Mike Hulme’s Site

I am seeking to recruit a PhD student to work with me on the following topics: ‘The IPCC and the spatial ordering of climate change knowledge‘ and (with Dr Irene Lorenzoni) ‘Public perceptions of drought and climate change in southeast England’.  Contact me at m.hulme@uea.ac.uk for further information.

I am also interested to receive approaches from students who would like to study for a PhD in the areas of climate change adaptation, representations of climate in the media, and the philosophy of climate. The School of Environmental Sciences publishes details about PhD studentships.

I am currently supervising two PhD students:

• Saffron O’Neill (registered 2004) An iconic approach to representing dangerous climate change
• Neil Jennings (registered 2004) How and why did the possibility of the collapse of the thermohaline circulation emerge as a risk issue in the UK?

I have supervised a further nine PhD students, all of whom have successfully completed their doctorates:

• Vincent Okwany (1991) Climate and vegetation relationships in southwestern Kenya and the potential impacts of a warmer world

• Declan Conway (1993) Climate change and the hydrology of the Nile Basin

• Martin Airey (1996) On the evaluation of precipitation in global climate models

• Elaine Barrow (1999) On the evaluation and construction of climate change scenarios for use in crop-climate models

• Nick Brooks (1999) Dust-climate interactions in the Sahel-Sahara zone of northern Africa, with particular reference to late twentieth century Sahelian drought

• Louise Bohn (2001) (joint supervision) The application and value of climate information in Swaziland

• Tim Mitchell (2001) An investigation of the pattern-scaling technique for describing future climates

• Irene Lorenzoni (2003) (joint supervision) Present choices, future climates: a cross-cultural study of perceptions in Italy and the UK

• Suraje Dessai (2005) Robust adaptation decisions amid climate change uncertainties

The longest UK climate data series is the Central England Temperature available from the Hadley Centre. The decade 1991-2000 was 0.6degC warmer than the 1961-90 baseline, and the period 2001-2006 was 1.0degC warmer.

Other climate datasets produced by the Climatic Research Unit can be found here, including the Hulme global gridded monthly precipitation dataset for land areas for the period 1900-1998.

For country-by-country historical and future climate data produced by Tim Mitchell and the Tyndall Centre, try here.

Information about current and recently completed research projects for which I am the Principal, or Co-Principal, Investigator. The Tyndall Centre currently has a contract with NERC, EPSRC and ESRC worth £5.7m for the period 2006-2009.

Current Research Contracts

ADAM: adaptation and mitigation strategies in support of European climate policy, 2006-2009 (EU DG-Research, €11,950,000)

Framing energy futures and risk: exploring public understandings, 2007-2010 (with Irene Lorenzoni and Jacquie Burgess) (Leverhulme Energy, £216,000)

Simplicity, complexity and modelling, 2006-2008 (with Suraje Dessai) (EPSRC, £18,000)

Recently Completed Contracts and Grants

Tyndall Centre Phase 1 (plus extension), 2000-2006 (NERC, EPSRC, ESRC, £10,897,000).  You can read here an independent assessment by PA Consulting Group of the economic impact of the Tyndall Centre, commissioned by Research Councils UK, October 2007.

Towards a research agenda for climate stabilisation, 2004-2005 (Defra, £68,000)

Adaptation and vulnerability in Europe, 2004-2006 (European Environment Agency, €160,000)

Tyndall Centre Business Liaison function, 2000-2005 (DTI, £358,000)

UKCIP02 climate change scenarios, 2000-2002 (Defra, £160,000)

Climate Observations and Model Evaluation, 1999-2001 (UK DETR: £195,338): evaluating climate model performance, especially with regard to the Hadley Centre

ECLAT-2 Concerted Action, 1998-2001 (EU DGXII: €248,900): towards the improvement of climate change scenario development and application

ACACIA Concerted Action, 1998-2000 (EU DGXII: expenses only): assessing the potential effects of climate change in Europe

Climate Change Scenarios for Wales, 1999-2000 (National Assembly of Wales): contribution to a ‘Scoping Study of Climate Change Impacts in Wales’

Climate Change in the UK, 1999-2000 (UK Department of Health): contribution to a DoH report ‘Climate Change and Health in the UK’

Regional weather scenarios for Scotland, 2000 (Scottish Executive: £17,076): analysis of Regional Climate Model experiment for Scotland

Database of global climate change impacts, 2000 (UK DETR: £19,283): joint project with W.S.Atkins and Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

Country Climate Change Scenarios, 1999 (WWF: $142,000): national scenario leaflets for 15 countries

UKCIP98 Climate Change Scenarios, 1998 (UK DETR: £17,500): the national climate change scenarios for the UK Climate Impacts Programme

CLIVARA, 1995-1998 (EU DGXII: £55,000): climate change, climate variability and agriculture in Europe

Climate Change and Southern Africa, 1994-1996 (WWF International: £86,500): an exploration of some potential impacts and implications

Less heat, more light, please  Book review of ‘The Hot Topic: how to tackle global warming and still keep the lights on’ by Gabrielle Walker and David King, Times Higher Education, 21 February 2008

Overheated, underpowered  Book review of ‘The Hot Topic: how to tackle global warming and still keep the lights on’ by Gabrielle Walker and David King, The Independent,  18 January 2008,  Review Supplement, p.25 

Is climate change really a security threat?  Read this viewpoint article Climate security: the new determinism, on the OpenDemocracy web site (21 December 2007).

