Famous science educator Bill Nye claims that millennials have the power to force the Republican party to acknowledge the detrimental effects of climate change, an issue that many candidates in this party have failed to do.
Nye believes that climate deniers are now going back on their refusal to acknowledge that humans are altering the Earth's atmosphere by rebranding themselves as "doubters" in order to give off the impression that their issue is now with the scientific data as opposed to an outright refusal of the process.
"These guys are in denial, they're adamant," he said. "They don't see the connection between carbon dioxide, methane, the world getting warmer - they ignore all the data."
"It should be a global issue that we should all be concerned about, I mean, nominally, scientifically," Nye added. "I like to say that climate change was discovered, it wasn't made up. People looked at the data and they noticed - if you go to Glacier National Park, it's sort of muddy hillside national park."
Nye believes that millennials are integral in pushing the importance of addressing climate change as a serious issue and forcing doubters to acknowledge the current data on the issue.
"We need big ideas, we need big wind turbines, we need big solar panels," he said. "We could do this, and the example I always give everybody is World War II - people solved an enormous problem in five years. They didn't run in circles screaming."
Nye believes that despite the long history of conservatives refuting scientific evidence of climate change, its importance is now so high that millennials in 2016 have the power to pivot the eventual Republican nominee to take the issue seriously and break this trend.
"Don't be surprised if, after the conservatives, the Republicans pick somebody, this person goes, 'Well, I've been thinking about it, and climate change is a big issue,'" he concluded. "Because I don't think they can quite get enough 'they.' I don't think the party can quite get enough votes without millennials. Climate denial is almost entirely generational - only now and then do you meet a young person [who denies climate change]."
Polls seem to support Nye's claim - the Harvard Institute of Politics found last April that 75 percent of 18 to 29 year olds believed that global warming was a proven fact.
"It is clear from our research not only that millennials accept the science of climate change, but also that a candidate who does not is at a disadvantage," said NextGenClimate, an environmental advocacy group.
