Last week I went on a silent retreat to a monastery to slow down, hand over my anxiety, to reflect and learn. Speaking of learning, I learned that the monks there bake bread, tend their gardens, and compost–just like me!
While I was there I read several books, one of them being Katharine Hayhoe’s “Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.” It is a brilliant read. While it was full of information (as it should be), Hayhoe did an amazing job of simplifying the content and working through it with the reader, which was such a relief to me because, although curious, I am still doubtful about some things and didn’t go to school to study any of this sustainable/environmental stuff. Ultimately, as the book title suggests, she provides encouragement and hope as people dive into this journey of taking care of the Earth and fighting climate change.
Katharine Hayhoe is a Christian, like myself. She is also a Climate Scientist. One of the reasons why I started Waste-Free Dayton in 2020 is because of who I am; I am a follower of Christ and thereby it is my honored responsibility to steward (not manipulate) the Earth. This includes people, resources, plants, animals–everything, to the best of my ability. I believe it is integrated in who we are as Followers and helps bring God’s Kingdom on Earth (Shalom). Even forgetting about climate change for a moment, it can be draining sometimes to try to make the world a better place (it can also be very satisfying and fruitful–I believe showing love is part of who humans are!) That’s also one reason why we want to connect and collaborate with anyone, because we know it takes collaboration. We all have our different views, opinions, and beliefs, and Waste-Free Dayton welcomes all. All of us are here on Earth and all of us are being affected by climate change and problems around us.
So when Hayhoe shared reasons in the book why she is a Christian Climate Scientist, shared her struggles and was vulnerable, that helped because I could somewhat relate to that. She also lives in Texas (where I grew up), in Lubbock in fact (my mom grew up nearby, in the Texas panhandle, so I’ve been to those stretching plains many times). She also likes to knit (like me) and wants to connect with others (like me)–humans have their own lives, struggles, passions, etc. To create positive change we have to do something better than telling people why they should believe climate change is real. We need to genuinely connect with them.
I had so many take-aways, but here are the top ones for you:
Climate change is real, and it’s our fault.
Notice what's happening locally.
Facts, fear, and guilt can sometimes be effective, but what works best is simply connecting with the other person and talking about climate change.
Climate change is real, and it’s our fault.
Hayhoe lists out the top 4 reasons for why people sometimes reason for the Earth becoming so hot. She mentions the Sun’s heat waves, volcanoes releasing carbon pollution, orbital cycles, and natural cycles–saying all of these can be legitimate concerns, but they aren’t the reasons for the Earth getting warmer. I can’t help but share a little bit about what she had to say concerning each:
The Sun: “When the energy from the Sun increases, the planet warms up slightly.” Makes sense. But Hayhoe says that “for today’s warming to be due to the Sun, though, its energy would have to be increasing–and it’s not. Since the 1970’s, satellite radiometer data show that the Sun’s energy has been decreasing. So if the Sun were controlling our climate right now, we’d be getting cooler. Instead, the Earth’s temperature continues to increase. The Sun has an alibi” (42-43).
Volcanoes: Hayhoe acknowledges that volcanoes can cause the Earth to warm up. “But natural geologic emissions amount to around 1 percent of the carbon dioxide and less than 15 percent of the methane that human activities contribute to the atmosphere every year” (44). So it is small in comparison to what we are responsible for.
Orbital Cycles: This concept was new to me, and Hayhoe defines it well. She ends with saying that scientists have been documenting orbital cycles, when they cause the Earth to increase in temperature and decrease. Right now the Earth should be in a decreasing phase, but it’s not. It’s actually increasing and “getting warmer instead” (44-45).
Natural Cycles: “Natural cycles can’t create heat out of nothing. Rather, they help distribute energy around the planet by moving heat between the ocean and the atmosphere…they warm one part of the planet while simultaneously cooling another.” Hayhoe then mentions cycles that we might have heard of, including El Nino. “Today, however, the entire planet is warming, particularly over the oceans; so it isn’t just a natural cycle moving heat around.” Over time, she says, the ocean has absorbed much of the heat. The ocean’s “heat content has increased about fifteen times that of the Earth’s atmosphere.” “Using the change in ocean heat content as a measure of climate change is far more accurate than tracking changes in air temperature.” But we don’t live underwater, she writes, so we don’t realize that (45-46).
The truth? We are pumping a ton of carbon into the atmosphere and assuming that everything will be fine the way it is now. The reality is that “the Earth has warmed by over 1℃ (nearly 2℉) in the past hundred and fifty years. The rate is over ten times faster than when the Earth emerged from the last ice age. The planet is going to survive–it has, after all, been warmer before on geologic timescales. It is our human systems that are at risk, our cities and economies and buildings and food systems and, at the end of it all, our civilization” (95).
Notice what's happening locally.
