Katharine Hayhoe, Scientist with a Mission to Explain the Realities of Climate Change
by Vicki Wolf, December 2011

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe’s flight from Lubbock to Austin to speak at a “Effective Drought Strategies” workshop for Texas water managers December 9 was delayed by morning fog. This is perhaps a metaphor for the foggy misconceptions about global warming and climate change she is working to overcome. She volunteers 20 to 30 hours a month to speak to government and civic organizations, senior citizens’ homes, grade school classes, churches, colleges and other groups.

There’s no need to ask this woman what she does in her spare time. In Texas, Hayhoe is associate professor in the Department of Political Science and director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. On the world stage, she is an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Hayhoe has authored 50 peer-reviewed publications and many reports including the U.S. Global Change Research Program's 2009 report, “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States”; the U.S. National Academy of Science 2011 report, “Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts over Decades to Millennia”; and the upcoming 2013 U.S. National Climate Assessment. The young mother of a four-year-old also is founder and CEO of ATMOS Research that provides non-profits, industry and government clients relevant information about climate change. And Hayhoe is a pastor’s wife (more about that later).

Hayhoe is becoming a very influential climate scientist. It’s not just that she thoroughly understands the science. She is an excellent speaker, and maybe most important, Hayhoe cares very much about helping people who aren’t scientists or intellectuals understand why they should be concerned about the impacts of climate change in their lives.

She explains to the audience of about 50 water management and conservation specialists that Texas is facing a trend of weather extremes that can’t be stopped now by flipping a switch. “If we could reduce our emissions -- stop producing any carbon dioxide (CO2) or methane -- we would still see a one degree Fahrenheit increase in global temperature over the rest of the century,” she says. “Many trends would continue in terms of increasing frequency of temperature extremes, precipitation extremes, increasing risk of droughts in parts of the world.” Hayhoe warns that “past measures are no longer reliable to predict the future. The drought of record is no longer the drought of record.”

Hayhoe works as a scientist to take data from global models to find out what impact climate change is having at the local level. “I want to try to figure out what climate change means for us at scales where we live,” she says. Hayhoe is involved in about 20 projects looking at the impact of climate change on endangered species, water management, infrastructure, agriculture and more.

The scientific evidence for human influence on global warming is easy to understand and undeniable when Hayhoe explains it. But convincing certain groups to accept the scientific evidence can be challenging. “If you look at statistics in America, there is very strong evidence that people who are inherently conservative, people who are evangelical, are the people who most question the reality of science,” says Hayhoe, who has first hand experience in her personal life as well as in the work she is doing today.

Hayhoe, who is a Christian, met her husband, Dr. Andrew Farley, at the graduate chapter of the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at the University of Illinois. She was working on her masters and he was working on his doctorate. Farley is senior pastor of Ecclesia, an independent Bible church, and associate professor of Classical and Modern Language at Texas Tech University.

“When we first got married, actually, my husband didn’t think climate change was real. We had a many discussions ourselves on this issue,” Hayhoe says.

They downloaded the global temperature data from the NASA website together and plotted trend lines. “Finally, he said he got to a point that he either had to believe that NASA was part of this giant conspiracy to deceive America and the world, or maybe NASA knows what it is talking about,” Hayhoe recalls. “He decided that it was a greater leap of faith to think that NASA was involved in a massive conspiracy than that they do know what they are talking about, and therefore this data must be real.”

When the couple moved to Texas, Farley started getting a lot of questions. “People would hear about what I did and most people would rather not ask me. They would rather ask him,” Hayhoe says.

Farley started coming home with more questions, such as: How do we know it’s not volcanoes causing climate change? Or hasn’t the temperature been going down for the last five years? If God is in control, how could something like this be happening?

Invitations started coming in for Hayhoe to speak to a variety of organizations. With her presentations came more questions. Farley and Hayhoe discussed the questions and realized that they they were good questions that needed to be answered before efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change could move forward. “Questions like: How do we know it’s not the sun or a natural cycle? We need an answer to that question,” Hayhoe says. “It’s not reasonable to ask people to limit their emissions and change their lifestyle if they aren’t convinced that it isn’t a natural cycle.”

Hayhoe searched extensively for a book or video to answer these questions. She came up empty handed. “Every book I found started from the same premise - that you were already on board with the issue of scientific evidence and consensus.” After three years of discussion and searching, Hayhoe and Farley decided to write, A Climate for Change: Global warming facts for faith-based decisions. The book clearly explains global warming, debunks misconceptions and sounds a call to action for Christians and all people.

One of the reasons to be concerned about global warming is that ecosystems are being fragmented. “Certain things are moving and others aren’t. This makes it difficult to maintain the overall health of our natural environment,” Hayhoe says. “I think to a great extent we don’t yet understand how climate is going to affect our natural environment and our resources.”

Hayhoe grew up in Ontario, Canada with forests and crystal-clear lakes. This year she noticed a large bird taking over the habitat of the loon. “It doesn’t give that beautiful loon call, and it’s not a native of Ontario,” Hayhoe explains. “For me as a child, falling asleep to the call of the loon is what I did every night of every summer. So already within the lifetime of my child, who’s only four years old, we may have lost one of the highlights of my own childhood.”