Eckerd professor to publish book on climate converts in 2027

Eckerd College professor Huxster will release a new book titled Climate Converts: People Who Changed Their Minds on the Greatest Threat of Our Time in March 2027. The publication, issued by Columbia University Press, is currently available for preorder. The book targets a general audience seeking to understand the origins of personal viewpoints on climate change. It features the stories of eight people who now view climate change as a serious, human-caused problem requiring action.

Huxster’s interest in the topic began during her undergraduate years. She took a class from a paleoclimatologist who held that climate change was natural and posed no threat. The professor told students there was no need to worry. Huxster later contacted her mother to share that news. After further research, Huxster determined the professor was a well-known climate denier spreading false information. This experience sparked her curiosity about how individuals with advanced scientific degrees could deny climate change.

Work on the book started in 2023. Huxster identified interview subjects through social media and RepublicEn, a nonprofit group of Republicans focused on climate solutions. She conducted interviews with four men and four women from various parts of the country. Her goal was to identify the specific factors that changed their minds.

One interviewee stood out to Huxster. This woman attended graduate school with Huxster and was raised in a fundamentalist Baptist community. Her early education included a school that taught evolution was not real and that Earth was created in seven days. She later studied oceanography and engineering. Huxster notes that this classmate experienced a major shift in both her ideology and her personal identity.

Huxster found that feelings often drove mind changes more than facts did. Several interviewees wanted to join a community that shared their beliefs. For all eight subjects, conversation played a key role. The identity of the conversation partner mattered more than the specific details discussed.

"Finding trusted messengers or someone whose beliefs aligned with theirs in other ways was really important," Huxster says. She advises people passionate about an issue to remain open-minded. She notes that people often reject information that challenges their existing beliefs. Understanding others' beliefs can help individuals defend their own positions more effectively.

Huxster concluded that confronting people with scientific facts alone is unlikely to change their minds. "If that were true, then we would have already done something about climate change," she says. The book aims to show how listening and trusted relationships facilitated these shifts in perspective.