A Conservative Christian Talks About Climate Change

The lady pictured is Katharine Hayhoe. She is an evangelical christian -- and a climate scientist. She appeared on Bill Moyers TV show recently to discuss global climate change and why so many evangelical christians deny that it is happening. It was an excellent interview, and I urge you to read the whole thing. Below I have posted just a part of that interview:

BILL MOYERS: Why (do you get so much negative feedback)?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Well, caring about climate is entirely consistent with who we are as Christians. But over the last several decades, we have increasingly begun to confound our politics with our faith. To the point where instead of our faith dictating our attitudes on political and social issues, we are instead allowing our political party to dictate our attitude on issues that are clearly consistent with who we are.

BILL MOYERS: What does that tell you?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: That this issue pushes a button. It is a giant red button as big as this table, and it really makes people mad because they feel like it threatens something that they hold dear. And that's because we've been told that you can't be a Christian, or you can't be a conservative, or you can't be a person of faith or even a person of integrity and agree that climate is changing, that humans are responsible, and that there's something really important we need to do about it.

BILL MOYERS: Who's telling them that?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Well, if you read the social science, which is honestly my favorite reading material these days, we have found out from social science that number one, if you take conservative Protestants and you ask them what they think about climate change, but you control for age, for conservativism, and for political party affiliation, then the bias drops out. That's what is accounting for conservative Protestants thinking climate change isn't real. It's our political affiliation.

But here's the thing. In the majority of cases, if you really dig down to the bottom of people's objections to climate change, they're not based on the science. They're based on the solutions. People fundamentally object to the solutions to climate change, because climate change is a tragedy of the commons.

So by definition, one individual's actions will not be sufficient to address the problem. We have to act together. Together it means government. People are fundamentally opposed to government solutions to a problem. And so, but it's a lot easier to say it isn't a real problem, than to say it is a real problem, and it's a very serious problem. But we don't support any action to do anything about it.

BILL MOYERS: I think I hear you suggesting that conservative Christians are Republicans who, are deeply influenced more by Republican opposition to government than by global warming itself. Because if they take the science seriously, we have to do something about it. And the only way we can do something about it, is collectively through government.

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Yes, I believe actually that climate change is a casualty of much larger societal issues. Just to give you an example going back even farther, when we talk about climate change, the words we hear are things like carbon tax, and government legislation.

If you go back in history, what was the whole American Revolution, what did the whole American Revolution come from? It came from tax and government tyranny, and government imposing sanctions and taxes on people that they didn't think were fair. And so I think it's actually imbedded in the American psyche to object to big government solutions that involve taxing people's rights to do or use whatever they want.

BILL MOYERS: You've been quoted saying you feel like the conservative community, the evangelical community, and many other Christian communities have been lied to. By whom?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: So with climate change, we have people who we trust in our community. We have people who are Christians, we have people who call themselves Christians, we have conservative leaders who may not be Christian but are very respected within the community. And these are the people standing up telling us it's a hoax, it's not real. Or even maybe it's real, but it's not a big deal and we don't have to worry about it.

BILL MOYERS: Well, this is the puzzling thing. You know, why so many conservatives in leadership positions, Republicans I'm talking about, why do they dismiss the science? What do they have to gain, except the satisfaction that they're limiting the growth of government?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: That's, oh that's a great question. And honestly, trying to figure out that question is one of the main reasons why I am now in the department of political science. My background's originally in physics, and then atmospheric science. And then just a couple of years ago, I actually moved departments for multiple reasons, as all of us do. But one of the reasons is because I feel like the science is there.

We have all the information we need to take precautionary steps on this issue. It's not a scientific issue, it's not a matter of one more report will do it. One more national climate assessment, that's what will solve the problem. One more new analogy, and people will get it. Information is not the answer. The answer has much more to do with who we are as humans, and how we function politically.

BILL MOYERS: So why is it that two Christians walking down the same road of faith suddenly turn in exactly the opposite directions of belief about this issue of global warming?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: I think it relates to the fact that we often look to leaders we trust and respect to tell us what to think about it. And especially in the more evangelical parts of the Christian community, we have a leadership vacuum. I mean, aside from Billy Graham, it's hard to name a conservative Christian leader who's been around for decades. People come and go. We don't have a Pope Francis. We don't have, you know, John Paul, who has written very extensively and eloquently on the environment.

So in that leadership vacuum, especially in the more conservative parts of the church, our political leaders step in. People who share values with us. The media steps in, people who will say the things that we agree with in terms of you know, abortion, gun control, immigration, things like that. So I think it's a matter of we are being told things by people who don't like the solutions to climate change, and have decided that it's a lot better and it's a lot smarter to deny the reality of the problem than to acknowledge it exists, but say you don't want do anything about it.