Forecasting Our Future: A conversation with Dr Katharine Hayhoe

Hear from award-winning climate scientist, Dr Katharine Hayhoe, about how best to prepare for the risks posed by climate change, and how to translate climate science into actionable planning.

Increasingly, the impacts of climate change are never far from the headlines. Calls for climate action are getting steadily louder but global alignment is far from a reality.

How will climate change affect the places we call home, now and in the future? Against a backdrop of international (dis)agreement, how might local action contribute to broader transformational change? Join us to hear from award-winning climate scientist, Dr Katharine Hayhoe, who will discuss how best to prepare for the risks posed by climate change, and how to translate climate science into actionable planning for resilience at the local scale.

The desire to change

Professor Hayhoe was awarded the United Nation's highest environmental honour in 2019, declared a 'Champion of the Earth'. She has made it her life's mission to talk to people about climate change. But she says she's not so much trying to 'convert' people to the climate cause, as show them why they already care.

"By rejecting the narrative that climate change is a false, environmental, earth-worshipping religion, we were able to have a really constructive conversation that began with what we agreed on. We both believe in God. We both believe that God gave us the sound minds that we have. What do we see when we use that mind? That's the key."

"Even though most objections to climate change are couched in science-y sounding terms, if you have a conversation with anyone about this for longer than one minute, nine times out of ten it takes an abrupt right turn into, 'I don't want to … [fill in the blank'. I don't want a carbon tax. I don't want to destroy the economy. I don't want the government telling me what to do.

99.9 per cent of our objects to climate change have nothing to do with the science. They have everything to do solution aversion.

"99.9 per cent of our objects to climate change have nothing to do with the science. They have everything to do solution aversion. We think the only solutions are negative or punitive or harmful. So bonding over shared values, connecting to how climate change is affecting us here and now - today - and then inspiring with a solution that could actually make a difference - it could save us money; it could help poor people; it could lead to cleaner air; it could help us be better stewards of God's creation, and so on."

About Katharine Hayhoe

Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist whose research focuses on understanding what climate change means for people and the places where we live. She is a professor at Texas Tech University, she hosts the PBS digital series Global Weirding, and she has been named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People and Fortune's 50 World's Greatest Leaders. She is also the namesake of a meeting room in the Priestley Centre!