Bow-tied crusader Bill Nye the Science Guy refuses to bow out of the public eye. While his 1990s PBS show now exists only in reruns, Nye is still seen debating creationists, defending vaccinations, and appearing at this year’s SF Sketchfest. He’s in town promoting the new documentary Bill Nye: Science Guy that plays tonight at the Victoria as part of the SFFILM Festival, and SFist chatted Nye up as he prepared for his SF appearance after tonight’s screening.

“It’s the most important film you’ll ever watch,” Nye declared to SFist. “I don’t think I’m exaggerating.” (NOTE: He was kind of exaggerating.) But Nye’s work in proving the existence of climate change, and humankind’s possible role in creating the phenomenon, is covered in the film, and yes, obviously that's phenomenally important.

“We go to Greenland,” Nye said of one the film’s main components. “And we meet the researchers who are drilling into the ice sheet where they count neutrons and the oxygen atoms, to determine the sea surface temperature that created the cloud that became the snow that became the ice over the last few tens of thousands of years.”

“We talk about abrupt climate change,” Nye continued. “This very troubling thing where the earth’s climate seems to have changed radically in just two decades. And the record of this is in the ice, the ice is irrefutable.”

Bill Nye also has a series of kids books out called Jack and the Genuises, which involves children's adventures in ocean water desalination. This summer he’ll release the more grownup book Everything All at Once: How Nerds Solve Problems.

“It’s my advice on how to conduct the affairs of the entire world. How wrong could I be?” Nye asked SFist rhetorically.

Given Bill Nye the Science Guy’s concern over the state of the planet, I couldn’t help but ask his opinion on what we regular, everyday Bay Area people can do to save the world.

“What we need to do is electrify all ground transportation,” Nye said. “We want to make all our electricity renewably — wind, solar, some geothermal. Don’t shut down any existing nuclear plants, but phase them out when they get near their retirement, when it’s relicense time. And then we need to solve the problem of air transportation, it’s probably hydrogen fuel, that’s probably going to be the best thing. But that’s where we need to throw basic research money.”

That stuff is all way beyond my pay grade, but Nye also offered a simpler strategy. “We gotta vote in this 2018 election,” Nye said. “Vote, vote, vote. We’ve got to turn this thing around.”

‘Bill Nye: Science Guy’ screens tonight at 6 p.m. at the Victoria Theatre, with Bill Nye in attendance for an audience Q&A after the show. Advance tickets are no longer available, but Rush Line seats will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis to those waiting in a line that will begin forming 60 minutes prior to showtime. There are plenty of tickets still available for the Tuesday, April 18 screening of ‘Bill Nye: Science Guy’ at Alamo Drafthouse.