Welcome to Nobody Told Me.

I'm Laura Owens.

And I'm Jan Black.

Climate change is one of the most important issues that we face today,

yet it's a topic which polarizes people.

Our guest on this episode, well-known climate scientist Dr. Catherine Hayho, says that climate action

isn't about being a certain type of person or voting a certain way.

She says it is about connecting the values we already have to act for our future. Dr. Hayho is the chief

scientist of the Nature Conservancy and the author of the new book, Saving Us, a Climate

Scientist case for hope and healing in a divided world. Catherine, thank you so much for joining us.

Well, thank you for having me. Tell us more about your background and why and when you first became interested in climate change.

Well, I was interested in science from an early age because my dad was a science teacher.

And so I grew up with the idea that science was the most fascinating thing that you could possibly

study because who doesn't want to know how the universe works. Wow. Yeah. So I was actually

going to study astrophysics and my undergraduate degree is in astronomy and physics when I needed

an extra class to finish my degree and I looked around and there was this brand new

class in climate science. And I thought, well, that looks interesting. Why not take it? So I had

learned about climate change before in school. And I had learned about air pollution and biodiversity

loss and deforestation and other environmental issues that I sort of thought, well,

environmentalists care about these and environmentalists

work on them and we just wish them well, so to speak. And I didn't really consider myself. And

honestly, I still wouldn't even call myself an environmentalist. And so I thought, well, that's just not me.

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