Katharine Anne Scott Hayhoe was born in 1972. She is a Canadian scientist who studies the atmosphere. She holds the title of Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and has a special position in public policy and public law at the Texas Tech University Department of Political Science. In 2021, Hayhoe became the Chief Scientist at the Nature Conservancy.

Early life and education

Hayhoe was born on April 15, 1972, in Toronto, Ontario. Her father, Doug Hayhoe, was a science teacher and religious worker. When Hayhoe was nine years old, her family moved to Cali, Colombia, where her parents worked as teachers and religious workers.

Hayhoe earned a science degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Toronto in 1994. She started college by studying the science of space and stars but changed her focus after taking a class on climate science. She eventually focused on atmospheric science during graduate school.

Hayhoe studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for her Master’s and Doctoral degrees. Her PhD group was led by Donald Wuebbles, who invited her to join a research project that studied how climate change affects the Great Lakes.

Personal life

Kathryn Hayhoe is an evangelical Christian and the daughter of missionaries. She has said that sharing her identity as both a Christian and a scientist is "like coming out of the closet." Her father, Doug Hayhoe, worked as a science and technology coordinator for the Toronto District School Board and was a retired professor of education at Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto. Hayhoe says her father inspired her to believe that science and religion can coexist without conflict.

She met her husband, Andrew Farley, during her graduate studies at the University of Illinois. Farley is an author, pastor, and radio host for SiriusXM. He leads The Grace Message, a Christian ministry.

Research career

Hayhoe has worked at Texas Tech since 2005. She has written over 150 peer-reviewed papers, journal articles, and other publications, including the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth National Climate Assessment for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, as well as the National Academy of Sciences report titled “Climate Stabilization Targets.”

After the Third Assessment was released, Hayhoe said, “Climate change is here and now, and not in some distant time or place,” and added, “The choices we're making today will have a significant impact on our future.” She co-authored the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s reports What We Know and How We Respond. In 2021, she was a co-author of the book Downscaling Techniques for High-Resolution Climate Projections: From Global Change to Local Impacts (Cambridge University Press, 2021).

Recognition

In 2014, Hayhoe was named one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People." In 2017, she was named one of Fortune magazine's "50 World's Greatest Leaders." She was also listed on Foreign Policy magazine's "100 Leading Global Thinkers" twice, in 2014 and 2019. In 2019, Hayhoe was named one of the United Nations Champions of the Earth in the science and innovation category.

Hayhoe has received honorary doctorates from Colgate University, Victoria University at the University of Toronto, Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto, and Trinity College (CT). She has been awarded the American Geophysical Union's Climate Communication and Ambassador Awards. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Scientific Affiliation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is also an honorary fellow of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. In 2023, Hayhoe was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Climate communications

In addition to her research on climate change, Hayhoe is known for her work in communicating about climate change and her efforts to promote action on this issue. Professor John Abraham has called her "perhaps the best communicator on climate change." Hayhoe has spoken at the Nobel Peace Prize forum and appeared at the White House with former President Barack Obama and actor Leonardo DiCaprio at the first South by South Lawn festival.

As of 2023, Hayhoe's 2018 TED talk, "The most important thing you can do to fight climate change," had over 4 million views. She has also written the book Saving Us: A climate scientist's case for hope and healing in a divided world. She is active on many social media channels, writes regularly for Scientific American, and her newsletter Talking Climate shares news about climate change and actions people can take every week.

In her communication, she focuses on avoiding conversations with people she calls "dismissive," based on the Yale University Program on Climate Communication's Six Americas. On September 28, 2018, she said, "The six stages of climate denial are: It's not real. It's not us. It's not that bad. It's too expensive to fix. Aha, here's a great solution (that actually does nothing). And – oh no! Now it's too late. You really should have warned us earlier."

In a 2019 op-ed in the New York Times titled "I’m a Climate Scientist who believes in God," Hayhoe explained that she chose to study climate change because of her faith, as climate change affects poor and vulnerable people most. She said caring about climate change is a way to live out her belief in loving others as she has been loved by God.

In 2009, she and her husband, Andrew Farley, co-authored a book called A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions, which explains how climate science aligns with conservative Christian beliefs. The book led to invitations for Hayhoe to speak at Christian colleges, churches, and other groups. In the book, she stated that accepting climate change does not require believing in evolution or a four-billion-year-old Earth. Her husband initially doubted global warming but changed his view over 18 months after reviewing data from a NASA website showing rising global temperatures. Hayhoe said these debates with her husband helped her improve her communication skills for audiences skeptical of climate science.

Studies have shown that Hayhoe's outreach to Christian communities is effective. She gives lectures based on scripture and discusses how collective action can reduce the effects of climate change. A 2017 study tested the impact of a lecture she gave at Houghton College, a school with many evangelical students. After the lecture, students were more likely to believe global warming is real and understood the scientific consensus better. Another study found that audiences with more doubts about climate change showed the greatest improvement after listening to Hayhoe's recorded presentation.

In an interview with ThinkProgress, Hayhoe said, "When we tie that to our Christian values, there’s no conflict. In fact, quite the opposite – our faith demands that we act on this issue."

In 2014, Hayhoe served as a science advisor to the Emmy Award-winning Showtime series Years of Living Dangerously, which shows how climate change has already affected people worldwide. She appeared in the first and fourth episodes, discussing how her Christian faith and belief in the need to act on climate change are not conflicting.

Hayhoe also hosted and produced a digital series with PBS called Global Weirding: Climate, Politics, and Religion, which ran from September 2016 to March 2019.

In 2009, Hayhoe wrote a chapter for a book by Newt Gingrich about climate change. In 2011, Gingrich's co-author, Terry Maple, said the chapter had been accepted. However, Gingrich later said the chapter was removed from the book. Hayhoe said she had worked over 100 hours on the chapter without pay. Some people believe Gingrich removed the chapter because Marc Morano, a non-scientist, criticized Hayhoe's work on his website, Climate Depot. This, along with her appearance on Bill O'Reilly's TV show, led to Hayhoe receiving nearly 200 hate-mail messages. Soon after, a conservative group requested Hayhoe's university to release her notes and emails related to the unpublished chapter through the Freedom of Information Act.

Works

• "Katharine Hayhoe." Google Scholar.
• Hayhoe, Katharine; Farley, Andrew (2009). A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions. FaithWords. ISBN 978-0-446-54956-1. OCLC 318100426.
• Kotamarthi, Rao; Hayhoe, Katherine; Mearns, Linda O; Wuebbles, Donald J; Jacobs, Jennifer; Jurado, Jennifer (February 5, 2021). Downscaling Techniques for High-Resolution Climate Projections: From Global Change to Local Impacts. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-60126-9. OCLC 1241683497.
• Hayhoe, Katharine (September 21, 2021). Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World (First ed.). New York, NY: One Signal Publishers. ISBN 978-1-9821-4383-1. OCLC 1262751074.

Awards and honors

• Katharine Hayhoe received the Lifetime Achievement Award (Champions of the Earth) in 2019.
• She was named a United Nations Champions of the Earth award recipient in 2019.
• She was included on Foreign Policy magazine's 100 Leading Global Thinkers list in 2019.
• She earned the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Science Communication in 2018.
• She was named to Fortune magazine's 50 World's Great Leaders list in 2017.
• She received the National Center for Science Education Friend of the Planet award in 2016.
• She was listed on Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2014.
• She won the American Geophysical Union Climate Communications Prize in 2014.