Product Code Database
Katharine Anne Scott Hayhoe (born 1972) is a Canadian atmospheric scientist. She is a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and an Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law at the Texas Tech University Department of Political Science. In 2021, Hayhoe joined the Nature Conservancy as Chief Scientist.
Hayhoe received her Bachelor of Science degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Toronto in 1994. She began her college career studying astrophysics, but upon taking a course on climate science to fulfill a course requirement, she shifted her focus to atmospheric science, which she ultimately specialized in at graduate school.
Hayhoe attended graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy. Her PhD committee was chaired by Donald Wuebbles, who recruited her for a research project assessing the impacts of climate change on the Great Lakes.
She met her husband, Andrew Farley, while doing graduate studies at the University of Illinois. Farley is an author, pastor and SiriusXM radio host who leads The Grace Message, a Christian ministry.
Shortly after the Third Assessment was released, Hayhoe said, "Climate change is here and now, and not in some distant time or place," adding that, "The choices we're making today will have a significant impact on our future." She co-authored the American Association for the Advancement of Science's What We Know, and How We Respond reports. In 2021, she was co-author of the book Downscaling Techniques for High-Resolution Climate Projections: From Global Change to Local Impacts (Cambridge University Press, 2021).Kotamarthi, R., Hayhoe, K., Mearns, L. O., Wuebbles, D., Jacobs, J., & Jurado, J. (2021). Downscaling Techniques for High-Resolution Climate Projections: From Global Change to Local Impacts (1st Edition). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108601269.
Hayhoe has received honorary doctorates from Colgate University, Victoria University at the University of Toronto, Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto, and Trinity College (CT). She has received the American Geophysical Union's Climate Communication and Ambassador Awards, and is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Scientific Affiliation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and an honorary fellow of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. In 2023 Hayhoe was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Hayhoe's 2018 TED talk, "The most important thing you can do to fight climate change", had over 4 million views. She has also written the book ''Saving Us: A climate scientist's case for hope and healing in a divided world''. She is active on over a dozen social media channels, writes regularly for Scientific American, and her newsletter ''Talking Climate'' shares good news, "not-so-good" news, and something people can do about climate change every week.
In her communication, she emphasizes the importance of not engaging with people she refers to as "dismissive", after the Yale University Program on Climate Communication's Six Americas. On September 28, 2018, she said, "The six stages of climate denial are: It's not real. It's not us. It's not that bad. It's too expensive to fix. Aha, here's a great solution (that actually does nothing). And – oh no! Now it's too late. You really should have warned us earlier." What the Coronavirus Means for Climate Change By Meehan Crist, The New York Times, March 27, 2020
In 2009, she and her husband, Andrew Farley, co-authored a book called A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions, which outlines the ways in which climate science reflects conservative Christian beliefs.Samenow, Jason. "Climate leaders Sullivan and Hayhoe make TIME 100 Most Influential People", The Washington Post, April 24, 2014 The book resulted in word-of-mouth referrals across various Christian communities, who began to invite Hayhoe to speak at Christian colleges, churches, and other conservative groups. In the book, she stated that acceptance of climate change does not mean "that we have to believe in evolution or a four billion year old earth". Notably, when Hayhoe first met her husband and co-author, he was skeptical of global warming, but shifted his views. She notes that she was able to change his mind over the course of a year and a half, with the help of data collected on a NASA website that documents rising global temperatures over time. Hayhoe has recognized that those debates with her husband sharpened her skills as a communicator engaging audiences skeptical of climate science.
The effectiveness of her outreach efforts to Christian communities have been the subject of study. She delivers lectures that are rooted in scripture and focus on the benefits of collective action to mitigate the effects of climate change. A 2017 study tested the effectiveness of a climate lecture Hayhoe delivered to students at the predominantly evangelical school Houghton College, in which she devoted time to a discussion of theology-based ethics and delivered information about climate change through a lens of evangelical tradition. Following her lecture, students exhibited more willingness to accept that global warming is a true phenomenon and had an increased awareness of the expert scientific consensus. A subsequent study showed that the more doubtful the audience, the greater the gains after listening to a recorded presentation by Hayhoe on climate science, impacts, and solutions.
In an interview with ThinkProgress, Hayhoe said: "When we tie that to our Christian values there’s no conflict. In fact, quite the opposite – our faith demands that we act on this issue."
Hayhoe also hosted and produced a digital series with PBS called Global Weirding: Climate, Politics, and Religion, which launched September 2016 and ran through March 2019.
Upon finding out that her chapter had been dropped, Hayhoe stated, "I had not heard that" and tweeted that she had spent over 100 unpaid hours working on the chapter. Some have speculated that Gingrich dropped her chapter because Marc Morano, who is not a scientist, wrote many articles on his website, Climate Depot, attacking her findings. This, as well as her appearing on Bill O'Reilly's TV show, led to her receiving nearly 200 hate-mail messages the following day. Shortly after, the conservative political action committee American Tradition Institute filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for Hayhoe's public university employer to release her notes and emails related to the writing of the unpublished chapter for the Gingrich book.
|
|
