From Alarm to Dismissal and Everything in Between

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is the Canadian by birth, American climate scientest whose excellent book Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World has become a bestseller and drawn lots of attention. Hayhoe is an evangelical Christian who goes against the statistical tide in the United States where evangelicals are staunchly climate change skeptics, even though that wasn't the case 50 years ago. 

I've appreciated Katherine's combination of determined and steadfast promotion of the scientific facts while upholding the hope of her Christian faith and honouring of the Creator God. It's impressive that she is asked about her faith on TV talk shows and on CBC Radio's The Current because she is willing to identify as a Christian and share that faith persuasively.

In Saving Us she points out that she doesn't find the polarization of "believers" and "deniers" all that useful, particularly when she doesn't see scientific evidence as a matter of belief. In a section she calls When Two Climate Tribes Aren't Enough she points to Yale University's  Global Warming's Six Americas which as the chart shows ranges from Alarmed to Dismissive. Over several years the percentage of Americans who are Alarmed or Concerned has grown considerably, while the number of Dismissives has barely budged. Hayhoe is convinced that civil and informed conversation drawing on shared values is the key to addressing attitudes regarding the Climate Emergency. She now concedes that while we probably can't get through to Dismissives no matter what might be done to inform them (she has a dismissive uncle) the good news is that more than 90% are open to conversation. 

Beneath the latest poll figures from September 2021 I've included the chart from March 2015 seven years ago --  as a reminder that changes in outook can happen. There have been many catastrophic weather events in the US and Canada since 2015 and scientists suggest that most have been accelerated by climate change.Let's hope that this awakening continues and issues in action -- quickly!

Americans alarmed about climate change are now the largest group in the @YaleClimateComm's Six Americas. And they should be: in fact, everyone should be alarmed. Why? Because the planet will be orbiting the sun long after we're gone. The question is, will we?