Date/Time: 28th November 2013

Venue: Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, Newcastle University

Climatic and other environmental changes are showing us not only the extent of human influence on the planet, but also the limits of programmatic management of this influence, whether through political, economic, technological or social engineering.  A changing climate is a condition of modernity, but a condition which modernity seems unable to control.  Inspired by the recent 'environmental turn' in the humanities – and calls from a range of environmental scholars and scientists – in this lecture Mike suggested a different, non-programmatic response to climate change: a reaquaintance with the philosophical and religious ideas of virtue.

Mike Hulme is professor of climate and culture in the Department of Geography at King's College London. His work explores the idea of climate change using historical, cultural and scientific analyses, seeking to illuminate the numerous ways in which climate change is deployed in public and political discourse. Mike’s next book (April 2014) is 'Can Science Fix Climate Change? A Case Against Climate Engineering'. His 2009 book 'Why We Disagree About Climate Change' was chosen by The Economist magazine as one of its science and technology books of the year. From 2000 to 2007 Mike was the Founding Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and since 2007 has been the founding Editor-in-Chief of the review journal Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs) Climate Change.