Mike Hulme

(November 2009)  Thomson Reuters reports Mike Hulme as the 10th most cited author in the world in the field of climate change, between 1999 and 2009 (ScienceWatch, Nov/Dec 2009, see Table 2).

ALL IN THE MIND.  Listen to this discussion on Australian national radio about my book, Why We Disagree About Climate Change.  I join anthropologist Jonathan Marshall and presenter Natasha Mitchell to discuss mythology, mental ecology and a changing climate.  Full transcript available.

I convene and teach the graduate module ‘Climate change: science, society and policy’ (ENV-M594) for the MSc in Climate Change.  For academic year 2009/10 this will run during Semester 2 (January to April).  To view the full syllabus click here: ENV-M594 2009/10 syllabus.

I also teach on a number of other undergraduate courses, offering lectures on the physical and social history of climate change for first year historians and lectures on climate scenarios and adaptation for final year environmental scientists.  This year (2010) I am also contributing a seminar to a new graduate level inter-disciplinary series examining intersections between culture and environment.

Synopsis for ENV-M594: Climate Change: science, society and policy

Climate change – the anthropogenic shaping of the global climate system, or ‘global warming’ – has become a defining phenomenon of the new century. It is one of the most salient public issues in UK society and, increasingly, worldwide. Assessing and managing the risks posed by climate change, now and in the future, is a major driver of national policy and international diplomacy, is an issue of lively public debate, and provides a backdrop against which new social movements, business strategies and public policies are emerging.

By way of framing the problem, this module provides a brief introduction to the science behind climate change (drawing upon module M535), especially focusing on certainties, uncertainties and identifiable risks. The major part of the course then examines in greater depth the impacts climate change is having on society – both direct and indirect, both now and potentially in the future. These impacts – physical effects, social responses and policy debates – will be examined from a number of different perspectives:

1. what is climate?
2. climate change and future scenarios
3. public perceptions of climate risks
4. the ethics and economics of climate change
5. climate change and development goals
6. climate and society: how adaptation works
7. energy and society: moves towards decarbonisation
8. structuring public policy around climate change

(10 November)  Read my extended interview with Brazilian on-line magazine Pagina 22 (in Portuguese, but Google will translate for you) in which I draw out some of the implications of the arguments in my book Why We Disagree About Climate Change.

(16 November) Read my commentary on The Ecologist website about why we shouldn’t expect much from the Copenhagen negotiations, and thoughts about alternative strategies and, for a (very) different readership, at The Mail on-line.

Biography

I was the Founding Director (2000-2007) of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, UK, which has been headquartered in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA) since its launch in October 2000. I have worked at UEA since 1988, following a period as lecturer in geography at the University of Salford. I have published over 120 peer-reviewed journal papers, 3 books and over 30 book chapters on climate change topics, together with over 240 reports and popular articles.  I am Editor-in-Chief of the new journal Wiley’s Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, to launch in January 2010. 

From 2004-2009 I co-edited the journal Global Environmental Change with Neil Adger and Katrina Brown and from 2006-2009 I led the EU Integrated Project ADAM (Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies), which comprised a 26-member European research consortium contributing research to the development of EU climate policy. I have prepared climate scenarios and reports for the UK Government (including the UKCIP98 and UKCIP02 scenarios), the European Commission, UNEP, UNDP, WWF-International and the IPCC. I was co-ordinating Lead Author for the chapter on ‘Climate scenario development’ for the Third Assessment Report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as a contributing author for several other chapters.

I was jointly awarded the Hugh Robert Mill Medal in 1995 by the Royal Meteorological Society for work on rainfall variability and I delivered the 2005 invited Queen’s Lecture in Berlin. I am a frequent speaker about climate change at academic, professional and public events, and for the media. I pioneered and wrote a monthly climate column for The Guardian newspaper between 1988 and 2000.

Curriculum vitae

The most recent version (August 2007) of my CV can be downloaded here.

(10 November 2009)  Listen here to Mike Hulme debating the prospects for COP15 in Copenhagen on BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight – along with Cleo Pascal, Steve Rayner and Elliot Morley MP.

(November)  WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ‘BELIEVE’ IN CLIMATE CHANGE?  Read my reflections on the seminal UK legal case of Nicholson vs Grainger plc. in which an employment tribunal judge, Justice Sir Michael Burton, ruled on whether or not belief in climate change can be deemed to be ‘philosophical’.

Listen in to my on-line interview with India’s first and most respected science-and-environment magazine, Down to Earth, recorded during my recent visit to India.  Read too my interview with The Times of India on why we need more politics in climate change debates.