Current Post: Professor

Room Number: 2.42

Telephone: 01603 593162 (+44 1603 593162)

Fax: 01603 593901 (+44 1603 593901)

Email: m.hulme@uea.ac.uk

Web Page: Personal web page

Publications: EPrints Digital Repository

Posts of Special Responsibility:

• REF Manager
• Course Director, BSc/MSci Environmental Geography and Climate Change

Research Interests

My work explores the idea of climate change using historical, cultural and scientific analyses and illuminates the varied ways in which climate change is deployed in public and political discourse.  I believe it is important to understand and describe the ideological, political and ethical work that the idea of climate change is currently performing across our social worlds.  My research interests are therefore concerned with representations of climate change in history, culture and the media; with how knowledge of climate change is constructed (especially through the IPCC) and the interactions between climate change knowledge and policy; and with the construction, application and evaluation of climate scenarios for impact, adaptation and integrated assessment.  I welcome approaches from graduate students seeking to study for a PhD in any of these areas.


Biography

I am Professor of Climate Change in the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA, and was the Founding Director (2000-2007) of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. I recently (2006-2009) led the EU Integrated Project ADAM: Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies, which comprised a 26-member European research consortium contributing research to inform the development of EU climate policy.  I am Editor-in-Chief of the newly launched academic journal Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs) – Climate Change.  My two most recent books are Why We Disagree About Climate Change and (edited with Henry Neufeldt) Making Climate Change Work For Us, both published by CUP.

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 IPCC, as well as a contributing author for several other chapters.  Earlier in my career I worked on the evaluation of climate models, the development of global and national observational climate data sets, and climate change and desertification in Africa.  I have published over 120 peer-reviewed journal papers and over 35 book chapters on climate change topics, together with over 250 reports and popular articles. I have advised numerous government bodies, private 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 global precipitation and I delivered the prestigious Queen's Lecture in Berlin in 2005.  For 12 years, I wrote a monthly climate column for The Guardian newspaper.

Significant Recent Publications

• Hulme, M. (2010) Learning to live with re-created climates. Nature and Culture 5(2), 117-122.
• Hulme, M. (2010) The idea of climate change: exploring complexity, plurality and opportunity. Gaia 19(3), 171-174.
• Hulme, M. (2010) Four meanings of climate change pp.37-58 in: Future ethics: climate change and political action (ed.) Skrimshire, S., Continuum Press, London.
• Hulme, M. (2010) The IPCC on trial: experimentation continues. Environmental Research Web Talking Point http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/opinion/43250
• Hulme, M. (2010)  Mapping climate change knowledge - an editorial for Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs) Climate Change WIREs Climate Change  1(1),  1-7.
• Hulme, M. and Neufeldt, H. (eds.) (2010) Making climate change work for us: European perspectives on adaptation and mitigation strategies. Cambridge University Press,  Cambridge,  413pp.
• Hulme, M. (2009)  Why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 392pp.
• Hulme, M., Dessai, S., Lorenzoni, I. and Nelson, D. (2009) Unstable climates: exploring the statistical and social constructions of ‘normal’ climate. Geoforum 40(2), 197-206  doi 10.1016/j.geoforum.2008.09.010
• Dessai, S., Hulme, M., Lempert, R. and Pielke, R. jr. (2009) Do we need better predictions to adapt to a changing climate? EOS  90(13), 111-112
• Adger, W.N., Dessai, S., Goulden, M., Hulme, M., Lorenzoni, I., Nelson, D., Otto-Naess, L., Wolf, J. and Wreford, A. (2009) Are there social limits to adaptation to climate change? Climatic Change 93, 335-354 doi 10.1007/s10584-008-9520-z
• Girod, B., Wiek, A., Mieg, H. and Hulme, M. (2009) The evolution of the IPCC’s emission scenarios – changes, causes and critical aspects. Environmental Science and Policy  12(2), 103-118 doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2008.12.006
• Hulme, M. (2008) Geographical work at the boundaries of climate change. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 33(1), 5-11.
• Hulme, M. and Dessai, S. (2008) Negotiating future climates: a critical review of the development of climate scenarios for the UK. Environmental Science and Policy 11(1), 54-70, doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2007.09.003
• Hulme, M. (2008) The conquering of climate: discourses of fear and their dissolution. The Geographical Journal, 174(1), 5-16.

Page last updated 25 October 2011