People of Faith Rank in Top 10 American Climate Leaders
The environmental movement, with its origins in nation park conservation at the beginning of the 20th century, has taken many shapes over the decades. Following an onslaught of messaging campaigns and educational materials, the environmental movement has maintained its use of leadership to help guide on the moral issue of climate change, air pollution and water conservation.
Just as John Muir led us to understand the importance of national parks, two people of faith are changing the way we think about climate change. Rev. Lennox Yearwood and Katharine Hayhoe, respectively, have joined the ranks of leaders guiding America to a blessed tomorrow with their outreach to faith communities and beyond.
See why the Huffington Post has placed them in their list of 10 leaders reshaping the modern environmental movement.
10 Leaders Who Are Reshaping The Environmental Movement
By Kate Sheppard for The Huffington Post
Environmentalism has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years. From the emergence of climate change as the catalyzing issue of the 21st century to fights over the Keystone XL pipeline to the growing diversity of green groups, the environmental movement of today hardly looks like the one of yesterday.
Here are 10 leaders who are reshaping our ideas about what it means to fight for the environment today, and who are worth watching in the future:
Katharine Hayhoe, associate professor in the Department of Political Science and director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University
A Canadian-born atmospheric scientist and evangelical Christian, Hayhoe, 43, has brought some new spirit to the environmental movement, making it clear that identifying as a scientist and a person of faith are not mutually exclusive. She has published a book with her husband, pastor and linguist Andrew Farley, that aims to unpack climate change for Christian audiences. And she's become a highly sought-after speaker on bridging the gap between religion and science.
"Personally, I am also compelled by the fact that those who are already bearing the brunt of these changes are the very people we are told in the Bible to care for: the poor, the needy, and all those who don’t have the resources we do," says Hayhoe.
And it's the mother of all environmental issues, she says, threatening health, water, economic resources and global security: "We will not be able to solve pressing issues such as global hunger, access to clean water, widespread poverty, environmental degradation, pollution and biodiversity loss if we leave climate change out of the picture."