Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Nye once extolled "clean coal" in a Disney World ride

Jamie Lee Curtis and the late Alex Trebek were also involved, we are sad to report

By Andrew Paul  |  March 17, 2022 | 8:00pm
Aux Features DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Nye once extolled
A video resolution as hazy as the smog-filled skies above us. Screenshot: YouTube

We find ourselves in quite the environmental pickle these days… that’s truly the nicest way we can phrase it for PG-13 internet search filters, but rest assured, it’s just a near-constant, internal stream of expletives and screaming going on over here. It’s often difficult to comprehend how we got here as a society, but then you stumble across historical footnotes like Ellen’s Energy Adventure.

As The Guardian reminded everyone earlier this week, once upon a time in the Magical Kingdom there was an indoor ride sponsored by Exxon-Mobil co-starring Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy that extolled the wonderful world of fossil fuels to countless children. It’s bad, and everyone involved should feel bad, including (sigh) Jamie Lee Curtis and the late Alex Trebek.

It would have been hard to overstate how terrifyingly bad this thing has aged, like, a decade ago… but Epcot Center only shut the damn thing down back in 2017, apparently. “1982, the year the ride opened, was the same year that Exxon’s own scientists predicted that a spike in carbon dioxide emissions would result in the warming of the planet,” adds The Guardian.

At one point, Nye (BILL NYE!) brushes away the idea of global warming by conceding that “it’s a hot topic with lots of questions,” before reassuring Ellen that “it’s one of the big reasons scientists are working on ways to burn fuels like coal more efficiently than ever.” Scientists did not, in fact, find ways to do this well enough.

With any luck, Ellen’s Energy Adventure will one day be considered as offensive as such shame-laden projects as Song of the South and, y’know, Walt Disney’s own views on Jews. If anyone is left around to be offended, of course.

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