Bill Nye: Bill Nye, back
from our trip to Florida.
The President and I had a
very nice conversation about
climate change,
science education,
science education for girls,
and especially the future 
of the U.S.
As a guy born in the
U.S., as a patriot,
I'm just delighted that we
are all working together,
really at last, on
addressing climate change 
so that we can, dare I say
it, change the world.
Check out our conversation.
The President: All
right, are we ready?
When we decided
to take action,
when the 
Clean Air Act passed,
when Clean Water Act passes,
when the EPA is empowered,
it turns out that we can
solve these problems but the
danger is that we then
take it for granted.
Bill Nye: Yeah.
The President: Scientific
literacy, generally,
and encouraging young people
to be excited about science
-- you know, you're
the science guy.
This is your demographic.
Bill Nye: (laughs)
It's my people.
The President: Your -- these
are your peeps, as they say.
Bill Nye: Yeah.
The President: You're
focused all the time on
getting young people
excited about science.
What have you learned about
what works and why do you
think it is that our schools
are not more successful in
getting kids excited about
science, technology,
engineering, math,
particularly when it comes
to girls, but also when it
comes to African-Americans --
Hispanics?
Where do you think things
are breaking down,
because kids
naturally are curious
Bill Nye: Oh, yeah.
The President: They love
tooling around and figuring
stuff out.
 
The President: What happens?
Bill Nye: Well, our problem
(laughs) -- we have -- you
have to invest in science
education and the very
compelling research -- 10
years old is about as old as
you can be to get
the, so-called,
lifelong passion
for science.
The President: (affirmative)
Bill Nye: And it might be --
it seems to me it's about as
old as you can be to get
a lifelong passion
for anything.
The President: Right.
Bill Nye: Like when did you
want to lead and
change things?
You were in second --
The President: Yeah, I might
be -- I was a kind 
of a late bloomer.
I think it wasn't until I
was like 45 I decided I was
going to --
Bill Nye: (laughs)
The President: -- do
something with my life.
Bill Nye: (laughs) Really?
The President: No,
no, I'm teasing.
Bill Nye: (laughs)
What's next?
(laughs)
The President: I'm teasing
but your general point,
though, is that you want to
catch kids around 10 years,
before --
Bill Nye: Before 10.
The President:-- they're 10.
Bill Nye: And it's easy.
The President: Right.
Bill Nye: This is the thing.
We want -- for
my side of it,
we want science in
every grade, every day,
in every grade.
The President: Right.
Bill Nye: So there's a huge
opportunity for us because
teaching science at the
elementary level is
very inexpensive.
The President: (affirmative)
Bill Nye: And we fight these
surprising problems about
reading and arithmetic
and standards and so on.
The President: Right.
Bill Nye: It seems like a
very solvable problem but we
have to, in my opinion,
we have to invest in the
elementary grades.
The President: Yeah.
Part of it, though, is also
I think our culture has to
support and elevate science
and part of the concern that
I get sometimes is that,
you know, historically,
America was built
on innovation.
Bill Nye: Well, I grew up
with the space program.
I'm all about science.
The President: You know, and
everybody talks about the
space program, which
was so inspiring to
your generation.
But, you know, it goes a
little bit further back
than that.
We had Benjamin Franklin
with a kite and you've got --
Bill Nye: (unintelligible)
Thomas Edison.
The President: -- 
Thomas Edison and the 
Wright Brothers, and so 
that has always been in our DNA.
Bill Nye: Absolutely.
The President: And yet,
sometimes what we see in the
popular culture is a,
if not denigration,
then not an emphasis
on science and --
Bill Nye: But it's changing.
The President:
But it's changing,
and that's the good news.
Bill Nye: Yeah so, you know,
it says in the Constitution,
Section One,
Paragraph Eight,
"Shall promote the progress
of science and
the useful arts. "
The President: (affirmative)
Bill Nye: Along with
everything else you've got
to do --
The President: That's part
of my constitutional duty
Bill Nye: It
really is (laughs)
The President: Well,
but you're right,
in terms of -- and that's
why I think it's so
important for our political
leaders to not just talk
about STEM and education and
talk about basic research in
the abstract
but, number one,
fund it: so put your money
where your mouth is.
But, number two, when you're
making decisions around
important issues make sure
that you take
science seriously.
I mean, when I see members
of Congress being part of
the climate-denier clubs and
basically stiff arming what
we know are facts and not
rebutting them with other
facts but rebutting them
with anecdote or
being dismissive --
Bill Nye: And "Oh, I'm
not a scientist" --
The President:
(unintelligible) "I'm not
a scientist. "
Well, I'm not a scientist
either but I know a lot
of scientists.
I have the capacity to
understand science --
Bill Nye: It's not that --
The President: I have the
capacity to look at facts
and base my conclusions
on evidence.
Bill Nye: That's right.
The President:
And, you know,
part of shifting our
political culture, I think,
is we've got to model for
our kids that facts matter.
If we know that the
Everglades are starting to
get saltwater in them and we
know that that's going to
affect the alligators,
and the herons,
and the birds in this
place and, ultimately,
going to affect our drinking
water, and we see the facts,
we have to acknowledge
those facts.
We can argue about
how to fix it.
Mr. President, I'll
be honest with you.
I was born in the U.S.
I was trained as an
engineer in the U.S.
I'm a patriot.
Both of my parents were
veterans of World War II.
They're interred
at Arlington,
and I want the U.S.
to lead.
I want the U.S.
to be the best in the world
at the new, the solutions,
and the innovations, and
what it's going to take to
address climate change for
the betterment of everybody.
The President:
We're getting busy.
America's beginning to lead.
Because of our leadership in
putting forward a climate
plan that was pretty
aggressive, China,
for the first time, has
submitted its own plan,
and what we're trying to do
is, now mobilize the world.
In Paris, in the fall, we're
going to have a conference
to see if we can arrive at
a global agreement around
tackling climate change
in a serious way.
But, you're
absolutely right,
that if America is
not at the forefront,
it will not happen --
Bill Nye: That's right.
The President:
-- and, you know,
I always say to people: part
of what makes America
exceptional -- it's not just
the size of our economy or
the power of our military
but it's the power of our
ideas, and the power
of our example.
And this is a good
moment for us to lead,
so thank you Bill.
Bill Nye: Thank
you Mr. President.
The President:
Great conversation.
Bill Nye: Thank you, sir.
