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Bill Nye the “Science Guy” — formerly the host of a popular educational show for children — caught the ire of MAGA loyalists when he suggested that Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, was planning to replace weather satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with satellites operated by his Starlink service.
Musk’s government gutting, backed by the Trump administration, has resulted in the termination of hundreds of workers at NOAA and the National Weather Service. The cuts resulted in protests outside NOAA’s headquarters on Monday.
Nye explained why he thought Musk’s cuts were a problem during an interview with CNN on Monday.
“Elon Musk and his guys were revving up — and you know, I’m an engineer, we love engineering,” Nye, a former mechanical engineer, said. “I used to work on failure effects and modes analysis for airplanes. So these guys found what they thought was the vulnerable part of the U.S. government, which is this digital services office.”
He said that Musk’s team “got in there and changed all the passwords and messed everything up as fast as they could.”
“And then along that line, people — the system was not set up for it. But understand what’s going on, by firing people at NOAA,” Nye said. “By dismantling this public service, you’re not serving the public. This is in nobody’s best interest.”
He then shared his suspicions about Musk’s plans for Starlink satellites.
“NOAA has a lot of satellites, and that’s how these weather predictions are made,” he said. “Well, Mr. Musk has this company, Starlink, and he’s proposing that NOAA be supplanted by a private company.”
Nye chalked up Musk’s cuts to NOAA as “fundamental corruption” and accused him of trying to “monopolize a government service.”
“So, he found this weak part, this weakness in the U.S. government, exploited it as fast as he could, and now, it’s one thing leading to another and he’s trying to undo a public service and supplant it with one of his. And this is just good old corruption,” he said. “So, sooner or later, I believe the court system will catch up with these guys. And, so, it’s just going to be, it’s just — talk about efficiency. Destroying a system that was working and then trying to replace it later is inefficient.”
Musk supporters jumped on the opportunity to defend the world’s richest man from Nye’s allegations.
“Incoherent and creepy Bill Nye on CNN spins a wild conspiracy theory that Elon Musk is planning on personally taking over NOAA with his guys at Starlink,” one X user wrote.
Others took issue with the fact that he said wildfires in the Carolinas were being driven by climate change and were not an issue prior to the climate crisis.
“Someone should inform Nye about the Clear Pond Fire in mid-April 1976 that seared 30,000 acres in Horry County, or the Gaston Fire in April 1966 that burned nearly 8,000, both of which were larger than the ongoing blaze. Bill Nye is the perfect example of where ignorance collides with arrogance,” another user wrote.
Approximately 600 workers from NOAA and the National Weather Service have been fired by the Trump administration.
