Katharine Hayhoe never meant to become a climate scientist. In fact, in college she started out studying astrophysics, but she needed one more class to finish her degree, and she found one in the geography department on climate science.
She said taking that class completely changed her perspective. It showed her that climate change isn’t an environmental issue — it’s an everything issue.
Since then, Hayoe has dedicated her life to the cause.
She’s now the director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, and she was just named a “U.N. Champion of the Earth,” the United Nation’s highest environmental honor.
She’s also an evangelical Christian who wrote a book with her husband — who’s also a pastor — called " Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions."
She was in Phoenix for the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting last week. The Show spoke with her about her work and why she calls climate change a “threat multiplier.”
