Neil deGrasse Tyson Knows One Thing That Will Change Climate Deniers’ Minds ‘Real Fast’
When MSNBC’s Chris Hayes previewed his one-on-one interview with astrophysicist and Cosmos host Neil deGrasse Tyson last Friday, he teased much more of their discussion to come. On Monday night, Tyson was back on All In, this time sharing his thoughts on divisive topics like climate change and creationism.
Tyson’s outlook on the climate change issue managed to be both devastating and hopeful at the same time. “It has been said that every great, emergent scientific truth goes through three phases,” Tyson told Hayes. “First, people say it can’t be true. Second, they say it conflicts with the Bible. Third, they say it’s true all along. And so, there you have it.”
For people who still don’t believe that man-made climate change is real, Tyson said the “evidence will show up when they need more evidence.” He pointed to “more storms” and “more coastlines getting lost” as two physical manifestations, before mentioning something that could have a bigger impact: “People beginning to lose their wealth.”
“People, if they begin to lose their wealth, they change their mind real fast, I’ve found,” Tyson stated. “Particularly in a capitalist culture.”
One thing Tyson said he tells people in the New York area to really “wake them” up out of their climate change ignorance, is that if the polar ice caps melt, the water will come up to the Statue of Liberty’s elbow — “the one that’s holding the Declaration of Independence.” He compared it to the final scene of the original Planet of the Apes when (spoiler alert) Charlton Heston finds the Statue of Liberty buried in the sand.
“I don’t see people trying to repeal the law of gravity just because they’re gaining weight,” Tyson continued. “I didn’t see people trying to repeal E=MC2 because it somehow conflicted with their political philosophy. These are emergent scientific truths. So I’m disappointed when I look around and I see people cherry-picking the consensus of observation and experiment that has emerged in science.”
In the end, Tyson said he has nothing against people believing whatever they want to believe, but has a problem when those beliefs start to influence society in a detrimental way.
“Part of what it is to be in a free country is, you can believe what you want,” he said. “The problem comes about if you believe what you want and you are responsible for the governance of the nation. I’d like to think that governance is based on objective and verifiable truths. Otherwise, what kind of culture have you created?”
Watch video below, via MSNBC:
[Photo via screengrab]
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