Bill Nye Warns Virginia Cities of “Water in Your Living Room”

Norfolk and Portsmouth are on the mind of TV’s favorite science guy.

Bill Nye, who rose to fame with his zany but explanatory show “Bill Nye the Science Guy” in the 90s, mentioned Hampton Roads during an Earth Day appearance on the “Today Show” over the weekend, while discussing the importance of addressing climate change.

“As we warm this water, it expands,” Bill Nye said on the show while heating up a test tube. A banner that read “Rising Oceans” hung behind. “The same is happening with the world’s ocean. … When it gets bigger, exotic places like Norfolk, Va. … are going to have water in your living room.

“They’re going to abandon their houses, it’s going to be a drag.”

The morning show is not the only place he recently singled out Hampton Roads.

On his new Netflix series, “Bill Nye Saves the World,” which premiered Friday, he made the same point during the first episode, “Earth is a Hot Mess,” which similarly addresses climate change.

The ocean getting bigger “means floods in Miami, Pensacola, Galveston. These are all U.S. cities. Portsmouth. All these exotic places like Norfolk, Va., are going to have this much water on the floor all the time,” he said lowering a hand half a foot or so off the floor. “So people are going to leave! Where are they going to go? … We’ve got to address this problem, people.”

The local shoutout was not lost on the Hampton Roads community.

“Not even 4 mins into bill nye saves the world ep 1 and he comes for norfolk,” one Twitter user posted.

“@BillNye Thanks for shouting out our flooding problem in Norfolk,” said another.

It’s not the first time Nye has taken an interest in the region’s flooding and climate change problems.

Three years ago, Nye mentioned Norfolk when he tweeted at Secretary of State John Kerry during a conference on ocean preservation and climate change.

“Is sea level rise going to affect the Naval Base in Norfolk, Va.?” he wrote.

He told the TV audience of “The Today Show” Saturday to go home and binge watch his new 13-episode show, which looks at a variety of topics from a machine takeover to “designer babies.”

Said Nye: “If you like to worry about things, you’re living at a great time.”


This story originally appeared on PilotOnline.com.

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