In a recent interview on CBS This Morning, climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe shared two simple starting points for making a positive impact on the environment. 

1. Weigh yourself, meaning weigh your carbon footprint
2. Talk about climate change 

Hayhoe has been talking to all kinds of people on many different platforms about climate change. She was a lead author of the U.S. National Climate Assessment, she participated in an AMA on Reddit last week, she is very active on Twitter, and we learned in the CBS interview that she’s had many conversations at home with her husband to convince him that climate change is happening. 

Hayhoe’s strategy during a climate conversation is to talk about climate change from the heart instead of the head. In her November 2018 TED Talk, Hayhoe says: 

We don’t need to be talking about more science. We’ve been talking about the science for over 150 years. The most important thing to do is instead starting up in your head, with all the data and facts inside your head, to start from the heart. To start by talking about why it matters to us.

A point Hayhoe returns to is that the talk should be a conversation. It’s not productive to show off with fancy scientific language, or to load people up with statistics. The questions you can ask climate change deniers include:

What do you think? 

Why do you think that?

In the video shared by CBS, Hayhoe is energetic and inspiring and not ready to give up hope that things can change. In fact, she shares at the end of the interview that her husband is now convinced—and he even gave her solar panels for Christmas. 

Calculate your carbon footprint here.

Learn how to talk about climate change here.