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Earth Day is April 22. To mark the 55th observance of Earth Day, famed astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is speaking at the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln to offer a cosmic perspective on sustainability and climate change. Nebraska Public Media's Dale Johnson caught up with Dr. Tyson to learn what Earth Day means to him.
Neil deGrasse Tyson: Any time I think of Earth Day, I think of how it began. Earth Day 1970, by the way, that's the same year that the public service announcement, the PSA, of the crying Indian. OK, remember that was 1970. What else happened in 1970? The Environmental Protection Agency was signed into existence. So was NOAA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. What else happened? Oh within two years, there's a comprehensive Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act. We banned leaded gas. All that happened while we were going to the moon. So for me, Earth Day is not oh, we finally started caring about Earth, a good thing, yes, but it's we finally understood what a cosmic perspective can do to us all. That's what's going through my head when I think of Earth Day.
Dale Johnson: I have heard you say “There is an urgent need to mitigate the effects of climate change.” So in a galaxy that's more than 13 billion years old, on a planet that's about four and a half billion years old, put urgent in context.
Tyson: No, we will not go extinct if we have rampant climate change. That will not happen, OK? If we converted all the fossil fuels of the ground into energy, releasing scads more CO2, we will still be here. Earth will be very different, however, because we will lose the ice caps, the ice that's in Antarctica, which is already melting, and the ice that's in Greenland. These are the two primary land-based sources of ice. If you melt those two ice masses, the water level will rise. Sea level of earth will rise to the to the Statue of Liberty's left elbow, that will flood 100% of the coastal cities in the world. And think about it, since the last Ice Age, we've had a relative, you know, 10,000-20,000 years ago, we've had a relatively stable climate. Yes, there's been variation in storms of course, but if you look at the envelope that contains the climate that we've experienced, it's been relatively tame. And in that period we say, Oh, here's a good spot to put a city that's on the water's edge. That's good for irrigation. It's good for transportation. It's good for, what else do you use water for? For trade. Transportation and trade. OK, three big things you would want to justify putting a city on the water's edge. So we do this, and cities have been stable ever since we built them. As we go forward into climate change scenarios, the extremes will get more extreme, and it'll fall outside of how we have previously accommodated what we thought of were extremes, and that's how it will begin. But you come back when all those ice caps, the ice has melted. We're just simply underwater, you know? OK, Denver will be fine. Pick a city in the Rockies. Pick a city in the mountains. Pick a city that's very inland. We lose most of Florida. Coastal cities are gone. Boston, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, even if you're inland a little bit, you're connected to a river that connects to the ocean, you're gone. San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, gone. And go around the world. And this is everywhere. So if you do not care about climate change, those are your consequences.
Johnson: How is mother earth holding up today?
Tyson: Earth is fine. Don't think about Earth. Earth doesn't care about us. Earth has survived asteroids, ice ages. You know, people say save Earth. No, save life on Earth. That's what has to happen here. Earth does not care. Earth will do just fine with or without us, no matter what we do to it. But we are reminded, I think in recent decades, that we are not isolated from the biosphere that sustains us. So, I mean, think about, you know, in the industrial revolution, it's the air. Let's pump pollution into the air the river. Most factories were on the river's edge so that it could pump effluences, polluting effluences into the river. Oh, because nature is just nature in which it's at our disposal. And then you find out it comes back to bite you in the ass, and the air, the water, the food sources, all of this. So the knowledge that we are not to sound all new-agey on you, but we are one with nature, is an important revelation that was not always with us.
Johnson: To mark the 55th observance of Earth Day, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson will be speaking at the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln to offer a cosmic perspective on sustainability and climate change. He's been joining me for a conversation on Nebraska Public Media. I'm Dale Johnson.