Bill Nye, the Science Guy, ended his Netflix series "Bill Nye Saves the World" on a controversial note this week. He implied American parents with extra kids contribute to climate change and they should be punished for it.
Nye first pointed out how educated women with good degrees in developed countries like America choose to have fewer children and can, therefore, focus resources on just these children. Nye compared this to women with big families who use up more resources and amass 16 metric tons of carbon footprint annually, as per Free Beacon.
He also pointed out that many women from developing countries like India have seven or more kids yet their carbon footprint is lower compared to Americans with big families. The Science Guy raised the question, "Should we have policies that penalize people for having extra kids in the developed world?" for his panel of guests, as per Daily Caller.
The discussion took a controversial turn as Nye and his panelists, Dr. Rachel Snow, Dr. Nerys Benfield and Dr. Travis Rieder, raised population control solutions like sterilization (eugenics) and abortion as a deterrent to the effects of climate change. Life News, however, reported none of the panelists uttered the word "abortion" but the implication was there as they talked about women's health.
Rieder reminded everyone in the panel that the U.S. practiced compulsory sterilization up until the 1970s, which Nye thought was a good idea. The panelists debated the procedure encountered plenty of questions and oppositions, including the government's meddling on one's human rights.
Nye, however, said these solutions should be reconsidered as climate change problems escalated but his stand earned the ire of netizens on Twitter. One blasted him and compared his population control ideas to Hitler, as per New York Post.
What do you think of this controversy? Should government penalize big families? Do you believe these scientific solutions are the answer to climate change? Watch Nye and his panel discuss in the video below.
