“Studying this world just strengthens my faith”: Christian climate scientist Prof Katharine Hayhoe on integrating science and faith

“How does your faith and science come together in your practice as an evangelical Christian as well as a climate scientist?”

“Has being open about your faith, and integrating it into your work, ever compromised your scientific credibility?”

These were among the questions posed to visiting Canadian atmospheric scientist Professor Katharine Hayhoe when she was in Singapore last September for a talk hosted by A Rocha Singapore.

Titled Climate x Faith: An Evening in Conversation with Prof Katharine Hayhoe, the event was attended by believers from diverse sectors – including church and para-church organisations, finance, policy and education – all united in their desire to protect God’s earth. 

Prof Hayhoe with the evening’s moderator, Dr Shawn Lum.

Prof Hayhoe’s research focuses on the impact of climate change on both people and the planet. She is a professor at Texas Tech University and is Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy, a leading environmental NGO.

Her leadership and influence in tackling climate change have earned her numerous accolades, including the prestigious Champions of the Earth award, the United Nations’ highest environmental honour.

In addition to being named one of Christianity Today’s 50 Women to Watch, Prof Hayhoe is also the Climate Ambassador for the World Evangelical Alliance and serves as a science advisor to several organisations, including Young Evangelicals for Climate Action and the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.

The daughter of missionaries in Colombia in the 1980s, she is now married to Pastor and author Andrew Farley, who leads the non-profit Christian media ministry, The Grace Message. 

Below is an excerpt from the evening’s conversation, moderated by Dr Shawn Lum, Senior Lecturer at Nanyang Technological University’s Asian School of the Environment and former President of the Nature Society (Singapore).

The conversation is published with permission.

How does your faith and science come together in your practice as an evangelical Christian as well as a climate scientist?

My husband hosts a live, call-in radio show that’s online and also available on satellite radio, on several hundred radio stations throughout North America, as well as on a Christian TV network.

At first glance, what we do might seem very different. But beneath the surface, it’s actually quite similar.

For a long time, I thought that actively doing Christian work full-time was goal number one, and for those of us not called to that, we were sort of number two. But even as I was thinking that, I ended up becoming a climate scientist because of my faith.

I was planning to be an astrophysicist – which is what my undergraduate degree is in. But I needed to take an extra class to finish my degree, and I saw a brand-new class on climate change and thought: “That looks interesting, why not take it?” So I did.

That was where I learned, firstly, that climate change is not only a future issue – it’s happening now. (As far back as 60 years ago, scientists knew how bad climate change was, but most people didn’t.)

I also learned that climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally. The people who have done the least to cause the problem are the people most affected.

And that was where I learned that climate change is not only an environmental issue, but it’s also an issue of hunger, poverty, access to basic healthcare, clean water, and a safe place to live.

What guides your perspective as a Christian climate scientist?

Two verses that guide my perspective aren’t necessarily the ones that would be coloured green in The Green Bible.

(The Green Bible, which is in the New Revised Standard Version, prints in green ink verses and passages which, according to the publisher, deal with environmental topics or creation care.)

The first is in Romans 5:3-5, where it talks about where hope comes from: Hope begins with suffering. Suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance leads to character, and character leads to hope that does not disappoint because God’s love has been poured out.

Love is really central to everything we do. When we care for the environment, we are loving others – our sisters and brothers on the other side of the world, especially those less fortunate than us. We are loving God’s creation, which Genesis 1 says He gave us responsibility over to care for. And we are loving God by doing so.

The other verse that means a lot to me is in 2 Timothy 1:7, where the Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy to give him advice. He says: “God has not given you a spirit of fear …”

So often, we hear people talk about these issues in terms of fear. There are so many people who are so afraid. In fact, some are paralysed with anxiety.

But that verse is a litmus test: If we feel fear, that’s not from God.

What is from God? The verse continues: “God has given us a spirit of power” – which is an old-fashioned word, which means we are empowered. Today, when I asked people how they felt after my talk (at a Singapore university), “empowered” was one of the words that came up.

If you’re afraid, you’re paralysed.

But God has given us the spirit of power to act, not out of selfishness but out of love.

And the last part is my favourite as a scientist: “A sound mind.” God has given us a sound mind, which is an amazing gift – one that, sometimes, we don’t use enough.

We’re told in science or business settings that we should not talk about matters of faith, even though it’s the North Star for many of us in our work. What is your take on this?

If you’re in the climate world, you might have heard the name Christiana Figueres. She is a Costa Rican diplomat whose father was the president of Costa Rica.

She was the Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in charge of getting every country in the world to come together and negotiate the Paris Agreement (in 2015), which was the first global treaty on climate change.

That woman is a miracle worker who has arguably done more than almost anyone else in terms of impact on climate change.

Last year, we were having a chat about what more is needed in climate work. She said to me: “You know, I’m convinced that what we’ve been missing this whole time is the spiritual aspect of the issue.”

She is not a Christian – she’s a member of another religion – but she felt like that was what had been missing from her own life and experience.

So now, she is on a campaign to encourage people to connect with not only the emotional and values-driven side of climate action, but also the spiritual side.

Has being open about your faith as an integral part of your work harmed your scientific credibility?

I think what’s really key is not judging others.

The only time I’ve ever had negative reactions to people knowing I was a Christian was when they expected to be judged – not because I was judging them, but because other Christians had in the past. So they assumed that was what I was going to do.

Could you imagine what the world would look like if we only lived by that rule of approaching each other starting with love? In John 13:35, Jesus says to his disciples: “You should be recognised by your love for others.”

When my husband and I moved to Texas (for his job at the university), many people at the church he was asked to pastor were very surprised when they realised that his wife is a climate scientist.

After a while, he would come home with questions for me. I would answer them, and he would take the answers back. Then eventually, he said: “Why don’t you just write a book?”

So, we talked all about how we know that climate change is real – it’s not volcanoes, it’s not the sun, it’s not natural cycles, it’s not about worshipping the Earth.

And, in fact, it’s consistent with what we believe as Christians.

When the book (A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions, 2009) was coming out, I started to get worried. I had worked so hard on papers and grants, research and collaborations. And I was genuinely afraid that I would be flushing my career down the toilet, thinking that nobody was going to respect me if I said I am a Christian.

Nobody at work knew I was a Christian, because it’s not culturally what we share if you’re a scientist.

I remember showing up at the first conference after my book came out, and wondering if I was going to be shunned.

I was in the food line, and somebody sidled up to me and said: “We read your book at church. This is exactly what we need to be talking about.”

Then, at the next conference, somebody said: “I gave your book to my parents. I’m not a Christian, but they are, and this is perfect. It’s exactly what they need.”

So the reaction was incredibly positive, and I was so wrong. I had so underestimated my colleagues.

Is there anything in your science that has challenged your faith?

Studying this world is amazing. There’s nothing about studying this world or this universe that has challenged my faith – it just strengthens it.

In Climate x Faith: An evening in conversation with Prof Katharine Hayhoe organised by A Rocha Singapore, Prof Hayhoe also shared about the head-to-heart connection as a motivator for action on climate change.

Watch this space for Part 2 of this report, or watch the video of the full conversation here.

A Rocha Singapore is a local community of A Rocha International, a global network of Christian environmental organisations. A Rocha focuses on caring for creation and equipping others to do the same, through a combination of scientific research, environmental education, and community-based conservation projects.

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