threads really interested me.

To start, I really enjoyed the discussion on creating a sustainable fashion industry. Climate-conscious clothes are a progressive fashion trend I can definitely get behind.

You’ll hear our group discuss fibers being made from sustainable crops, like bamboo, and nanoparticles embedded in clothing. Bill also explains his newly coined term “3D weaving” that explains “additive manufacturing” being used by Nike to make shoes, which only uses the exact amount of material needed to make a specific shoe, eliminating the problem of excess fabric waste.

Another part of the episode I liked was the useful tips Bill offered to make your life more sustainable. When a fan asks about starting up a personal solar farm, Bill comes back with easy things you can do to make your life a little greener. It’s great to hear useful tips, but to hear it from a scientist who has implemented the ideas into his own life is even better!

I also enjoyed Radley revealing more details about his background in climate science. You’ll learn about his areas of expertise and if he prefers computer models or field research. Radley also sheds light on who makes up the “98% of scientists” statistic that we see in a lot studies and surveys.

You’ll also hear discussion on computer modeling, Greenland’s ice sheet, teaching sustainability in school, the northern hemisphere Jetstream, and extreme weather events that are tied to human-caused climate change.

All that, plus, after listening to this episode, I was eager to do my own visual research to see the changes on Earth that Radley, Bill, and Chuck were discussing.

I came across NASA Images of Change. Here’s a description of the gallery:

“Our Images of Change gallery features images of different locations on planet Earth, showing change over time periods ranging from centuries to days. Some of these effects are related to climate change, some are not. Some document the effects of urbanization, or the ravage of natural hazards such as fires and floods. All show our planet in a state of flux.”

It was a great tool for me to see the rapidly changing world we live in, plus it was interactive! Check it out here: https://climate.nasa.gov/state_of_flux

Want to get smarter about climate change? Then please join us tomorrow night for Combating Climate Change, with Bill Nye at 7pm EDT right here on our website, as well as on our new All-Stars channel on iTunes Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. And if you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free at 7pm, too.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen

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