Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World

Summary: A discussion of both the urgent challenge of climate change, and the difference we can make in both action and conversations.

I thought this book was going to be one more argument for why we need to address climate change. And it certainly offers good fact-based evidence for why this is so, why it is urgent, and what the impacts on life on the planet, human, animals, and plants will be. But while Katharine Hayhoe believes there are consequences that we should be afraid of, this is not an appeal from fear or guilt or an exercise in shaming. Instead, Katharine Hayhoe’s hopeful appeal in this book is rooted in what she loves and we love and care for. She writes hopefully of the steps being taken by individuals, churches, show more businesses, towns, schools and governments that are making a difference

She begins by the problem so many have faced–the deep divisions around climate that arose since this issue was politicized (it wasn’t always). It’s just hard to talk with those with whom we disagree. Hayhoe proposes that there are actually six and not two camps. Only seven percent are in what she calls the dismissive group. She believes that it is possible to find ways to collaborate with the other 93 percent. Much of it, she believes is connecting what we care about with what someone else cares about. She writes about connecting with conservative Rotarians around their Four Way Test, around West Texas farmers around concerns about water, with conservative Christians around their shared love of creation and the truths of the Bible. While facts are important at certain points, recognizing the mental dispositions of others and how counter-productive approaches based on fear and guilt, is vital.

She explores why we often fear solutions and takes on the big issues of carbon and energy and what can be done. While fossil fuels certainly contribute to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, she recognizes how energy dependent our lives are and the role these sources play as we transition. At the same time it is important to speed our transition, and provide reliable and renewable electricity throughout the world.

Hayhoe concludes by discussing the ways we matter. I see in my neighborhood her example how residential solar contagiously spreads as one neighbor gets solar and others see it, talk about it, and follow. She believes talking about it, connecting what we care about with what others care about is important, and coaches us how to do that without the alienating arguments. Finally, she addresses the matter of hope and how we find and sustain it.

This book was a breath of fresh air. Amid so many dire accounts of what is happening with the climate, this book is neither despairing or tendentious. Hayhoe doesn’t want to discourage us or divide us but to find ways for us to work together on what we care about, no matter our disagreements about science or policy. She is not pollyannish–she observes that scientists’ intolerance for error means they have been more conservative in their projections than what is happening (i.e. things have happened even more quickly than they projected). But she has seen so much of what can be done, and that it leads to better outcomes for us and the planet. She has realized that when it comes to “saving us,” there is only us. We have no planet B which means its time to end our fighting and care together for our common home. show less

With the new administration's perverse push to increase rather than decrease carbon emissions, persecute science and academia, and dismantle the institutions tasked with responding to climate change fueled disasters, the message of this book takes on a new urgency.

As a Canadian Christian climate scientist living and teaching in rural Texas, the author is singularly qualified to opine on the best ways to approach the politically and ideology laden issues related to the climate crisis, particularly when it comes to talking to people who don't understand what's happening, shrug off the risks, or reject the science. She provides some useful advice on how to talk to these people, along with a primer on the basics of the challenges we face show more and some potential solutions. show less

A compelling and effective treatise and personal story accomplishing its two objectives well.

The obvious objective of a climate scientist is to set forth the compelling evidence for anthropogenic climate change, the ways in which we must change as a society and as individuals to address the challenges of climate change, and how to maintain hope and to persevere in such an environment. The author does this well with a lot of references to all the various things going on related to climate science. She also does this as an Evangelical Christian and does well at showing how her commitment to her faith is not incompatible with her understanding of climate change and witnessing about it.

The perhaps less obvious but foremost objective of the show more author, however, is to help equip the reader to find ways to persuasively bear witness to what is going on with the climate. In this sense she uses sound strategies for persuasion: identify the primary/foundational principles which govern the person's life and show how the issue connects; find a point of agreement and work from there; build relational trust so that one's witness will be better heard; realize that there will be a committed group of people who refuse to listen, be respectful toward them, but do not let them occupy your head space; instead, invest your energy in those who might still be persuaded by a stronger connection or better witness and strengthen and reinforce those who agree but may not be fully engaged for action.

The author of course wants everyone who reads her work to go forth and "proselytize" about climate change, but the same methodology would be effective for any kind of conversation about closely held matters, including matters of faith.

Highly recommended. show less

A Christian climate scientist says there’s hope. Online especially we hear more from the 7% of unreachable rightwingers, but with the more uncertain middle we can appeal to shared values and concrete examples of how they are already being affected by climate change. I was not super convinced that many of us in the US will pay attention until it’s far beyond too late.

A call for for people who believe climate change is real, e.g. global warming which is occurring now is human caused to engage in a constructive manner. She starts by observing that only 7% of the US population are hard core climate change “deniers”: people whose stand is often based on identity. She suggests rather than focusing on this group, which will be almost impossible to sway, talk with the 93% of the people that fall between skeptics and the convinced. Effective engagement starts with finding common values and then find ways those values naturally lead to working on the issue which have beneficial outcome rather than focusing on convincing people climate change is real.

The book does a high level tours of the science behind show more climate change (with extensive footnotes). She points out that there has been a an overwelming consensus amount the scientific community which has been undermined / called into question by a small but very effective campaign of mis-information. The campaign is largely funded my energy sector companies using tactics similar to the tobacco industry.

The book discusses why we should care about climate change, why we should act now rather than later. Finally there is a discussion of some of the ways an individual can take actions. show less

Hopeful book on this topic. Excellent book to read along with Bill Gates: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. She provides the right amount of detail about how to talk to a climate denier.

I might be being slightly unfair by only awarding this book one star. It is clearly written for the American which may be behind the curve on climate, after four years of President Trump.

This might explain the reticence to mentioning Global Justice and even the involvement of capitalism in the current crisis but, the implication that the 6th mass extinction would be cured by simply removing fossil fuels and the quote, "We don't need to ban burgers; we need climate-friendly beef", are a little too ingenuous.

I am sure that Katharine Hayhoe has read Kae Raworth; indeed, she quotes her in the book but the author manages to quote from 'Doughnut Economics', without mentioning economics!

This book also tells us that we're doing all that we need show more to; just not quite fast enough! I don't believe Ms. Hayhoe is so naïve. show less