When Justin Trudeau, the wokest Canadian prime minister in history, teamed up with Bill Nye, the somewhat-related-to-science Guy, to promote science education, he probably didn’t expect to become the next victim in Nye’s crusade to defy science and end fossil fuel consumption, but that’s exactly what happened when the pair appeared together Tuesday.
Trudeau has been campaigning heavily for expanding Canadian education funding on the theory that with larger bank accounts, schools will focus on science and technology, and that in turn will spur on “Canadian innovation.” To help sell the hike, Trudeau invited Nye to speak on kids and science in Ottawa.
Nye had other ideas, Global News Canada reports.
Despite not having a degree in climate science, or any experience in the handling of the environmental effects of fossil fuel transport, Nye closed out the meeting catching Trudeau by surprise, confronting him over the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline, which will carry oil from the Albert tar sands to ports and other pipelines where it can be prepared for export.
Trudeau supports the pipeline — it’s an economic boost for Canada — but Nye definitely does not.
“But this pipeline Morgan Kinder” said Nye. “If you don’t mind, tell my colleagues in the States, tell us about the Kinder Morgan pipeline.”
“I’ve been to Fort McMurray, Alta., and it really is the most amazing place — in the most troubling way,” Nye continued before “urging attendees to check out a project run by researchers at Stanford University that has suggested all of Canada could be powered by renewable energy immediately if the political will to make the transition existed.”
“Nevertheless, there’s this enormous fossil fuel industry. Tell us about that,” Nye snapped at Trudeau.
Trudeau who, up until then, had been more than happy to share the stage with another world-renowned narcissist he’d expected to praise him for his forward thinking, was noticeably taken aback, and tried to defend his government’s dirty oil habit to the world’s foremost unqualified expert on Climate Change. Canada, of course, can’t simply make the jump to alternative fuel sources overnight.
“We are going to have a transition phase while we develop alternatives to fossil fuels,” Trudeau said. “So while we are developing alternatives to fossil fuels, we still need to be able to power our homes, our cars, our economy and we have to do it in the most efficient and non-polluting way.”
The budget meeting then ended. A government source later told CTV, a primary Canadian news network, that while the government had invited Nye to speak, they wouldn’t be covering any of his expenses.