If the Bible said, “Ye must do something about global warming,” as well as, “Ye must be born again,” Katherine Hayhoe’s job would be easier. But Hayhoe believes “love your neighbor as yourself” speaks clearly enough.
Hayhoe, the wife of a pastor and faculty adviser for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapter at Texas Tech University, is a professor of Geosciences and one of the nation’s leading researchers on global warming. Hayhoe told an audience of about three dozen at the Overture Center, in a lecture presented as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival, that the evidence for global warming is clear. The question is, what are we going to do about it?
Hayhoe presented a graph which showed the natural variability of the earth’s temperature from year to year. It also showed that 11 of the last 12 years were the warmest on record. Using records of long-term temperature change — from tree rings, antarctic ice cores, the Kyoto cherry blossom festival — Hayhoe asserted, “Our current conditions are outside the range of historic variablity.”
Prayer for the Glacier
She told the story of a village in the Swiss alps which faced encroachment from a neighboring glacier during the little ice age of the medieval period. They asked the Pope for a special prayer. The glacier stopped and ever since the villagers have repeated that prayer. But last September the village asked the Pope for a new prayer because their glacier, like so many others, is shrinking precipitously.
The U.S. plant hardiness map, which is familia
r to gardeners, has been readjusted. Madison’s climate is now more like the climate of St. Louis two decades ago. Kudzu, the scourge of the south, has been reported as close as southern Illinois.
Hayhoe admitted that the climate has changed in previous centuries without human cause, usually related to the cycles of the sun. But since the beginning of the industrial age we humans have been pumping more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
“Change is possible,” Hayhoe said, discussing possible responses, such as switching to more efficient light bulbs and more usage of renewable fuels. “Corporate action as families, communities and states can have a huge impact.”
Countering the Professional Deniers
Hayhoe avoided alarmist rhetoric but made it clear that she has little patience with “professional deniers” who challenge climate change. She cited James Hoggan’s book, Climate Cover-Up, which claims that corporate interests are heavily invested against the fight to stop climate change.
In the question and answer session after the lecture, Hayhoe praised Christian organizations such as World Vision and Compassion International for their efforts to address climate change, because of its devastating impacts on poor populations around the world. Yet most Christians don’t seem to care about it.
The Christian angle
“I really don’t get why it’s not more of a Christian issue,” she said. “On this one issue I believe Christians have allowed their politics to inform their opinion, rather than their faith in God. And that’s a tragedy.”
Hayhoe then threw the question back to the audience, which included two local residents who are national leaders among Christians who are concerned about the environment and global warming: Ed Brown, a former pastor and missionary and now the executive director of the Madison-based Care of Creation ministry, and Cal DeWitt, University of Wisconsin professor and former director of the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies.
Brown said that as he has talked with other pastors he has found that the battle over creation and evolution has made many pastors skeptical about science. DeWitt added that he believes that as Christians have become more individualistic and self interested, they have found themselves captive to “moneyed interests.”
“In the true sense of the word, being conservative is conserving,” said Hayhoe, indicating her hopefulness that minds can be changed on the issue. “Even if climate change was a complete fraud there are many reasons to address conservation that have nothing to do with climate change, such as working towards a cleaner world.”