Neil DeGrasse Tyson Slams Climate Change Deniers Amid Hurricane Harvey

Famed astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson took aim in a tweet at climate change deniers for believing predictions about Hurricane Harvey while rejecting the scientific consensus about global warming.

“Hmm. Don’t see much denial of @NOAA climate scientists who have predicted Hurricane Harvey’s devastating path into Texas,” he wrote on Twitter Friday.

After a flurry of criticism regarding the phrasing of his tweet, Tyson clarified what he really meant by his statement.

“What I should have said was NOAA ‘scientists,’ rather than ‘NOAA climate scientists,’” he told TMZ Tuesday. “The point is that we have people in denial of emergent scientific consensus. That was the real point of the tweet.”

The astrophysicist went on to say it was not necessarily that the hurricane was caused by climate change – but that people accepted scientific predictions about the storm. If the public accepts predictions about a hurricane, Tyson explained, why does it not fully accept a consensus about climate change?

“If you’re in denial of global warming, you’re in denial of objective scientific truths,” he told TMZ. “That’s not a political stance, that’s an ignorant stance.”

Tyson made a similar argument as the nation rallied to watch August’s total solar eclipse. “Odd. No one is in denial of America’s Aug 21 total solar eclipse. Like Climate Change, methods & tools of science predict it,” he wrote on Twitter earlier in August.

Tyson discussed that particular argument Monday in an appearance on the Daily Show with host Trevor Noah.

“Well, I just thought, there’s everyone organizing their lives around attending and viewing one of nature’s great spectacles and I don’t see people protesting,” he said. “I don’t see people objecting to it. I don’ see people in denial of it. Yet methods and tools of science predict it. So when methods and tools of science predict other things, to have people turn around and say ‘I deny what you say,’ there’s something wrong in our world when that happens.”

The astrophysicist has been outspoken about his frustration with climate change skeptics. Around 97 percent of actively publishing climate scientists agree that climate change and warming is directly linked to human activity, according to NASA. Tyson posted a video on Facebook in April to once again address the issue.

“When you have an establishing scientific emergent truth, it is true, whether or not you believe in it,” he said. “And the sooner you understand that, the faster we can get on with the political conversations about how to solve the problems that face us.”