I acted as a discussant for Professor William Cronon’s lecture Saving Nature in Time: why environmentalism needs history as much as science at Harvard University on Thursday 29 November 2007.

Book review of ‘A moral climate: the ethics of global warming’ by Michael Northcott, in Third Way, December 2007, p.27.

I presented this seminar, ‘Three meanings of climate change: lamenting Eden, presaging Apoclaypse, constructing Babel‘ at the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at the University of Cambridge on Tuesday 30 October, 2007. You can listen here.

I participated in a debate The science and politics of climate change at the Institute of Ideas’ 2007 Battle of Ideas on Sunday 28 October in London. You can watch here.

Why did Al Gore win the Nobel Peace Prize? Read this viewpoint article Climate change: issue or magnifier? on the OpenDemocracy website (19 October 2007).

The value of barefoot life Book review of ‘The Earth only endures: on reconnecting with nature and our place in it’ by Jules Pretty, The Times Higher Educational Supplement 22 June 2007, p.22

Setting goals for global climate governance: an inter-disciplinary perspective Keynote talk presented at the IHDP/HDGEC Conference “Earth System Governance: theories, methods, tools” at IVM, Amsterdam, 24 May 2007

Understanding climate change: the power and the limit of science - viewpoint article published in the magazine Weather 62(9), 243-244.

The appliance of science: a commentary in The Guardian on Singer and Avery’s book ‘Unstoppable warming’ (14 Mar 2007). Re-interpreted by Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail.

The limits of the Stern Review for climate change policy-making An editorial in the Bulletin of the British Ecological Society 38(1), pp.20-21 (March 2007).

“Newspaper scare headlines can be counter-productive” - a letter to Nature (22 Feb 2007)

“A non-skeptical heresy: taking the science out of climate change” - a speech delivered to the Cambridge Research on Arts Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) debate on climate change (15 Feb 2007)

No fig leaf for Eden’s destroyers Book review of ‘The end of the wild’ by Stephen M Meyer, Times Higher Educational Supplement 22 Feb 2007, p.22

Mike Hulme on John Constable’s cloud study in the Tate Modern Newsletter (Dec 2006)

Chaotic world of climate truth - a feature article for BBC news on-line about the use of language in talking about climate change (Nov 2006)

We need a change of climate to survive Commentary in the Times Higher Educational Supplement, 6 January 2006, p.14

A full list of all publications by Mike Hulme can be downloaded here hulme-publications.pdf

This page summarises my professional and personal affiliations, revealing some of the responsibilities and influences that shape my thinking.

Journals

I am Editor-in-Chief of the new Wiley-Blackwell Interdisciplinary Review (WIREs) Climate Change, to launch early 2010. 

I co-edit with Neil Adger and Kate Brown the journal Global Environmental Change and I am on the editorial board of the journal Climate Policy.  I have previously served as an editor for the journals Int. J. Climatology, Climate Research and Progress in Physical Geography.

Advisory Committees and Roles

I sit on the Advisory Board’s of the UK Energy Research Centre and the UK Climate Impacts Programme and am a member of the Steering Group for NERC’s RAPID research programme.  I am also a senior advisor to the British Council and am a member of the Steering Group for the European Climate Platform, a collaboration between Clipore, a Swedish-based programme to enhance research-policy interactions, and the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.

I provided scientific input into the Conservative Party’s 2006 Quality of Life policy review.  I was on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research between 2002 and 2007 and was a Convening Lead Author for the scenarios chapter for the IPCC Third Assessment Report and Manager of the IPCC Data Distribution Centre between 1997 and 2002. 

I am a signatory to the Oxford Declaration ‘Science and faith unite on biodiversity’ under the auspicies of the James Martin Institute, issued 7 December 2007. 

Personal Influences

I have been a member of the Labour Party since 1990.

I am an evangelical Christian and member of the Church of England, and my theology is not dissimilar to that espoused by Fulcrum, a movement seeking to act as a point of balance within the Anglican Church.

I am currently studying for a postgraduate Diploma in History at the University of East Anglia.

I am a member of the Society of Authors and of the Liverpool and SW Lancashire Family History Society.

I have been married since 1987 and have a 1992-born daughter.

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 100 peer-reviewed journal papers and over 30 book chapters on climate change topics, together with over 220 reports and popular articles. 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 am leading the EU Integrated Project ADAM (Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies) during the period 2006-2009, which comprises a 26-member European research consortium contributing research to the development of EU climate policy. I edit the journal Global Environmental Change with Neil Adger and Katrina Brown. I have advised numerous companies and non-governmental organisations about climate change and its implications. 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 Queen’s Lecture in Berlin. I am a frequent speaker about climate change at academic, professional and public events, and for the media. For 12 years, I wrote a monthly climate column for The Guardian newspaper.

Curriculum vitae

The most recent version of my CV can be downloaded here.