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Neil DeGrasse Tyson has now weighed in on Florida’s alleged ban on using the words “climate change” and “global warming” in government communications. The astrophysicist-turned-TV-star told a Sarasota, Fla., crowd on Monday that he was astonished by the report, adding he thought “as a nation we were better than this.”
“Now we have a time where people are cherry picking science,” Tyson said, according to the Herald Tribune of Sarasota. “The science is not political. That’s like repealing gravity because you gained 10 pounds last week.”
Earlier this month, the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting published an explosive story alleging that Scott’s administration had instituted an unwritten policy forbidding government employees from using “climate change,” “global warming,” and “sea level rise” in official communications. The governor has since denied the report, but several environmental groups have called for a probe into the alleged ban.
In his remarks Monday, Tyson said that while it may be easy to shame politicians for their climate change denial, it’s ultimately the voters who are responsible.
“Debating facts takes time away from the conversation,” Tyson said, according to the Bradenton Herald. “We should be talking about what we are going to do about this. I don’t blame the politicians for a damn thing because we vote for the politician. I blame the electorate.”
This isn’t the first time Tyson has scolded voters for electing science-denying politicians. In a January interview with the Boston Globe, he said he used to get “bent out of shape” about elected officials like snowball-wielding Senator James Inhofe publicly claiming climate change is a hoax. But his views have since evolved.
“The real challenge to the educator is not beating politicians over the head, or lobbying them, or writing letters,” he said. “It’s improving the educational system that shapes the people who elect such representatives in the first place.”
