'AOC Gets It': Bill Nye Supports Ocasio-Cortez and Her Efforts to Fight Climate Change

Bill Nye, the famous TV scientist behind Bill Nye the Science Guy, gave his support to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her efforts to fight climate change while addressing income inequality.
Ocasio-Cortez has co-sponsored a Green New Deal resolution with Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey that calls for a 10 year program to reach net zero greenhouse-gas emissions, wean the U.S. off of fossil fuels and nuclear energy, shift to 100 percent renewable energy and do so while promoting green jobs and helping communities on the frontlines of climate change.
"AOC gets it," Nye tweeted from the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin Saturday. "She sees that fear is dividing us. We can address income inequality. We can address climate change, if we get together and get to work."
AOC gets it. She sees that fear is dividing us. We can address income inequality. We can address climate change, if… https://t.co/rxdB7GnBvg— Bill Nye (@Bill Nye)1552178346.0
Nye made a surprise appearance during the question and answer portion of Ocasio-Cortez' talk at the popular SXSW festival, where prominent figures in politics, the arts, media and business give talks, The Huffington Post reported.
"I think the problem on both sides is fear," Nye said. "People are afraid, people of my ancestry are afraid of having to pay for everything as immigrants come into this country. People who work at the diner in Alabama are afraid to try to ask for what is reasonable. So do you have a plan to work with people in Congress that are afraid?"
"One of the keys to dismantling fear," Ocasio-Cortez responded, 'is dismantling a zero-sum mentality," which she defined as "the logic that says someone else's gain necessitates my loss."
In her response, she also called on listeners to make their opinions known to their representatives, since most of the congresspeople she has spoken to blame their lack of environmental action on the wants of their constituents. Finally, she spoke of the importance of courage as an antidote to fear.
"Courage is about our future and fear is just about anxiety. And if you're sick and tired of being an anxious nation, then you have to just be rejecting fear outright," she said.
Ocasio-Cortez is also clearly a fan of the famous scientist. She stood and applauded when he stood to ask his question and began chanting "Bill, Bill, Bill" before her response.
You can watch the whole exchange here:
AOC Surprised by Bill Nye at SXSW www.youtube.com
Nye has emerged as a strong advocate for science and for climate action. In a 2017 documentary about his science advocacy, he even sat down with climate denier Joe Bastardi.
"Climate change is happening, it's our fault and we've got to get to work on this," he said in the film's trailer.
- Redwoods are the world's tallest trees.
- Now scientists have discovered they are even bigger than we thought.
- Using laser technology they map the 80-meter giants.
- Trees are a key plank in the fight against climate change.
They are among the largest trees in the world, descendants of forests where dinosaurs roamed.
Pixabay / Simi Luft
<p><span>Until recently, measuring these trees meant scaling their 80 meter high trunks with a tape measure. Now, a team of scientists from University College London and the University of Maryland uses advanced laser scanning, to create 3D maps and calculate the total mass.</span></p><p>The results are striking: suggesting the trees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">may be as much as 30% larger than earlier measurements suggested.</a> Part of that could be due to the additional trunks the Redwoods can grow as they age, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a process known as reiteration</a>.</p>New 3D measurements of large redwood trees for biomass and structure. Nature / UCL
<p>Measuring the trees more accurately is important because carbon capture will probably play a key role in the battle against climate change. Forest <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/09/carbon-sequestration-natural-forest-regrowth" target="_blank">growth could absorb billions of tons</a> of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.</p><p>"The importance of big trees is widely-recognised in terms of carbon storage, demographics and impact on their surrounding ecosystems," the authors wrote<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank"> in the journal Nature</a>. "Unfortunately the importance of big trees is in direct proportion to the difficulty of measuring them."</p><p>Redwoods are so long lived because of their ability to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cope with climate change, resist disease and even survive fire damage</a>, the scientists say. Almost a fifth of their volume may be bark, which helps protect them.</p>Carbon Capture Champions
<p><span>Earlier research by scientists at Humboldt University and the University of Washington found that </span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112716302584" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Redwood forests store almost 2,600 tonnes of carbon per hectare</a><span>, their bark alone containing more carbon than any other neighboring species.</span></p><p>While the importance of trees in fighting climate change is widely accepted, not all species enjoy the same protection as California's coastal Redwoods. In 2019 the world lost the equivalent of <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation-and-forest-degradation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30 soccer fields of forest cover every minute</a>, due to agricultural expansion, logging and fires, according to The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).</p>Pixabay
<p>Although <a href="https://c402277.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/publications/1420/files/original/Deforestation_fronts_-_drivers_and_responses_in_a_changing_world_-_full_report_%281%29.pdf?1610810475" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the rate of loss is reported to have slowed in recent years</a>, reforesting the world to help stem climate change is a massive task.</p><p><span>That's why the World Economic Forum launched the Trillion Trees Challenge (</span><a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1t.org</a><span>) and is engaging organizations and individuals across the globe through its </span><a href="https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-issue/a002o00000vOf09AAC/trillion-trees" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Uplink innovation crowdsourcing platform</a><span> to support the project.</span></p><p>That's backed up by research led by ETH Zurich/Crowther Lab showing there's potential to restore tree coverage across 2.2 billion acres of degraded land.</p><p>"Forests are critical to the health of the planet," according to <a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1t.org</a>. "They sequester carbon, regulate global temperatures and freshwater flows, recharge groundwater, anchor fertile soil and act as flood barriers."</p><p><em data-redactor-tag="em" data-verified="redactor">Reposted with permission from the </em><span><em data-redactor-tag="em" data-verified="redactor"><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/redwoods-store-more-co2-and-are-more-enormous-than-we-thought/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></span></p>EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
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