Bill Nye the Science Guy told the Daily Caller on Tuesday that climate change is a bigger problem than the economy or high unemployment.

He also said that “this notion that government is inherently bad is new,” and after the November election, President Barack Obama will “have a freer hand.”

Bill Nye, who was in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday speaking on behalf of the Planetary Society, said that he is “very concerned about climate change,” adding that, “you can talk about the economy and short-term jobs and so on — but there are much bigger problems.”

On the president, who Nye supported in his first run, the former television host said, “He has a lot of constraints until he gets re-elected. He can’t do what, certainly, my parents would have thought were routine things — social programs. This notion that government is inherently bad is new.” Nye added. “Whoever’s in charge can’t do anything about it until after the election. … He’ll have a freer hand.”

Nye also believes that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will become less conservative in the coming months.

“After the primary’s over, everybody can move back to the middle so maybe we haven’t really found out what Mitt Romney’s real views are yet,” he said. “He had to go so far to the right to win the primary that — who knows. Just think about when the guy was governor of Massachusetts — he apparently has espoused very different views. So we’ll just wait and see.”

Videography by Sarah Hofmann

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