Dr. Katharine Hayhoe
I don’t accept global warming on faith: I crunch the data, I analyze the models...The data tells us the planet is warming; the science is clear that humans are responsible.
Houghton, NY (PRWEB) February 06, 2015
Houghton College welcomes to campus one of Time Magazine’s 2014 One Hundred Most Influential People in the World, renowned climate expert and evangelical Christian Dr. Katharine Hayhoe.
Dr. Hayhoe will be presenting lectures on climate change from the perspective of evangelical Christian faith on Tuesday, Feb. 17 in the Center for Fine Arts Recital Hall at 8:30 p.m. and in Chapel on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 11:05 a.m. Both events will be free and open to the public. Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist, expert on climate change, and evangelical Christian.
“Within the Christian world there can be a lot of tension between faith and science, with many evangelicals accepting a false dichotomy that the two are opposed,” commented Brian Webb, sustainability coordinator for Houghton College. “Hayhoe bridges this communication gap by not only bringing her expertise as a world renowned climate researcher, but also as a scientist who is vocal about her Christian faith. Ultimately, her work integrates the two areas by showing how responding to climate change is an inherently Christian thing to do.”
“I don’t accept global warming on faith: I crunch the data, I analyze the models, I help engineers and city managers and ecologists quantify the impacts,” commented Hayhoe. “The data tells us the planet is warming; the science is clear that humans are responsible.”
Hayhoe is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s South-Central Climate Science Center. Her research focuses on establishing a scientific basis for assessing the regional- to local-scale impacts of climate change on human systems and the natural environment.
She is also the founder and CEO of ATMOS Research, where they bridge the gap between scientists and stakeholders to provide relevant, state-of-the-art information on how climate change will affect our lives to a broad range of non-profit, industry and government clients.
Hayhoe has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, and other publications and many key reports including the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Second National Climate Assessment; the U.S. National Academy of Science report “Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts over Decades to Millennia”; and the 2014 Third National Climate Assessment.
In addition to these reports, she has led climate impact assessments for a broad cross-section of cities and regions from Chicago to California and the U.S. Northeast. The findings of these studies have been presented before Congress, highlighted in briefings to state and federal agencies, and used as input to future planning by communities, states, and regions across the country.
Hayhoe also serves as a scientific advisor to the Citizen’s Climate Lobby, the EcoAmerica MomentUs project, the Energy and Enterprise Initiative, the Evangelical Environmental Network, and the International Women’s Earth and Climate Initiative.
She is a member of Climate Voices, a network that brings scientists and their fellow citizens together to engage in meaningful, ongoing dialogue about climate change effects on local communities, regions, and the country.
She also serves on the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s “What We Know” panel; the American Geophysical Union’s Hydrology Committee on Uncertainty; the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climate Predictions and Projections team and the NOAA Climate.gov advisory team. She has also contributed her research to and served as an expert reviewer for the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Together with her husband Andrew Farley, a professor of applied linguistics and best-selling author of “The Naked Gospel,” Dr. Hayhoe wrote “A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions,” a book that untangles the complex science and tackles many long-held misconceptions about global warming.
Her work as a climate change evangelist is featured on the documentary series “Years of Living Dangerously” and “The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers” and in articles appearing in On Earth, Grist, the LA Times, Climate Progress and others. In 2012, she was honored to be named one of Christianity Today’s 50 Women to Watch.
Webb commented, “Hayhoe’s visit is timely for us here at Houghton given that we’re about to go live with the largest solar array on a college campus in NY State within days of her visit. These are just two examples of how Houghton students are beginning to understand the connections between our faith and issues of environmental justice and sustainability.”