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Mike Hulme

Professor Mike Hulme's Site

Climate Change isn't Everything: Liberating Climate Politics from Alarmism
  • About Me
    • Affiliations and Influences
  • My Books
    • When Temperature Became Global
    • Climate Change Isn’t Everything
    • A Critical Assessment of the IPCC
    • Climate Change (Key Ideas)
    • Contemporary Climate Change Debates: A Student Primer
    • Weathered: Cultures of Climate
    • Can Science Fix Climate Change?
    • Why We Disagree About Climate Change
  • Blog
    • Essays
    • Interviews
  • Audio & Video
    • Talks
    • Podcasts & Interviews
  • Climate Book of the Years
    • Subscribe to Climate Book of the Years
  • Publications
    • Archived Publications
  • Research
  • PhD Students
    • Previous PhD Students
  • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Tools
Liberty means freedom of speech means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

Defending “the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”

Mike Hulme | 24/07/2020
Having just finished reading Dorian Lynsky’s wonderful Ministry of Truth, a biography of George Orwell’s 1948 novel Nineteen Eighty Four, a recent headline from The Times newspaper caught my attention.  The Harvard professor of psychology Steven Pinker was accusing...
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A cartoon of a man standing next to a stairway with a biodiversity icon on it.

Fetishising ‘The Number’: How Not To Govern Pandemics, Climate and Biodiversity

Mike Hulme | 09/07/2020
As the pandemic continues to dominate public politics around the world, a single number – the reproduction rate (R) – has become the focus of policy-making and public communication.  Keeping R below 1.0 appears to be the primary objective...
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A man and woman standing next to a curtain at the Hadley Centre 30 years ago.

How the Hadley Centre came to be … 30 years ago

Mike Hulme | 30/05/2020
Thirty years ago last week, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opened the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction (now the Hadley Centre for Cliamate Science and Services). The current Director – Albert Klein Tank – has offered a brief ‘perspective‘ and...
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A coronavirus ball with different flags hanging from it, representing a fusion of social scientific knowledge.

Social scientific knowledge in times of crisis: What climate change can learn from coronavirus (and vice versa)

Mike Hulme | 29/05/2020
Read this new editorial commentary from WIREs Climate Change, written with colleagues from Orebro University, Sweden. Abstract. Crisis, by its very nature, requires decisive intervention. However, important questions can be obscured by the very immediacy of the crisis condition....
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A computer screen displaying COVID-19 statistics on a map of the world.

COVID-19 behind the numbers – statistics, models and decision-making

Mike Hulme | 28/05/2020
You can view this recorded webinar delivered on-line on Thursday 14 May for Cambridge Conversations, the Alumni Programme. “Unpick the numbers behind COVID-19 with Sir David Spiegelhalter, one of the world’s foremost biostatisticians, and Mike Hulme, professor of human...
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A sphere with mathematical formulas designed to reduce the spread of Covid-19.

Do Not Reduce the Future to Covid-19

Mike Hulme | 27/04/2020
Nearly 10 years ago I published a paper in the history of science journal Osiris titled Reducing the Future to Climate: A Story of Climate Determinism and Reductionism.  It was a warning about viewing the future—and making decisions about...
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A green and blue One Earth with a ribbon around it.

One Earth, many futures, no destination

Mike Hulme | 17/04/2020
Read my new Commentary in the journal One Earth, to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day. Since the first Earth Day 50 years ago, it has become clear that it is easier to generate scientific insight...
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A man in a police uniform is looking at a drone mobilizing for war.

‘Mobilising for War’: Why COVID-19 is Not a Dress Rehearsal for Dealing with Climate Change

Mike Hulme | 19/03/2020
Many politicians and public figures are calling for the response to COVID-19 to be put on a war footing.  Emergency declarations and executive powers are being appropriated by the state.  Climate campaigners, too, have frequently called upon nations to...
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The logo for The Sustainability Agenda podcasts on a red and purple background.

Podcast: ‘The Sustainability Agenda’

Mike Hulme | 14/03/2020
Listen to this interview with Fergal Byrne for his ‘Sustainability Agenda‘ podcast. The conversation is about climate change from a perspective that encompasses the relationship between science and policy, science and culture, the politics of climate change, and the...
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A map of the earth with different colors illustrating the concept of climate tipping points.

Is the concept of climate ‘tipping point’ helpful?

Mike Hulme | 11/03/2020
A new paper published today in Nature Communications suggest that “shifts in Earth ecosystems occur over ‘human’ timescales of years and decades, meaning the collapse of large vulnerable ecosystems, such as the Amazon rainforest and Caribbean coral reefs, may...
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Recently uploaded

  • Book cover with the title "Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life" over a foggy, muted landscape background—a notable 2011 Climate Book capturing the emotional side of climate change.

    My 2011 ‘Climate Book of the Year’

    April 30, 2026
  • Monochrome digital painting of a dramatic cloud formation over a flat landscape, featuring bold, textured brushstrokes and strong contrasts of light and shadow, evoking the clarity of a clean atmosphere and visions of climate futures.

    ‘The Historical Evolution of ‘Clean’ Bodies and Air in European Cultures: Implications for a ‘Clean’ Atmosphere and Imagined Climate Futures’

    April 15, 2026
  • Book cover for the 2010 climate book "Merchants of Doubt," featuring the title over a background of white smoke rising against a blue sky.

    My 2010 ‘Climate Book of the Year’

    April 1, 2026
  • A word cloud on a black background featuring terms related to oral history, wellbeing, and climate history, such as "oral," "history," "wellbeing," "support," "climate," and "oral history interviews.

    ‘Making Climate History’ – Oral History Interviews

    March 25, 2026

Books

  • (2019) Contemporary Climate Change Debates: A Student Primer
  • (2016) Weathered: Cultures of Climate
  • (2015) Streitfall Klimawandel: warum es für die grö?te Herausforderung keine enfachen Lösungen gibt
  • (2014) Can Science Fix Climate Change? A Case Against Climate Engineering
  • (2013) Exploring Climate Change Through Science and In Society
  • (2010) Making Climate Change Work For Us
  • (2009) Why We Disagree About Climate Change

My other web presence

  • Academia.Edu
  • Google Scholar Citations
  • Research Gate

Relevant links

  • MPhil Anthropocene Studies
  • Rachel Carson Center
  • Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs): Climate Change

monthly site’s archive

Tags

A Critical Assessment of the IPCC Affiliations & Influences Articles & Book Chapters Audio & Video Bio and CV Books Can Science Fix Climate Change? Climate Book of the Years Climate Change (Key Ideas) Climate Change Isn’t Everything Climate Datasets Contemporary Climate Change Debates: A Student Primer Current Current Projects Essays Essays & Blog Posts Interviews News PhD Students Podcasts & Interviews Previous Publications - Archived Publications - Recent Research Talks Weathered: Cultures of Climate When Temperature Became Global Why We Disagree About Climate Change WIREs Climate Change
© Mike Hulme
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