Street Roots • June 19-25, 2015
Page 5
News
HAYHOE, from page 4
even on CNN, which most people regard as
a fairly middle-of-the-road news network, 30
percent of the information on climate
change was false. On Fox News, over 70
percent of the information was false. In
2012 on Fox News, over 90 percent of the
information was false.
When you look at CNN, where does that <
false information come from? It came from
two talking heads arguing with each other.
In fact, every time I have received an
invitation to appear on CNN, it was always,
“Would you debate so-and-so, who is saying
that climate change isn’t real, or if it is
(real), it isn’t human (caused), or even if it is
humans, it’s not a big deal?”
<
Every time they asked, I said no. I feel it
is morally wrong for me, as a scientist, to
perpetuate the myth that it’s 50-50 by
engaging in a 50-50 debate.
E.G.: What kind of impact doyou think
Pope Francis’ statement solidifying climate
change is going to have on the faith-based
community? ,
K.H.: Here in west Texas, one of my close
colleagues attends a Catholic church. He’s
shared with me how he’s horrified by th e .
number of people at his church who’d rather
listen to what Fox News says about climate
change than the pope.
If we look across thé entire United States,
Catholics are more similar to mainline
Protestants m what they would say about
climate change, whether it’s real or not, or
caused by humans or not. ¡hope, thepope^s
encyclical will improve those numbers
further.
But in the evangelical world, we don’t
have a pope. We don’t even have a very
strong hierarchy of religious .leadership. So
our vacuum of leadership has been filled by
the media and by our political leaders,
E.G.: I f every conservative Christian
accepted that climate change was real, do you
think that would be enough to motivate them :
to vote for political leaders who want to do
something about climate change but who
disagree with them on some of their other
values?
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s a
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change is real in public if you actually want
to be elected.”
Politicians respond to what they believe
their electorate wants. A big part of the
issue of climate change, perhaps the
;
biggest, is the fact that what people really
object to are the solutiorfs, not the science.
The solutions have been presented as |
solutions that involve government policies^
government intervention in people.’«
personal ànd private lives. That’s how the
solutions have often been framed. And so I
think that there is room for free market,
conservative solutions in the debate, and
Bob Inglis is one of the people who is
championing this idea.
E.G.: How do you explain to Christians .
that they can say climate change is real and
also still believe in intelligent design or
creationism?
K.H.: I think that would be enough to
K.H.: I ask people to walk with me
change the tune of most of our politicians.
through what we believe, to listen and think
We have examples of politicians, starting
about how we connect those beliefs to the
with (James) Inhofe, who have said things
issue of climate change, to consider the
like, “I thought it must be true until I found
evidence that God’s creation is giving Us as
out how much it cost.” And I-have other
examples from colleagues who have been on the reality of climate change, and then to
think about what are ways we can respond
an airplane, for example, sitting beside a
that are consistent with our faith and our
Republican congressman well kndwn for his
,
values.
public rejection of climate science, saying in
Along the way, I have made a conscious'
private, off the record, things like: Of course
decision - onq that not all my fellow
climaté change is a very important problem,
scientists would agree with, I’m sure - that
but I can’t get elected if I say that.
in order To convince people of the reality
Bob Inglis is a very conservative
and the urgency of acting on climate, I am
Republican congressman who lost his seat
willing to walk around some very ancient
in the primaries just because, when
and very explosive mines that divide science
Confronted with the evidence by his son, he
from
faith.
decided to publicly say, “Yes, climate change
I took our ice ebre data, which shows us
is real.” I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a
what temperature, carbon dioxide and
room somewhere with a picture of Bob, a
methane were like going into the past, and I
room that young, promising, potential
created a figure that looks at the history of
Republican candidates are led into and sat
our planet over the last 6,000 years.
down and told, “Do not be like Bob. Look
For example, from ice core data, which
what happened to him. You can say
shows us thé Earth’s temperature, carbon
whatever you want in the privacy of your
dioxide and methane for hundreds of
own home, but do not say that climate
'
.
PHOTO: ASHLEY RODGERS / TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY
thousands of years in the past, if we’re
looking at the warm interglacial period that
we’re in right now, we’d probably want to go
back 18,000 to 20,000 years. If a scientist is
responsible for the planet now. We’re not
usurping the role of God; we are the ones in
charge, and God is saying, “How will you
steward the resources I have given you?”,
I plotting any given data set, we’d usually ju st
I n t p e Bible, we are told very clearly, th a t
we reap what we sow, that our choices have
consequences. We can look around in-the
World today, and each of us can find an
example of something tragic that God has
let happen, because God created human
.beings to make our own decisions, and we
don’t always make the best decisions.
Climate change is nothing more than a
consequence of a decision that we humans
made. Way back when, at the beginning of
the Industrial Revolution, we didn’t know
that burning so much coal-and natural gas
would put all this carbon into the
atmosphere.
But by the 1800s, we did know that we
were wrapping this extra blanket around the
planet, and by the early 1900s, we knew the
planet was heating up in response. Now we
know the consequences of our decision; it’s
time to make a different choice.
The second argument is, “The world is
going to end anyway, so why do we care?”
Again here we can go back to the Bible and
look at the book of Thessalonians, where
E.G.: And what do you say to skeptics who
people were saying, “You told us that Christ
say, “The Earth will be our habitat for as long
was returning any day now, so I’m going to
as God wants it to be, and there’s nothing we
quit my job, lie around, eat, drink and be
can do about it”?
■
merry, because hey, the world’s going to
end anyway. Might as well enjoy the last few
K.H.: Well, there are two arguments in
days we have.”
that one sentence.
Liberally paraphrasing the apostle Paul’s
The first argument, “God would neyer let
response, he said: “Get a job, support your
this happen,” is often invoked by politicians.
family, care for the widows and the poor
It centers around the concept of the
who can’t care for themselves, because we
sovereignty of God and the idea that, “How
don’t know the day or the time the world
can we puny humans imagine, in our
will end, and in the meantime, we’re not
arrogance, that We are powerful enough to
supposed to sit around twiddling our fingers;
affect something as great as this planet,
we’re supposed to love others as_ Christ
which God created?” And to answer that
loved us.” ,
question, we don’t go to science; wë go to
And how loving is it if we bury our head in
the Bible.
the sand - or in a barrel of oil - and pretend
In Genesis, God gave us responsibility for
every living creature pn this planet. We are
See HAYHOE, page 6
show the entire record. In this case,
however, I used ice core data to make a
figure showing only the last 6,000 years.
Why did I do that? Because a large
proportion of people here in the U.S.
believe the Earth is quite young*
So I made this plot and looked at it, and
here’s th e amazing thing. When we look at
the last 6,000 years, the impact of human
activity on our climate is unmistakable.
There are no major large natural cycles over
the last 6,000 years. In fact, our
temperature was on the long, slow élidé into
what we know was going to be the next ice
age — until the Industrial Revolution, that is.
And then all of a sudden, boom — it goes
almost straight up.
What I say to people is: We don’t need to
agree that the Earth is any more than 300
years old to agree that humans; are changing
climate. And I think we can all âgree on
that. |