THE BIZ : Mr. Natural Science

Rumpled and avuncular, Dennis Farrier imparts the gee-whizzery of natural science four times a week on KCAL’s nightly newscasts. During his “What on Earth?” segments, Farrier, 50, talks about whatever he feels like--why the ocean is blue, how squid “invented” jet propulsion, how reinforced concrete was inspired by celery.

He’s the same kind of guy off the air. Two sentences into a conversation, he announces that the primary allergen in our environment is the dust of dead cockroaches. “Did you know that not even a nuclear blast would eradicate cockroaches?” he asks. Farrier is a largely self-taught natural scientist who got his first training working as executive director of the Smithsonian’s Maricultural Institute for Ocean Resource Development in the mid-’80s. Since then, he has traveled the country consulting with businesses about environmental issues and working with organizations including the United Nations Environmental Programme. Then, almost two years ago, he hooked up with KCAL, Channel 9.

Make no mistake--Farrier is not an environmentalist in the tree-hugging sense. “I have yet to stand in front of my first bulldozer to prevent the extinction of the last seven liverworts threatened by the construction of a wing on Toys ‘R’ Us,” he says. “I’m nonplussed by people who count trees and tell each other how many it took to make the Sunday paper. I’m more impressed by people who would bother to know that trees cry.”

Farrier isn’t interested in making people feel guilty. “But it is time for human beings to grow up,” he says. “Nature is about synthesis and economy. Nature took one cell and one yard of DNA, and that made Mozart and the panhandler on the street. There are 600 brands of bottled water in this country. Nature’s laughing at you.”