article: Television personality and author Bill Nye 'the Science Guy' joined President Barack Obama today for an Earth Day excursion, riding aboard Air Force One with the president during his visit to the Florida Everglades. Nye held court with press making the trip before boarding the airliner, telling them, I love the smell of jet fuel, according to an account provided to White House reporters. The White House said Tuesday that Nye, who has degrees in engineering but was made famous by his 90s era television show for school children, 'Bill Nye the Science Guy,' would make the trek today on its behalf to shoot a video of the president. On the road trip  from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to the Florida swamp and back again, a 1,836 mile flight, Nye will have ample opportunity to take a big whiff of the carbon being emitted from the president's jet as it burns up more than 9,180 gallons of fuel. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS . Television personality and author Bill Nye 'the Science Guy' joined President Barack Obama today for an Earth Day excursion, riding aboard Air Force One with the president during his visit to the Florida Everglades. Nye held court with press before boarding the airliner, telling them that he loves the smell of jet fuel . Global warming triumverate Barack Obama (center) Bill Nye (left) and Neil DeGrasse Tyson (right) shared a selfie moment in the Blue Room of the White House last year . Off to save the planet: Obama flew nearly 2,000 miles round-trip on Earth Day to the Florida Everglades and back . Nye told press it was his first time on the president's private jet, but he once rode AF2 with former Vice President Al Gore. And, while he was working as an engineer at Boeing in 1978, Nye said he designed an anti-vibration tube for the horizontal stabilizer that is used in the company's 747 planes, and likely AF1. In a tweet last night, Nye said he was 'heading down to DC to catch an #EarthDay flight on Air Force One with President Obama. 'We're going to '#ActonClimate,' he wrote. 'That said, the excitement, much like #climatechange, is real,' he added in a follow-up tweet a minute later. The statements were met with puzzled responses. 'Doesn't jet travel leave a big carbon footprint?' user Timothy Grome wrote. 'Hmm, seems ironic. doesn't seem very climate friendly earth day,' Allison B. of Galveston, Texas, said. White House communications director Jen Psaki got some 'cool points' today by posing for a selfie with Nye . Obama used the Earth Day trip to promote his administration's commitment to cutting carbon pollution and preserving Florida's wetlands, taking a tour of Everglades National Park and giving a speech that was first cancelled this morning for the public because of heavy showers, then rescheduled. 'I can’t think of a better way to spend Earth Day than in one of our nation’s greatest natural treasures, the Everglades,' he told his audience, calling the swamp, which he acknowledged is not technically a swamp, 'magical.' Asked on Monday if the president risks 'undermining' his message on greenhouse gases by adding to emissions with his own travel, Obama's spokesman, Josh Earnest, said ,'no, he doesn't' and repeated the administration's talking points on the harmful effects of carbon pollution. 'That is precisely the case that the President will be making at the Everglades. And he’s looking forward to the trip,' Earnest concluded. He then directed the reporter, CBS News' Mark Knoller, to the Department of Defense and the Presidential Airlift Group for information on what the United States Air Force is doing to make the president's travel more environmentally friendly. The White House's official photographer, Pete Souza, posted this image to Instagram today with the following caption: 'It's @billnye (The Science Guy) on Marine One talking science on Earth Day with the President, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz' 'I can say as a general matter that the Department of Defense has acknowledged that climate change does pose a national security threat to the United States,' Earnest added. 'And there are a lot of practices that the Department of Defense has taken to try to reduce their carbon footprint.' Knoller, the unofficial historian of the modern White House, also frequently calculates how much fuel AF1 guzzles up – including during today's trip. Florida's Republican governor Rick Scott lit into Obama and Congress in anticipation of the president's visit. He accused them of not providing his state with what he believes to be appropriate financial resources to protect the Everglades . 'Our environment is too important to neglect and it’s time for the federal government to focus on real solutions and live up to their promises,' he said in a statement. Earnest mocked the GOP executive in comments to CBS DC and noted that Scott had 'outlawed employees in the State of Florida from even uttering the word "climate change." ' 'It’s a little rich for someone who has made that declaration that somehow the president has not been sufficiently committed to defending the Everglades from the causes of climate change,' he said.
highlights: Engineer-turned-science-TV-host told a White House pool reporter that he loves the smell of jet fuel .
  Earth Day trip with President Obama aboard Boeing 747 is meant to highlight climate change threats but will leave a massive carbon footprint .
  Flights to the Florida Everglades and back will cover 1,836 miles and consume more than 9,180 gallons of fuel .
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