A conversation with Katharine Hayhoe about Climate Change and how we talk about it!

Program Title: Katharine Hayhoe
Description: The speed at which climate change is unfolding is making it increasingly difficult for humans and our natural world to adapt in what some believe is an apocalyptic scenario. Some of the worlds poorest and most vulnerable are already the most affected by global warming as rising sea levels, droughts, floods, storms, wars, heat waves and other catastrophic events disrupt food production and threaten wildlife and their habitat.

Consider that our rainforests once covered approximately fifteen per cent of the earth's land surface and that this natural resource is shrinking every year. Nearly half of the world's remaining species of plants, animals and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to rainforest deforestation. According to the World Wildlife Federation, it is estimated that we are losing approximately one hundred plants, animals and insect species daily. How much of this loss is a part of natural selection and how much of it is humankind’s reckless disregard for each other as well as nature?

Recognizing the seriousness of this, The U.S. Department of Defence released a report in 2015 predicting that in the next fifteen years we will see another thirty-climate change induced wars like Syria and over one billion people displaced due to climate change-related causes. To make matters worse the IPCC released their most recent update that suggests that without significant change, we are on a trajectory of exceeding global warming targets.

My curiosity has led me down this path as I bump into authors, scientists, academics, and friends of the earth to help understand what’s going on. In this episode, I have combined two interviews in this episode; one is with Katharine Hayhoe and the other with Naomi Oreskes.

Katharine Hayhoe is an Evangelical Christian, atmospheric scientist and director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. She has contributed to more than 125 scientific papers and won numerous prizes for her science communication work. In 2018 she was a contributor to the US National Climate Assessment and was awarded the Stephen H Schneider award for outstanding climate science communication. The quote above is hers!

Naomi Oreskes is an American historian of science. She is a Professor of the History of Science, and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard. Her research focuses on the earth and environmental sciences, with a particular interest in understanding scientific consensus and dissent. Her landmark research helped establish the scientific community’s consensus on climate change, and chronicled how the climate denial movement was mobilized by fossil fuel corporations. She is the author of at least 6 books, has written many introductions to just as many, and written dozens of published articles. She may be best known for her introduction to the Encyclical with Pope Francis.

These two interviews have much in common as well as a breadth of information from two “rock star professors” who are leaders in the climate change conversation. Their optimism and hopefulness is just what we need at the edge of the sixth extinction. I hope you can join us next Sunday morning at 10 AM on CFRO 100.5 and online at coopradio.org and theconversationlab.ca.

Host(s): Don Shafer
Featured Speakers/Guests: Katharine Hayhoe Naomi Oreskes Don Shafer

Credits: Producers: Kimit Sekhon, Don Shafer, Bryan McKinnon

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Topic: Environment > Climate Change Type: Interview

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