Katharine Hayhoe

Many lament that, in these politically charged and contentious times, Americans can’t even agree on science anymore. Indeed, attitudes toward climate change—whether, despite the abundance of evidence, it really exists—have widened with the nation’s polarization. Into this breach steps Hayhoe, a Canadian climate scientist who also happens to be an Evangelical Christian living in Texas; from this unique perch, and with the help of her PBS web series “Global Weirding,” she has become a friendly if unexpected force in spreading the science. Whether speaking to her digital audience, or with fellow parishioners, Hayhoe’s approach is patient and compassionate and modeled after conversations she had with her husband, a linguistics professor and pastor who once himself had doubts about climate change. Together, they wrote Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions in 2009 (it’s being reissued this year), a book, in which, just as importantly, Hayhoe, an active and well-published leader in her field, came out to the scientific community as religious.