Accepting climate change and being Christian aren't mutually exclusive, says religious scientist

Climate change and atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe has received threats for her work — and yet has been welcomed into Christian colleges and oil company board rooms to explain how she doesn't see science and faith as mutually exclusive.

"In the U.S., the No. 1 predictor, unfortunately, of whether people think climate is changing and humans are responsible is simply where they fall on the political spectrum," she told the Calgary Eyeopener on Tuesday.

"But over the last few decades in the U.S., and increasingly creeping across the border here in Canada, we are starting to see people affiliating their faith with their politics."

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Hayhoe, who is from Toronto, is the director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University and an atmospheric scientist. She has dedicated her career to studying climate change and educating the public about the fact-based science — and among the Evangelical Christian community in particular.

"I had never met anybody who didn't think that climate change was real. Then before I know it, I'm living in West Texas, the most conservative part of the country, where the majority of people there do not think it's real," Hayhoe said. "I'm recognizing that they've been told, in part, that it isn't real because Christians can't believe in science."

With her husband, a pastor at a Texas Evangelical church, she's written a book called A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions.

Hayhoe presented a paper this week to a climate change conference in Edmonton that looked at how a warming planet will affect Alberta. On Tuesday evening, she takes part in a public forum at 7 p.m. at Telus Spark, How Can We Talk about Climate Change in Alberta?

She spoke about her efforts with Calgary Eyeopener host David Gray.

Q: Why is there an opposition that comes from faith to the notion of climate change?

A: The opposition is not theological at its root. If you look at the Bible, it says very clearly that humans have responsibility or stewardship or even dominion over the planet.

But if you imagine a CEO that has dominion over their company and they run it into the ground and leave behind smoking ruins, you wouldn't exactly respect that person.

Also the Bible talks a lot about caring for people who are less fortunate than us, people who are vulnerable and poor. That's why I care about a changing climate, because those are the people who are disproportionately affected.

But when we hear people object to this, they use what I call kind of "religious-y sounding" objections.

"God is in control so this could never happen." Never mind that Genesis 1 says God gave humans control over the planet.

Or you know, "The world's going to end anyway so why does it matter?" Never mind that the apostle Paul writes to people, Thessalonians, and says essentially, "Get off your rears. Stop saying, 'Oh, the world's going to end tomorrow.' Go do something. Get a job. Care for your family. Take care of the widows and the poor."

The objections sounds religious, but when you start to dig into them, 99.9 per cent of them have a lot more to do with political ideology than they do with our faith.

Q: You're not just arguing, though, with the person sitting in the pew next to you. You're arguing with the person speaking from the pulpit, which I'm sure makes some waves when you're in Texas. It could also here. How does that go when you talk to church leaders?

A: When I speak to Christian colleges or churches or parachurch organizations, typically I'm not invited in unless the leadership has at least some degree of buy in.

They may be curious. They may not be on-board but they're interested and welcome.

I would say, honestly, some of the toughest groups I've spoken to have been the executive leadership board of an oil and gas company. Or water managers in Texas who are very conservative people. They're used to natural cycles but they're not so used to long-term trends like we're seeing today.

The key, no matter who we're talking with, is to figure out, what is it that we really care about already passionately, and is that or those things that we care about, are they being affected by a changing climate? If so, then we're actually the natural person to care about it, whether we know it or not.

Q: At what point do you say, "Well, maybe I need to leave that organization if they've refused to believe the facts"?

A: I think I would find it very difficult to go to a church that thought that what I did was a bunch of hooey.

But in the U.S., and sadly, again, this is also happening in Canada, many people — especially people who share my faith who call themselves Evangelicals — they are letting their political ideology write their statement of faith first and the Bible second. If the two come into conflict, they're going with their politics over their ideology. 

I think that is actually the exact opposite of what we're called to do.

The whole idea of Catholic versus Protestant was Catholics look to tradition, the Pope and the Bible as sources of authority. Protestants looks to the Bible as a source of spiritual authority.

But today we have a new breed of Christian, so to speak, who look to their political ideology first and the Bible or the Pope only second.

Q: I'm wondering in Texas if, you have managed to bridge these worlds — and it sounds like you have managed to bridge these two worlds — if it's not because you're a scientist and not because you're an Evangelical, but because you're a Canadian?

A: I think you might have hit the nail on the head a little bit there.

Because as we know, in the U.S. people's political identity is so much part of who they are that — and I've even had people say this to me — they say, "I agree with what you say, this makes sense, I have no problem with it but I can't ever agree with Al Gore so I can never change my mind."

As a Canadian, I feel a little bit detached that I don't have to pick sides. And I can encourage people to agree with the science without having to pick sides either because gravity doesn't care how you vote.

You could vote Republican, Democrat, or anything. You step off the cliff, you're going down, right?

In the same way, climate is changing no matter what you think about science, whether you believe it or not.

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.

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