Katharine Hayhoe, atmospheric scientist and climate change evangelist, spoke about the importance of understanding climate change and how it can affect a person of faith Wednesday in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.

“Denying science has become an article of faith,” Hayhoe said. “You can’t believe in climate change. It is not a religion. It is a scientific fact.”

Hayhoe said religious beliefs shouldn’t matter when it comes to scientific fact. 

Hayhoe’s main point was not that religion is different from science, but to try to help people better understand the facts about climate change. 

“What I admire about Katharine [Hayhoe] is her ability to have conversations with regular people, not scientists, regular people,” said Chris Anderson, professor of agronomy.

Hayhoe said society is built on a “single assumption,” that the climate will average itself out, but she said this is not the case. She said that sometimes the effects of climate change show slower and sometimes appear faster, but the planet’s temperature is still rising.

“Planning for the future by looking at the past is only OK if the climate is steady,” Hayhoe said.

The facts are simple, Hayhoe said. Heavy precipitation is getting more frequent, the number of billion dollar disasters is increasing and hurricanes are getting stronger. All these things can be linked to climate change.

One cause of climate change is an increase in fossil fuels in the atmosphere. Scientists have noticed this increase since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s and since the number of heat trapping gasses in the atmosphere has increased by 43 percent.

For those who say climate change isn’t real, Hayhoe has one message.

“There have been 13,950 peer-reviewed climate articles that say global warming is real,” Hayhoe said. “There have only been 24 that say it isn’t.”

Hayhoe said the choice of what to do about climate change needs to happen now.

“We have a choice to make now because if we wait until it’s super important, it is too late,” Hayhoe said.

Hayhoe said there are economic benefits that could be missed if people let the choice go by. By investing in renewable energy, such as solar and wind energy, Iowans could save money and reduce the amount of fossil fuels released into the atmosphere. If Iowans invest in biochar, a product made from carbon, they could make their soils richer. The biochar can be mixed in with the soil in farm fields to make the soil richer and produce more crops.

“Humans don’t like change,” Hayhoe said. “But if [America] doesn’t take advantage of [the economic benefits], others will.

Hayhoe’s lecture was filmed for the Showtime show “Years of Living Dangerously.”

The lecture was cosponsored by the Climate Science Program, Environmental Law and Policy Center, Iowa Environmental Council, Iowa Interfaith Power and Light, National Science Foundation EPSCoR and the Committee on Lectures.