Prof Mike Hulme discusses why we disagree about climate change

One of the participants in the initial Beneath the Wisteria chat on New Year’s Eve, 2011, was Steve Rodgers who commented about how much he enjoyed the work and ideas of Professor Mike Hulme.

Professor Hulme discusses “Why We Disagree About Climate Change” on the ABC’s Big ideas program.

Professor Mike Hulme

Mike Hulme is a UK Professor of Climate Change who thinks we've mistaken the means for the end when it comes to climate change action. On a visit to Australia, he gives an impassioned lecture about why it's such a hard sell in such a "partisan era".
We should stop focusing, he says, on the goal of trying to "stop climate change", or identifying which risks are natural or not. Instead, Hulme says we should focus on ensuring that the basic needs of the world's growing population are adequately met. It's a very plain argument, which is also hopeful about the future.

Amongst Hulme's "good news" stories is India's considerable solar power production. His lecture at TAFE NSW Sydney Institute was given in conjunction with the Hot Science Global Citizens symposium. He was introduced by Australian climate scientist, David Karoly.

Professor Mike Hulme is a Professor of Climate Change in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia in the UK. Hulme was, for 12 years, a senior researcher in the Climatic Research Unit, part of the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia. In 2000, he founded the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, a distributed virtual network organisation headquartered at UEA, which he directed until July 2007. Hulme is the author of "Why We Disagree About Climate Change".


Professor David Karoly

Professor David Karoly, who has spoken in Shepparton about climate change, is a Professor of Meteorology and an ARC Federation Fellow in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and the Australian Academy of Sciences' National Committee on Earth System Science.