[O'brien:] All right. Are we under siege from nature? Is the planet angry? From Saturday's earthquake in Pakistan, the tsunami in Asia, these monster hurricanes we've been telling you all about. Hundreds of thousands of people have die in all these catastrophes. And so we turn to Bill Nye, the Science Guy, who does a great job of explaining big things for little minds like mine. It's good to have you back with us, Bill. And, you know, obviously, the planet isn't angry. The planet doesn't think, but the first thing that comes to mind is we've got 6.5 billion people. So when something happens there's bound to be somebody nearby who is affected.
[Bill Nye, The Science Guy:] Yes. We're moving more and more to the coastlines where commerce takes place, where sea ports are and now people want a nice view. So when you have problems along the coast you have a lot more people affected than there used to be. It was only 40 years ago there were half as many people in the world. There were only 3 billion and now we're up way over 6 billion, so these people are living some place.
[O'brien:] So we have an issue with that. I want to talk about the earthquakes first, and then we'll get into the weather. Let's take the graphic for just a second and we'll talk to people. This gives you a sense of how much seismic activity is going on. They call this along the Pacific Rim, they call that the ring of fire because.
[Nye:] The ring of fire.
[O'brien:] We'll put ring of fire.
[Nye:] Yes.
[O'brien:] Because that is a big tectonic plate. It's like a floating piece of Styrofoam on some water. The magna beneath, it shifts and moves. This is the one that happened on Saturday. The reason we show you this, is look at all of the other thing, the yellow stuff is recent big stuff, OK? Magenta is older stuff, but stuff is happening all of the time, right?
[Nye:] Yeah. There are about a thousand earthquakes a year. So by the way if you're a psychic you should be able to predict an earthquake, almost three a day. Where the Himalayas are formed, Mount Everest, and K2 and these places, that's the border of the boundary between these two enormous tectonic plates. Tectonic is Greek for builder. The earth is built from these plates. And they're smashing into each other and creating these enormous mountains. And at the same time, the slightest little jostle in tectonic plate aspect creates these enormous earthquakes. And the other thing that's gone wrong there, development has happened in the last century. The last earthquake that was really large of this size in the Pakistan-India area was about 100 years ago so it's lost in society's memory.
[O'brien:] And also
[Nye:] And they have built concrete structures.
[O'brien:] Yes, just tons of these concrete structures, which clearly don't have earthquakes in mind, do they?
[Nye:] That's right. And they were, as we say, earthquakes don't kill people. Buildings kill people. And so these builds were not built to seismic standards. So this is an opportunity I mean, it's horrible. And right there, it's a miserable time. But there's an opportunity for us in the developed world to help people in the developing world learn to build structures that can withstand these.
[O'brien:] Well, let's hope we do. Let's move on to the weather, though.
[Nye:] Oh, yes.
[O'brien:] Here's the thing. We know that the temperature of the seawater has risen, OK? Global warming
[Nye:] More heat energy in the atmosphere, yes.
[O'brien:] That is not a debate anymore, it is happening. So we have more powerful hurricanes. You can you know, how about we connect the dots here for just a moment. Can we do that?
[Nye:] Just you and I even if you're wrong. Even if we're wrong.
[O'brien:] It's still happening.
[Nye:] That's right. It is happening. And if you're a betting voter and taxpayer, if you're a gambling person, you would gamble that the world's getting warmer and hurricanes are going get more powerful and storms are going get more serious.
[O'brien:] I would. So then, you see all kinds of other weird things like you see the floods in the northeast. You see, well, for example the snow which you're seeing right now. Is all of this part of a big picture here?
[Nye:] It sure seems like it.
[O'brien:] What is going on in the weather scene?
[Nye:] It sure seems like it. Now measuring these small effects, that is to say one big snowstorm in Colorado, that is not enough data there to predict, to verify that it's global climate change caused by humans or something. But it is consist with what you'd expect. As I say, if you're going to assess risk and manage risk as a voter and taxpayer in a developed country, it seems like these extreme weather patterns are in every way associated with what's traditionally called global warming. And once again, it's an opportunity now. You know, on the Washington Mall we have a competition going to make more energy-efficient housing. Suppose when we rebuilt all these houses in the New Orleans area and Mississippi, we built them to a new standard, a better more energy-efficient standard. I mean, it's causing a lot of trouble and a lot of problems, but it is also an opportunity. And these snowstorms and these rainstorms, why they are not absolutely connected with global climate change is too small a thing. It's consist with what you'd expect.
[O'brien:] Bill Nye, Science Guy. Always a pleasure.
[Nye:] Good to see you.
[O'brien:] We'll be back in a moment.