It’s not just polar bears starving on melting glaciers all the way up north. “When California is breaking a new record every year for the largest wildfire ever, when a Siberean heatwave tops 38℃, or 100℉, and when hurricanes are dumping more than 1.3 meters or fifty inches of rain on the Gulf Coast? That’s climate change” (99). I grew up in McKinney, Texas (Dallas area), and people tell me that it is noticeably getting warmer and warmer every summer. "It's 98 degrees today, but with the heat index it will feel like 105 degrees." The Dallas metroplex has also been first Texas city to have 100 days of triple-digit temperatures in one year." Lastly, Dallas has indeed increasingly been getting hotter. The #showyourstripes initiative measures the average temperature of each year and shows that the heat has been increasing:
https://showyourstripes.info/s/northamerica/unitedstatesofamerica/dallas
The same could be said for Ohio. I have heard a handful of Ohioans say that they feel like the winters are getting milder each year. "It just doesn't snow or get as cold like it used to."
https://showyourstripes.info/s/northamerica/unitedstatesofamerica/columbus
Facts, fear, and guilt can sometimes be effective, but what works best is simply connecting with the other person and talking about climate change.
“Facts about the science aren’t enough to explain why climate change matters and why it’s so urgent that we fix it. We need more. We need to understand how climate change matters to us, personally, and what we can do about it in our own lives. And you, not I [Katharine Hayhoe], are the experts” (221). We connect more to each other than just connecting to facts.
There’s a reason why story-telling is found all throughout history and is considered an art.
“What do people pay attention to the most? In general, we tend to favor personal stories and experiences over reams of data or facts. In fact, when you hear a story, neuroscientists have found, your brain waves start to synchronize with those of the story-teller. Your emotions follow. And that’s how change happens” (217).
Think about what you are passionate about and share with others.
“Talking about climate change does matter; the results can be very powerful. In social-science-speak, your response efficiency is high. Connecting with people over genuinely shared values reaches directly into our hearts, past the barriers of “them” and “us” that we’ve erected. We can identify with one another over something that matters to us deeply and defines who we are. That makes it the perfect place to start the conversation” (223).
“Where do you live?
What or whom do you love?
What activities do you enjoy doing?
What do you do for work?
Do you come from any particular culture, place, or faith tradition?
And perhaps most importantly, what are you passionate about?” (31-32).
“How you connect with others doesn’t have to fit any mold, example, or pattern. Whoever you are, you are the perfect person to talk about climate change with others who share your interests” (32).
When I was checking out at the end of my retreat, an other gentleman in the room–who I noticed had attended the silent retreat the whole week like myself– turned to me and quietly asked, “Were you reading a book by Katharine Hayhoe?” I excitedly replied, “Yes!” (maybe a little too loudly). We continued, exchanged names (his name is Tim) and he said he read the book too and was a diocesan priest of a parish in New York. Tim shared that he and his church community have started a Creation Care group, talking about taking care of the environment and how they could fight climate change. I shared a little bit of my background and why I was reading the book. Certainly I want to continue to learn, in order to help grow Waste-Free Dayton (however that is beneficial for the community). But I also am genuinely curious as to what “drama” is all about and what good is happening already around the world and in our own backyard, the U.S. Tim and I had a short conversation, but as we conversed we ended up encouraging one another in what we were doing, with a mutual understanding that it can be hard work but it is worth it for all of us in the end. It for sure is worth it, I still have hope that we can turn this thing around. And at the end of my life, I want to be able to look back and rest in the fact that I showed the Earth love and was a responsible steward.
And how beautiful is that? At the end of my silent retreat, after finishing Hayhoe’s book, I encountered the very thing that she talks about: connecting with someone (a total stranger, in fact!) and talking about climate change.
So now it is one of my permanent goals to talk about climate change more. Okay...not all the time! I realize there is a time and place, and of course I have other things I want to do and chat about. What about you? Where are you at? Maybe you are still doubtful and you want to do a bit more research on climate change (I highly recommend reading Hayhoe’s book!). Maybe it is working through a perspective change–a paradigm shift–as you realize that climate change is real and it affects us all. Whatever it is, know that you are not alone and I am here if you want to chat (my email is [email protected]. Our sustainable coffee chats to connect with community members is held on the 2nd Wednesday of every month is a great opportunity too).
Waste-Free Dayton cares about big matters, like climate change and pollution, and also more personal matters, like individuals cleaning up litter in Dayton area neighborhoods and our local communities having the support they need.
I will end with just one more quote from Katharine Hayhoe:
“We care because the cascade of events triggered by that warming affects everything we already care about: where we get the food that we eat and how much it costs; how clean or dirty the air that we breathe is; the economy and national security; hunger, disease, and poverty across the planet, the future of civilization as we know it. We’ve woven a million reasons why we already care about climate change into the very fabric of our society. We just haven’t fully realized it yet” (33).
Thanks for reading!
-Natalie