Katharine Hayhoe’s post-election advice: fight fear, embrace hope and work together

For people involved in climate change research and advocacy, last week’s presidential election results came as a shock.

To get a sense of what’s coming and what’s needed to ensure domestic climate action continues, I spoke with Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist and author who teaches at Texas Tech University and is a senior scientist at The Nature Conservancy is.

She is one of the country’s best-known communicators on climate change and often speaks about how her religious faith influences her views on protecting the environment. Her 2021 book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, wasn’t written for this moment, but it might as well have been.

She stated that she was speaking for herself and not for her employer or any other organization.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

DAN GEARINO: How do you assess the election results?

KATHARINE HAYHOE: Disappointed and worried. I was one of the lead authors of the National Climate Assessment under the last Trump administration and, as you know, I firmly believe that a thermometer doesn’t provide a different answer depending on how you vote. A hurricane doesn’t knock on your door and ask you what political party you’re registered with before destroying your home.

Climate change is no longer an issue for the future. It already affects us today. It affects our health. It impacts the economy, which was a major factor in this election. It affects the security of people’s homes, the costs they pay for insurance and food, and puts our future and that of our children at risk.

I want politicians to argue about who has the best solutions to climate change. I want them to argue about how to accelerate the transition to clean energy. I want them to have competing proposals for how to build resilience and invest in the infrastructure and food and water systems we need to ensure people have a better, more resilient future. And unfortunately I don’t think we’ll see that with this government. Of course I would be very happy if I were proven wrong.

GEARINO: What is a good attitude for people who care about supporting the energy transition?

HAYHOE: That’s a great question because our mindset really determines what we focus on and what we can accomplish. In terms of our mindset, I am a proponent of recognizing that the situation is serious on many fronts. It’s getting worse. People might be surprised when I say this because I’m often labeled as a relentless optimist. But for me, hope starts with recognizing how bad the situation is, because when everything is fine, you don’t need hope. And because I’m a scientist, I have a front row seat when it comes to climate impacts, the biodiversity crisis, the pollution crisis and much more. Therefore, our thinking must begin with a realistic view of what is happening and the impact it is already having on us. We can’t sugarcoat it.

“A hurricane doesn’t knock on your door and ask you what political party you’re registered with before destroying your home.”

But that’s only one side of the coin. The other side of the coin needs to focus on what real solutions look like. And when we lose hope, we tend to look for a magic bullet, a solution that would solve the problem if everyone did this. There are no silver bullets, but plenty of silver shot, so to speak. If we put it all together, we have more than enough of what we need.

And often when we lose hope and when we get discouraged and frustrated, I see the tendency to attack each other and say, “Well, you know, you’re not doing exactly what I think should be done.” That’s why I won’t talk to you or even work with you. I will criticize what you do.’ Now more than ever is the time to come together, to focus on what unites us rather than what divides us, and to focus on what we can achieve together, even if different people for different reasons work on it.

I really feel that over the next four years we need to focus on collaborations, partnerships and solutions that deliver multiple benefits for both people and the planet. A group of people may advocate for solutions because they have an immediate health benefit. Others might see the immediate economic benefit. Others may see a benefit for nature. We have worked in silos for too long and now we no longer have time for individual victories. We need multiple wins. We need partners who are committed for multiple reasons and the more we focus on what we can achieve together, I think the more positive we will be and the more allies we will gain, particularly on the local to regional side Level.

GEARINO: You’ve talked about your faith and how it influences your thinking about climate. Does this help given the potential adversity we are experiencing now?

HAYHOE: Oh yeah, that’s definitely the case. If you are familiar with the Bible, you know that there are many, many passages that talk about incredibly negative circumstances and our mindset when we are faced with and address them. Throughout the Bible, whether you look at David or the Apostle Paul, there are so many stories and stories of people who faced suffering and felt discouraged and frustrated by the situation they found themselves in.

I love the fact that you bring up the mindset several times. The most important part of my faith is not what it says about nature, but what it says about our attitudes and ways of thinking. For example, there’s this one verse in Second Timothy where Paul writes to Timothy, whom he was mentoring, and says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind.” And to me this is so powerful because when I start to feel overwhelmed or overwhelmed by fear, as many of us do when we deal with situations like this, I remind myself that this is not from God comes.

What God has given us is a spirit of power, which is a bit old-fashioned to say that we should be empowered, because research shows that when people are overwhelmed by fear, they paralyze us, and that’s the last thing we can do need right now. We have to be able to act.

The second part is the spirit of love, because love thinks of others. It’s not just about ourselves, it’s not selfish. It’s about other people and other things that are, in most cases, more affected than we are.

And then the last part is about a healthy mind. Our sane minds can use the information we have to make good decisions, and this is truly my own litmus test for how I make decisions…not from fear, but from strength, love, and a sound mind.