'Hey Bill Nye, What Can One Person Do to Save the World?' #TuesdaysWithBill | Big Think

Hi there Bill. My name is Victoria. I am a middle school student from Washington state. The environment is quite humid right now, and it's time to make a change, but a lot of people don't see the threat or they don't want to make a change. My question is how can we prepare the planet, and what actions can we start right now to save the world? I know it's hard, but I just hope that you can give some clues. Thank you very much.

Victoria. You are the key to the future, my friend. So here's the thing: you live in Washington state. I lived in Seattle for many years. I love Washington. Go Seahawks! I'm right there, my friend. Go Mariners!

Now, you are in middle school. You are the future. People will tell you that, but they're not kidding. So what we want you to do is influence your parents and make sure they vote. Voting is the most important thing for us, especially this year. And I want your parents - I want you to encourage your parents to take the environment into account when they pick people to vote for.

Now your Governor, Jay Inslee, he's an acquaintance of mine, and he's a big environmentalist. He wrote a book, Apollo's Fire, and so on. It's about the future of what people are doing to take care of the environment and have energy produced, electricity especially, renewably without having to burn fossil fuels. So it's up to you to influence your parents.

Yes, very important to recycle your plastic and your paper. And also in Washington state, I'm not sure exactly where you live, but you can recycle your food waste along with your yard waste, and that becomes compost, which nourishes our farms, which in turn produces food, part of the mythic cycle of life. So you can encourage your parents to do that, but we need big ideas, big changes.

In Washington state, there's enormous opportunities for wind turbines and enormous opportunities for photovoltaics, for solar cells that take sunlight and make it right into electricity, especially in Eastern Washington. So you can be part of that. And you're in middle school; that is a turning point for most people in their science education.

So I hope you, Victoria, will apply yourself in science class, in biology, physics, chemistry, and there's probably another class you might have about planetary science or astronomy or earth science. And the other thing, Victoria, that is really important, especially for girls, is algebra.

And I just want to tell you: algebra is this way to think. It trains your brain to think in this way that enables you to imagine things, to accept that you don't know the answer, but you're going to find it. And so I really encourage you - I just tell you that I took algebra; you just have to practice. There's no way around it. You just got to do it over and over until you get comfortable with it. And you can do it.

And by the way, when you're a girl in middle school, you're kind of better at everything than the boys. Now that will change in the next four or five years; you'll even out. But right now just go with it, my friend. Go with it. Make sure you learn algebra and learn science so that you, if you choose to be a scientist or better yet an engineer—which is a profession in which you use science to solve problems and make things—can lead the world in these new technologies.

But right now, do those things at home that make an important difference: recycling; not wasting energy; not wasting clean water; and make sure your parents take the environment into account and make sure they vote. Thank you, Victoria. Go get 'em!