What do you Call an Evangelical Christian who Fights Climate Change With a Fervor? A Hero!
My last post highlighted the conservative Climate Leadership Council (CLC) plan for a global carbon tax. Why would strong conservatives like the members of the CLC take on climate change, when the topic is traditionally unpopular with conservatives? The best person to answer that question is Katharine Hayhoe.
As a girl, Hayhoe was one of the brainy science and math kids who made science look easy to the rest of us. By the early 1990’s Hayhoe was studying physics and astronomy at the University of Toronto. She took a climate change class during her senior year with a professor who had just returned from doing the latest research at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). That experience completely changed her trajectory in life. She realized that she could use her background in physics to understand what was happening to the atmosphere, the oceans, and glaciers. She was quickly hooked. “I definitely didn’t realize that climate change wasn’t just an environmental issue — it’s a threat multiplier. It takes the most serious humanitarian issues … today — hunger, poverty, lack of access to clean water, injustice, refugee crises and more — and it makes them worse. How could I not devote my time to helping fix this huge global challenge?” She continued her studies with a Masters and then Ph.D. in climate science. Thus began her career path and commitment to educate people and help mitigate climate change. But lest you think she is just another scientist we need to look a bit deeper. (Hayhoe)
Today Hayhoe is an outspoken Evangelical Christian and climatologist from Texas Tech University. If you see her in a Bill Moyers interview or a network news segment the first thing you will notice is that Hayoe is smart, youthful, energetic, spunky, down-to-earth, and very sure of herself. She has straight brown hair and glasses and she could pass as an ordinary next door neighbor. But she is trained as a scientist and she knows her stuff.
Hayhoe doesn’t accept global warming on faith, and she doesn’t believe the science undermines faith in God. She quotes Hebrews in The New Testament saying “Faith is evidence of things not seen. By definition, science is evidence of things that are seen and observed. That is quantifiable.” In that way, Hayhoe sees faith and science as two sides of the same coin. She welcomes discussions on faith, science and climate change.
Her book, A Climate For Change: Global Warming Facts For Faith-Based Decisions, written with her husband, Andrew, who is an Evangelical minister, is a faith-based response to what she calls a disinformation campaign. In her book Hayhoe proposes that God calls us to love others and to act to try to stop things like global warming that will hurt us. The book explains some of the myths and misconceptions about global warming and climate change. You can see her summarize some of her book in this three-minute video on Youtube. (NOVA’s). Hayhoe is also a co-author of The Fourth National Climate Assessment and winner of dozens of awards and recognitions.
In one interview with Bill Moyers Hayhoe maintains that Evangelicals like herself have been told by politicians and others that they cannot be good Christians and still believe in climate change. And she points out that in order to have an impact on climate change we need to work together, with the government. She says that conservative people, in general, tend to be fundamentally opposed to government solutions to solving problems. “We rely on church leaders and others to tell us what to think about things. Christians have been lied to and told that climate change is a hoax, or that it’s not that bad.” But she says when it comes to climate change we need to stick to the facts from fact-based information and sources. (Moyers)
Katharine Hayhoe should know the fact-based truth about climate change. In her day job, she crunches the numbers and does the hard research and helps others quantify the impacts. “The science is clear the planet is warming, the science shows that humans are responsible; the impacts we are seeing today are deadly serious, and our future is in our hands.” Hayhoe quotes John Holdren, a fellow scientist, and former Presidential Science Advisor who predicts the future will include a mix of three choices: mitigation, adaptation, and suffering. “The more mitigation we do, the less adaptation will be required and the less suffering there will be.” (Hayhoe)
If you see Katharine Hayhoe’s posts or are fortunate enough to interact with her on Facebook or Twitter, you will find a down to earth courageous crusader dedicating her professional life to opening peoples’ eyes and helping “fix this global challenge.” She has contributed a dizzying amount of work to communicate about climate change including videos, interviews, blog posts, writing projects, organizational support, not to mention the honors she has received. Katharine Hayhoe is a force of nature devoted to changing myths and misconceptions. Because of her street cred in the contrarian community, I will rely on her when I quote the science in later chapters. (Hayhoe)
The CLC and Hayhoe are not the only conservatives who are clamoring for concrete action on climate change. American public beliefs are changing too, partly because we can all see the devastation and loss of life that impacted thousands of families all over the U.S.. We have experienced more frequent and violent hurricanes like Irene, devastating and surreal tornadoes, extreme heat and cold, livelihood-destroying droughts and deadly algae tides, and hellish wildfires like the 2018 Campfire in California. Americans are beginning to see a pattern and feel the impacts.
In fact, a 2018 study by Yale found that at least 50% of our adult population believes that climate change is real. The strongest believers tend to live in coastal areas, as well as hurricane and tornado-impacted regions. More of us will be affected either by our own personal experiences or those of relatives as the frequency, intensity and human toll of these events continues to rise. Unfortunately, even though the number of Americans who believe global warming is getting worse is increasing, that hasn’t translated into action yet. And clearly many people don’t realize the incredible impact that is happening already. (Yale) If Hayhoe and others are successful in educate the millions of Evangelical Christians, she indeed will be a great American hero.
In the next post, we will explore some of the incredible opportunities that await us if we prioritize our energy policy to become truly energy independent and the world leader in renewable energy.
