I'm a big fan of atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe. She is a clear communicator about climate change, an essential topic for our time, and she seems to have boundless energy in the cause. Hayhoe lives in Texas, which means she gets attacked for being an uppity woman liar about climate change. I admire that she puts her openly Christian convictions into practice, refusing to repay evil with evil. Some of her "Christian" detractors seem to have missed Jesus' memo in the Sermon on the Mount on using derogatory speech as a form of violence.
I am also smugly proud of Katharine's Canadian citizenship. I was mindful of that when she spent time at the White House recently with President Obama and actor Leonardo DiCaprio as part of the president's clever South by South Lawn event. She probably didn't bring up that awkward incident of Canadians burning the White House a couple of hundred years ago -- let byegones be byegones!
DiCaprio stayed out of the way as he interviewed Obama and Hayhoe on the issues of climate change for an hour. Then they screened DiCaprio's new National Geographic documentary on climate change, Before the Flood, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Since this event the flood waters of Hurricane Matthew have inundated Haiti and Cuba, and pummelled the America eastern seaboard. Climate change deniers were quick to sneer at the president and others who issued warnings of the approach, as though trying to protect lives was a conspiracy theory. The real open conspiracy is the effort to deny the human influence on climate, which is supported by science and most governments.
I love Hayhoe's observation that climate change is not about belief, it's not a religion "I do not believe in global warming, it is the only logical conclusion based on observed data and facts.
I'm grateful for her scientific and Christian witness.
Hot enough for ya? Comments?
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