On the heels of nationwide record high temperatures for this time of year, on Monday Piers Morgan opened the program up for a spirited debate on global warming, inviting a pair of experts whose respective opinions place them on polar opposite ends of the spectrum.

"When I was 9 years old, the earth's population changed from 2.999 billion to three billion," said Bill Nye, more affectionately known by his television moniker "The Science Guy." "In my lifetime, it's now seven billion. People trying to live the way we lived in the developed world and we're just burning carbon and spewing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at an extraordinary rate."

Dismissing Nye as a "Global Warmist" who lacks facts, Marc Morano presented an alternate theory regarding the impact, and concern, associated with carbon dioxide:

"CO2 is rising. No one's disputing that. What Bill Nye just did was waste everyone's time explaining that CO2 is rising. The question is what impact does CO2 have on the weather, what impact does CO2 have on climate change," exclaimed the publisher of climatedepot.com. "That is where you look at the geologic record. We've had warmer periods where it's been - with higher - with lower CO2 and we've had colder periods with higher CO2. And you have to go way back for some of that but the bottom line is hundreds of factors are dictating our climate ... so the idea that Bill Nye is just going around saying CO2 is up, therefore global warming is dangerous, we should be concerned, it's not. It's not dangerous."

Meanwhile, after Nye and Morano concluded their debate on global warming, "Piers Morgan Tonight" turned to the day's other burning topic, the "fiscal cliff."

Joining the program for a live interview, Newt Gingrich offered his trademark blend of political insight, and candid commentary:

"I am, frankly, not at all encouraged by what I see and a little bit worried by it. I think, first of all, let me lay my cards on the table: I think that no deal is better than a bad deal," said the former Speaker of the House. "I think going off this cliff is less dangerous than letting things build up for a year or two years to have an even bigger cliff."

As his discussion with Morgan continued, the one-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination offered some advice for the GOP:



"They need to relax. They don't have an election until November of 2014. They need to say 'look, you want to negotiate seriously, we'll sit down and talk. You don't want to negotiate seriously, the country will survive going off this cliff.' It's largely a factor, in terms of American history, the people will not look back on as a giant tragedy. We need to have serious effort to get this country reorganized. And I see no sign that the political system today is at all prepared for that kind of serious thinking."

Watch the clips, and listen to the interviews, as Morano and Nye get fired up about global warming, while Gingrich readies for the nation's financial free-fall.

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