Bill Nye blames fossil fuel industry, Congress for deadly Texas flooding

Bill Nye “The Science Guy” said Wednesday that fossil fuel companies and U.S. Congress neglecting the climate crisis is a big reason the flooding in central Texas was so destructive.

During the latest episode of CNN’s “Inside Politics,” Nye argued that one of the main ways to prevent what host Dana Bash reported was an increasing frequency of “once in 100-year” storms is to ban fossil fuels.

“So, ‘What are we going to do about it?’ is the ancient question. And it would be to stop burning fossil fuels. When you’re in a hole, stop digging, and so on,” he said. 

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More than 100 people, including children and counselors at a girls’ camp, were killed in central Texas in flash flooding that began last week.

The National Weather Service (NWS) sent several flash flood warnings early Friday morning, followed by several flash flood emergency notices. 

Critics of President Donald Trump alleged that his federal staffing and budget cuts prevented the NWS from being adequately prepared for the disaster — an accusation that the White House and Trump allies have rejected. 

Other liberals have called out their own side for politicizing the tragedy and said NWS cuts weren’t a factor.

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Nye blamed the government as well, saying that it has been convinced by fossil fuel companies to ignore climate change, which he believes has made these disasters worse. 

“But the fossil fuel industry has been very successful in getting organizations like the U.S. Congress to think that it‘s really not happening,” he said. 

The media personality claimed earlier in the segment that, because of climate change, these natural disasters are going to keep happening. 

“This is exactly what was predicted. It‘s very difficult to tie any one weather event to climate change. However, the warm weather events are actually easier to tie to climate change,” he said. “But it will happen again, to your point.”

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Nye continued, noting that “warning systems” to alert people about these disasters exist and can be implemented successfully. However, the real issue, he claimed, was getting the U.S. to take climate change seriously.

Bash followed up by noting the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate cuts to fossil fuel production in the U.S., suggesting that has contributed to the problem. 

Nye acknowledged her point, and said the federal government needs to reverse course.

“So, the opportunity still exists, but we do need to turn things around,” he declared.