Imperial Horizons officially starts on Monday January 23rd, and we asked our first keynote lecturer, Sir Brian Hoskins FRS, to suggest some introductory readings.
Horizons students aren’t expected to read all of them before the lecture, but it’s probably worth having a look at some of them, and we thought we’d post them here so everyone can see.
First off, he suggested this really clear briefing on climate science produced last summer by the Green Alliance in association with Imperial’s Grantham Institute (which Sir Brian directs). He also suggested a similarly clear but slightly longer summary from the Royal Society that includes some discussion of confidence in the science. The 2010 Report by the UK Climate Change Committee includes a first chapter that revisits the science of climate change in the light of some of the controversies around it, and the 2007 Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has separate comprehensive reports from the Science, Impacts and Policy Working Groups, as well as a synthesis report.
The report of the Review of the science of the UEA Climate Research Unit is worth having a look at (Lord Oxburgh, who led this report will be chairing the panel debate on the 30th). He also suggests the international review of the IPCC Process (not its science) and critical assessment of IPCC (2007) statements on possible future regional impacts of climate change from PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.
Sir Brian also suggests this feature collating a variety of views on whether extreme weather is linked to global warming and a recent discussion of handling uncertainty at the science-policy interface, with critical comments on IPCC (2007). If you want a longer view on questions of handling uncertainty – one that puts the issue in a lot of social, philosophical and historical context – I can also recommend Mike Hulme’s Why We Disagree About Climate Change.
Finally, Sir Brian points us to four blogs, from somewhat opposite perspectives (so make up your own mind on all of them): Real Climate, Climate Audit, Think Progress and Wattupwiththat.
I can also add Carbon Brief as a UK based website with a lot of news on climate issues and, seeing as James Randerson and Louise Gray are both coming to speak on the 30th, it’s probably worth having a look at the Guardian and Telegraph environment coverage too.
