AMONG THE MANY postures toward climate change, I am in the “alarmed” camp. I see indicators of a planet on the verge of widespread ecosystem collapse and want to sound the bells for everyone else to wake up and do something. Unfortunately, writes climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, some of the ways we try to wake people up can have the opposite effect.
Saving Us expands on Hayhoe’s popular TED Talk on the most important thing you can do about climate change: talk about it. The book explores why piling on sobering facts and predictions can make someone dismissive about climate change even more antagonistic, and even make those who are concerned and alarmed check out in despair. Though Hayhoe includes plenty of climate science, what makes this book worth reading are the insights she shares from social science.
People do nothing about climate change, Hayhoe writes, not because they necessarily reject the science, but because admitting there is a problem may threaten their sense of identity (I’m a good person, not ruining the planet). Or we may perceive there is nothing significant we can do, or that we stand to lose more from the solutions—no more steak dinners or family road trips—than to gain.
By framing resistance to climate solutions in social and psychological terms, Hayhoe paves the way to more productive conversations. She helps us see the “other side” not as enemies, but fellow humans. Having read Saving Us, I better understand my own human responses. I, too, want to be a good person and do the right thing. But I can end up raising others’ defenses by using shame, guilt, and a sense of my own moral superiority to prompt their action.
Sustained climate action will not be motivated by fear or guilt, but by love, Hayhoe writes, in an echo of the apostle Paul’s words (2 Timothy 1:7). We want to save the things we love. To activate others, we can connect on what they already care about—winter sports, the town water supply, children, or faith. We can invite people into a better future in ways that enhance, rather than challenge, their identities.
I would have liked for Hayhoe to expand on her last chapter on hope and courage. She is clear that it’s not too late to act to avoid some of the most dangerous impacts of climate change. Hope, she writes, is not “God is in control” fatalism, but rather it is practiced through courageous action. Still, I wonder, where is God in this? How does one pray? How does one grieve constant ecological loss?
These may be questions for another book, as Hayhoe’s aim here is to address a general audience with practical strategies for bridge-building conversations. If we can put Hayhoe’s advice into action, we will certainly be on our way to a more hopeful future.
Liuan Huska is a freelance journalist and the author of Hurting Yet Whole: Reconciling Body and Spirit in Chronic Pain and Illness.
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