2024 Rose-Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism Recipient
Katharine Hayhoe
Dr. Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist whose research focuses on understanding the impacts of climate change on people and the planet. She is the Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy and a Horn Distinguished Professor and Endowed Professor of Public Policy and Public Law at Texas Tech University. She has served as a lead author for the Second, Third, and Fourth U.S. National Climate Assessments and her work has resulted in over 125 peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, and other publications. She is the author of the best-selling book Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. She also hosts the PBS Digital Series Global Weirding and is a co-founder of Science Moms. Dr. Hayhoe is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Scientific Affiliation, an Honourary Fellow of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, an Oxfam Sister of the Planet, and the World Evangelical Alliance’s Climate Ambassador. She has been named to lists including the TIME 100 Most Influential People and Fortune's 50 World's Greatest Leaders, received a number of awards including the National Center for Science Education’s Friend of the Planet Award, the American Geophysical Union’s Climate Communication Prize and Ambassador Award, and the Sierra Club’s Distinguished Service Award, and is a United Nations Champion of the Earth in Science and Innovation.
Dickinson will welcome Dr. Hayhoe to campus for a residency December 2-4, 2024. In addition to numerous class visits and meetings with students and faculty, public events during the residency will include the following:
Public Lecture with Q & A: Building Hope in a Warming World
Wednesday December. 4, 7 - 8:30 p.m., Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
(This event will be available via livestream)
Climate change is reshaping our world, putting people and nature at risk. With each new climate-fueled disaster, we often wonder: why aren’t we acting at the speed and scale this crisis demands? And is it too late?
Stark headlines documenting the devastating impacts of flood, storm, and fire populate our news feeds. But it’s not enough to know this in our heads—we need to feel in our hearts how it impacts the people, places, and things we already love and we need to know what we can do to fight for a better future for them.
Hope begins by recognizing the gravity of the crisis, but it grows through connecting over shared values and collective action. Drawing on insights from climate science, psychology, and sociology, join Dr. Hayhoe as she explores how we can engage hearts—regardless of background or belief—and find practical solutions that help us create a more livable and just world.
Nature & Climate Leadership Workshop with Dr. Hayhoe and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Pennsylvania Staff
Monday, Dec. 2, 1:30- 3:30 p.m., Stern Great Room, Stern Center
PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED (Click Here)
Explore what nature and climate leadership look like, reflect on how this may play out on your own path and work directly with TNC staff on current projects. Student participants, with the guidance of Dr. Hayhoe will work collaboratively to create practical solutions that help us create a more livable and just world.
- Chris Arnott, Freshwater Scientist
- Amanda Bunn, Applied Agricultural Conservationist
- Tamara Gagnolet, Conservation Science & GIS Manager
- Kim Hatchadoorian, Project Manager, Youth Outreach/Education
- Julie Ulrich, Director of Urban Conservation
SAVING US, BY KATHARINE HAYHOE:
Called "one of the nation’s most effective communicators on climate change" by The New York Times, Katharine Hayhoe knows how to navigate all sides of the conversation on our changing planet. A Canadian climate scientist living in Texas, she negotiates distrust of data, indifference to imminent threats, and resistance to proposed solutions with ease. Over the past fifteen years Hayhoe has found that the most important thing we can do to address climate change is talk about it—and she wants to teach you how.
In Saving Us, Hayhoe argues that when it comes to changing hearts and minds, facts are only one part of the equation. We need to find shared values in order to connect our unique identities to collective action. This is not another doomsday narrative about a planet on fire. It is a multilayered look at science, faith, and human psychology, from an icon in her field—recently named chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy.
Drawing on interdisciplinary research and personal stories, Hayhoe shows that small conversations can have astonishing results. Saving Us leaves us with the tools to open a dialogue with your loved ones about how we all can play a role in pushing forward for change.