When Bill Nye first hit TV in the 1990's, he was an inoffensive, nerdy guy playing a real scientist (he has a degree in mechanical engineering). He was a mildly entertaining science popularizer and was a hit with a certain segment of science nerds.

If he had kept that persona, he probably would have slipped into obscurity. Instead, he has reinvented himself as a the left's favorite science guy, largely because of his outrageous advocacy of global warming and gender issues.

On Friday, Nye appeared on MSNBC hawking his favorite theories on global warming and targeting those who disagree with him.

Breitbart:

Nye said, “Only 40 percent of people in the U.S. think that Congress should be addressing this and that’s because certain conservative groups, especially from the fossil fuel industry, have been very successful in introducing the idea that scientific uncertainty, plus or minus two percent, is the same as plus or minus 100 percent.”

He continued, “There’s a lot of emphasis from conservatives on what are writ-large states rights. Just watch out, conservatives, if states rights include California, Illinois, New York — these places that, where people voted in a progressive fashion — watch out if all those places start to address climate change and then impose economic sanctions, either overtly or by default, on places that have not embraced the work that needs to be done. Then you’ll end up with this states rights working the other way.”

Nye did not mention exactly what sort of "work" needed to be done on climate change, which is just as well. As for "economic sanctions" imposed on one state by another, it would be an interesting exercise. Thirty states voted for Trump and 31 are controlled by Republicans. If Nye wants blue states to start an economic war they have lost before the first shot is fired.

He added, “We’ve got to remind people that we’re all in this together. The people I think about all the time are what are eloquently stated as the hillbillies. We want to engage everybody. Not working to address climate change is in no one’s best interest. It is not in the best interest, especially of your children and grandchildren. A couple of times you mentioned that I am against the president and so on. I’m not especially against the president. I just think he’s gotten himself surrounded by people who are willing to mortgage the future, to let the people who are coming into the workforce now pay for the future. This is true, not just with regard to the national debt, which will almost certainly increase the same way it tripled under the beloved Ronald Reagan, not only will that national debt increase, but the climate debt, in a sense, what we have to do to address climate change, will be more and more difficult to pay back or pay down.”

If he gets to refer to "hillbillies" on national TV, we can call him a pointy-headed climate hysteric.

In worrying about the national debt, Nye betrays a shocking ignorance of how we would go about bringing it down. I daresay that most liberal social programs - including every program created to deal with climate change - would be cut to the bone. So, in a sense, Nye is advocating we do nothing about the problem - a curious position for such an hysteric.

If Nye wants war, he can have it anytime.