Climate change
and global warming talk
I have lectured at university and been a speaker on climate change and global warming for many years, as well as visiting Antarctica with leading researchers in climate science and working on an international ocean and climate research ship. I was an official observer at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021.
This talk is great for a school or general audience which wants to know what the impacts might be, the difficulties of measuring environmental change, and how the evidence was collected. As a speaker known for my ability to popularise and engage, this talk is far from being dry.
The understanding of climate change, and the role humanity plays, has been a painstaking story of patient detection. Climate
changes naturally for a variety of reasons and science has to carefully attempt to separate the consequences of natural
change from anthropogenically caused change. This has involved the development of novel ways of gathering data from the
past to better understand the future: from the icy wastes of Antarctica, to the depths of the oceans. This story of the
creative ways we deduce the past forms the start of the talk. The talk then delves into how we know climate is changing
now (and how we know it’s us), and why it’s a problem.
For sixth formers and adult audiences, the talk can then segue into what society, and individuals, can do to fight climate change. This version of the talk is great for an audience that wants an overview of the science but also insights into how society can respond.
Other environmental talks
Our Energy Future Antarctic science The End of Nature Living with the Environment