Discussing a tendency in contemporary politics to reduce issues to questions of scientific measures of climate change, Mike Hulme argues for more diverse understandings of climate and change and its impacts on society. I discussed these ideas in my lecture at the London School of Economics, ‘Epistemic Pluralism and Climate Change’ on 10 March 2025, […]
The Tyndall Centre at 25 Years: Bidding for the Contract
Twenty-five years ago today – on Wednesday 22 March 2000 – I arrived at the Institute of Directors at 116 Pall Mall, London, at 10.30am in the morning prepared to deliver the most important presentation of my life. I was to defend our proposal for establishing a new national climate change research centre in front […]
‘Small-Step Funding Models Fit Better for Climate Research’
I have this item of Correspondence appear in Nature Climate Change today. I contrast the research funding model of the UK Government’s Advanced Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA) with the funding model that established, 25 years ago this summer, the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. I conclude my comparison thus: “Research into the sociology […]
My 1997 ‘Climate Book of the Year’
Gelbspan,R. (1997) The Heat Is On: The High Stakes Battle Over Earth’s Threatened Climate. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Inc. 278pp. This essay continues my series of monthly posts in which I select one ‘climate’ book to highlight and review from one of the 44 years of my professional career in climate research (starting with […]
‘Profiles in Sustainability’, an interview with Mike Hulme
The journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development centers on sustainability science and its contribution to guiding policy and practice. To this end, the journal is exploring the device of interviews to enable conversations to flourish. In this...
New paper, ‘Climate data for climate action’
Published last week in the journal ‘Climate Action‘, this article draws attenton to the challenges of political instability and geopolitical tension, together with rising nationalism, bureaucracy and economic pressure, to the free access to and exchange of scientific data...
My 1996 ‘Climate Book of the Year’
Glantz,M.H. (1996) Currents of Change: El Niño’s Impact on Climate and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 194pp. This essay continues my series of monthly posts in which I select one ‘climate’ book to highlight and review from one of...
Geopolitics, History and Climate Change: A Personal View
“To think that we can draw some useful analogies from history dramatically underestimates the novelty and scale of the climate challenge.”[2] “In the contest between geopolitics and sustainable climate policies, the former takes precedence.”[3] Starting in the early 1980s,...
My 1995 ‘Climate Book of the Year’
Lamb,H.H. (1995) Climate History and the Modern World. (2nd edition). London & New York: Routledge. 433pp. This essay continues my series of monthly posts in which I select one ‘climate’ book to highlight and review from one of the...
My 1994 ‘Climate Book of the Year’
Nordhaus,W.D. (1994) Managing the Global Commons: The Economics of Climate Change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 213pp. This essay continues my series of monthly posts in which I select one ‘climate’ book to highlight and review from one of the...
