As a meteorologist working for CBS News, Paul Douglas was perfectly content forecasting the weather, but when he started noticing changes to normal weather patterns, the reality of climate change became unavoidable, and he knew he had to do more.

It wasn’t an overnight epiphany. At first, he thought it was his imagination. It took several years of looking at the data and seeing shifts in weather patterns himself before he came to terms with what was happening.

It is not unusual for the weather itself to change. Paul says that “predicting the weather is always a challenge because every day is different. The weather patterns may be similar, but never identical. It’s been said that the weather rhymes but never repeats, and there’s some truth to that.”

What got his attention was when the natural rhythms of the atmosphere, “instead of sounding like a symphony orchestra, started playing out of tune. The strings were off, the cymbal crashes were coming in at the wrong time, something was wrong.” Climate change wasn’t on his radar. As an evangelical Christian and political conservative, he was prepared to be skeptical and cautious. But as a trained meteorologist, he couldn’t in good conscience deny what the data were saying.

Reaching the Next Generation

Reaching the next generation on the reality of climate change is also very important to Paul. Ultimately, it was the birth of his first grandson Jordan that got him thinking more about his legacy. He found himself wanting to do as much as possible so that his grandson and other kids like him could have a better future. “We are accountable,” says Paul, “Our grandkids, eventually are going to say, what did you know? When? And what did you do? Were you on the right side of science? Were you on the right side of history? Did you look out for us? Because by denying climate change and shrugging it off, saying there’s nothing we can do or it’s too expensive, we’re making it harder for our kids and for their kids.”

In 2022 he wrote a children’s book called, “A Kid’s Guide to Saving the Planet: It’s Not Hopeless and We’re Not Helpless.” In the book he talks about the evidence for climate change in simple and engaging ways. He also highlights inspiring stories of young people who are helping their communities and starting conversations on climate change in creative ways, from planting trees, and starting youth-led climate movements, to writing comic books about climate change.

When it comes to communicating with younger audiences on climate change, Paul says that it is important not to cherry-pick information but to be honest. “I’m always amazed that young people are much sharper than we give them credit for. Most kids are pretty plugged in, and they know what’s happening already. We need to be honest with them. We have an obligation to give it to them straight and not try to spin it a certain way. We also must balance the stark reality of climate change with optimism, though. We can get to where we need to go, but it’s going to require change.” He also thinks it’s important to emphasize solutions and careers to young people.

Faith in Something More

While there is a lot of work to be done to combat climate change, Paul has a lot of hope in the next generation. “I think that young people don’t have a lot of the baggage that adults have. They are more open to change, and they are demanding it. Increasingly, they’re asking companies, what do you stand for? How are you making things better? Companies better have an answer if they want to attract the brightest people on the planet to their company. So it’s happening, we just need to turn up the dial and go faster.” Paul looks forward to a future where we stop debating the reality of climate change and start debating solutions. Until then, he’s doing all he can to help people move past misinformation and distrust of science, especially Christians.