KATHARINE HAYHOE is used to straddling worlds, having spent five years as a missionary kid in Colombia. Today, she is one of the world鈥檚 top climate scientists and communicators, who also happens to be an evangelical Christian and a pastor鈥檚 wife.
The co-director of and CEO of consulting firm , Hayhoe is uniquely placed to bring home the perils of global warming to fellow evangelicals who are unconcerned about climate change. So it is a good thing she is a natural in front of a camera or audience, with a passion 鈥� and compassion 鈥� that is contagious.
Her Christianity doesn鈥檛 shield Hayhoe from criticism, however: she is a high-profile woman who is seen as a traitor by some on the religious right. She is attacked even more than most climate scientists. Deep down, though, Hayhoe must worry her opponents. Those political and religious divides they have been working to build up? Hayhoe knows they are weaker than they seem.
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You go for the heart when discussing climate change, relating it to what people hold dear, such as their children鈥檚 futures or being able to go fishing or skiing. Why do you care about climate change?
I care because of all the people who are suffering due to hunger, poverty and disease 鈥� suffering that is exacerbated by the effects of climate change. In parts of Colombia, when your home is destroyed by a flood or a landslide, there鈥檚 no insurance or money in the bank to help you rebuild. It was eye-opening for me, as a child, to see how vulnerable parts of the world are.
If I had to define the experience that changed me the most, it was becoming friends with people who lived in such vulnerable circumstances, and recognising how they face such imminent and unfair risks from a problem they did little, if anything, to cause.
Tell me about how climate change is also a Christian issue for you.
In the book of Genesis, God entrusts humans with responsibility over all living things on Earth. Throughout the New Testament, we are repeatedly reminded to love others as we have been loved by God, and to particularly care for those who are poor and already vulnerable. Today, climate change disproportionately harms those people.
Many Christians in the US are told they don鈥檛 need to worry about climate change. Political evangelicals, as I call them, cherry-pick verses from the Bible and use them out of context to craft an unchristian theology of indifference 鈥� even hostility 鈥� to climate change. They argue, for example, that the world will end anyways, so why not hasten the process?
In the book of Revelation, however, we are told that God will destroy those who destroy the Earth. And the apostle Paul wrote to those passively waiting for Jesus to return to remind them that, although we don鈥檛 know when the world will end, they had plenty of work to do in the meantime, to support their families and care for widows and orphans. When I speak at churches and Christian universities, these are the types of messages I try to underline.
Are you getting through to your Christian audiences about climate change?
Unfortunately, many Christians tend to be more shaped by the politics around them than by the church. In a , only 35 per cent of white evangelicals and 41 per cent of white Catholics were concerned about climate change. In comparison, 58 per cent of black Protestants and 73 per cent of Hispanic Catholics were concerned. That鈥檚 a big difference!
鈥淚n Revelation we are told that God will destroy those who destroy the Earth鈥�
In experiments my colleagues and I have done with evangelical college students in the US and Canada, we have found , the impacts of global warming and even solutions after they attended a talk or watched a video I made about climate change from a Christian perspective. That鈥檚 encouraging, because the bottom line is, if we Christians really are who we believe we are, we should be on the front line demanding climate action, not dragging our heels at the back.
How have your communication tactics improved over the years?
The biggest lesson I have learned is that most people don鈥檛 really have a problem with the science. Yes, the first thing out of their mouths might be a sciency sounding objection about natural climate cycles or sunspots. But their real problem is that they believe the solutions to climate change are incompatible with their ideology. They think the solutions will lead to big government dictating how they set their thermostat or what kind of car they can drive.
So I have had to educate myself on private-sector solutions that appeal to right-wing people. I love pointing out examples like by a Chinese wind-power company, or oil industry workers in San Antonio, Texas, who lost their jobs when oil prices fell and were .
One of the biggest concerns people have is that action on climate change is going to ruin the economy, so we shouldn鈥檛 frame climate change simply as an environmental issue. It is an economic issue, a public health issue, a national security issue.
You received a wave of hate in 2012 when right-wing radio host derided you as a 鈥渃limate babe鈥�. Do you still get attacked?
Every day. Every. Single. Day. A lot of the attacks come on Twitter or Facebook. Some people email, others actually write me letters and mail them. In contrast, the number of attacks I get face-to-face is minuscule. I was in Alberta, Canada, recently and a man came up to me after my presentation and asked why I didn鈥檛 talk about the ice-age cycles. I said, well, according to those cycles, we should be cooling as we head slowly into an ice age. He said, 鈥極h, OK, thank you.鈥� Then he got home and courageously wrote me, from the privacy of his home, the most scathing, offensive email.
That鈥檚 a serious problem in our society: when you are not actually talking to another human face-to-face, it is easy to dehumanise each other.
It must be annoying to hear sunspots and solar cycles cited as evidence that climate change isn鈥檛 real, but you are always respectful in how you respond to these claims. Does that come naturally?
The response that comes most naturally to me is what comes naturally to a lot of us scientists: do you really imagine I鈥檝e spent more than 20 years studying climate science and never heard that one before?
But the Bible says 鈥渢he fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control鈥�, and I consciously practise those things. It enables me to say, 鈥淚 understand where you鈥檙e coming from. If I were you, that is a question I would have, and it deserves a respectful answer.鈥�
I want to share not just my head with people, but also my heart.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淭he climate change evangelist with God on her side鈥�
