social media – Cabot Institute for the Environment blog

We’ve got lots of media trained climate change experts. If you need an expert for an interview, here is a list of our experts you can approach. All media enquiries should be made via Victoria Tagg, our dedicated Media and PR Manager at the University of Bristol.

Email victoria.tagg@bristol.ac.uk or call +44 (0)117 428 2489.

Climate change / climate emergency / climate science / climate-induced disasters

Dr Eunice Lo – expert in changes in extreme weather events such as heatwaves and cold spells, and how these changes translate to negative health outcomes including illnesses and deaths. Follow on Twitter/X @EuniceLoClimate.

Professor Daniela Schmidt – expert in the causes and effects of climate change on marine systems. Dani is also a Lead Author on the IPCC reports.

Dr Katerina Michalides – expert in drylands, drought and desertification and helping East African rural communities to adapt to droughts and future climate change. Follow on Twitter/X @_kmichaelides.

Professor Dann Mitchell – expert in how climate change alters the atmospheric circulation, extreme events, and impacts on human health. Dann is also a Met Office Chair. Follow on Twitter/X @ClimateDann.

Professor Dan Lunt – expert on past climate change, with a focus on understanding how and why climate has changed in the past and what we can learn about the future from the past. Dan is also a Lead Author on IPCC AR6. Follow on Twitter/X @ClimateSamwell.

Professor Jonathan Bamber – expert on the impact of melting land ice on sea level rise (SLR) and the response of the ocean to changes in freshwater forcing. Follow on Twitter/X @jlbamber

Professor Paul Bates CBE – expert in the science of flooding, risk and reducing threats to life and economic losses worldwide. Follow on Twitter/X @paul_d_bates

Dr Matt Palmer – expert in sea level and ocean heat content at the Met Office Hadley Centre and University of Bristol. Follow on Twitter/X @mpclimate.

Professor Guy Howard – expertise in building resilience and supporting adaptation in water systems, sanitation, health care facilities, and housing. Expert in wider infrastructure resilience assessment.

Net Zero / Energy / Renewables

Dr Caitlin Robinson – expert on energy poverty and energy justice and also in mapping ambient vulnerabilities in UK cities. Caitlin will be virtually attending COP28. Follow on Twitter/X @CaitHRobin.

Professor Philip Taylor – Expert in net zero, energy systems, energy storage, utilities, electric power distribution. Also Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Bristol. Follow on Twitter/X @rolyatlihp.

Dr Colin Nolden – expert in sustainable energy policy, regulation and business models and interactions with secondary markets such as carbon markets and other sectors such as mobility. Colin will be in attendance in the Blue Zone at COP28 during week 2.

Professor Charl Faul – expert in novel functional materials for sustainable energy applications e.g. in CO2 capture and conversion and energy storage devices. Follow on Twitter/X @Charl_FJ_Faul.

Climate finance / Loss and damage

Dr Rachel James – Expert in climate finance, damage, loss and decision making. Also has expertise in African climate systems and contemporary and future climate change. Follow on Twitter/X @_RachelJames.

Dr Katharina Richter – expert in decolonial environmental politics and equitable development in times of climate crises. Also an expert on degrowth and Buen Vivir, two alternatives to growth-based development from the Global North and South. Katarina will be virtually attending COP28. @DrKatRichter.

Climate justice

Dr Alix Dietzel – climate justice and climate policy expert. Focusing on the global and local scale and interested in how just the response to climate change is and how we can ensure a just transition. Alix will be in attendance in the Blue Zone at COP28 during week 1. Follow on Twitter/X @alixdietzel.

Dr Ed Atkins – expert on environmental and energy policy, politics and governance and how they must be equitable and inclusive. Also interested in local politics of climate change policies and energy generation and consumption. Follow on Twitter/X @edatkins_.

Dr Karen Tucker – expert on colonial politics of knowledge that shape encounters with indigenous knowledges, bodies and natures, and the decolonial practices that can reveal and remake them. Karen will be in attending the Blue Zone of COP28 in week 2.

Climate change and health

Dr Dan O’Hare – expert in climate anxiety and educational psychologist. Follow on Twitter/X @edpsydan.

Professor Guy Howard – expert in influence of climate change on infectious water-related disease, including waterborne disease and vector-borne disease.

Professor Rachael Gooberman-Hill – expert in health research, including long-term health conditions and design of ways to support and improve health. @EBIBristol (this account is only monitored in office hours).

Youth, children, education and skills

Dr Dan O’Hare – expert in climate anxiety in children and educational psychologist. Follow on Twitter/X @edpsydan.

Dr Camilla Morelli – expert in how children and young people imagine the future, asking what are the key challenges they face towards the adulthoods they desire and implementing impact strategies to make these desires attainable. Follow on Twitter/X @DrCamiMorelli.

Dr Helen Thomas-Hughes – expert in engaging, empowering, and inspiring diverse student bodies as collaborative environmental change makers. Also Lead of the Cabot Institute’s MScR in Global Environmental Challenges. Follow on Twitter/X @Researchhelen.

Professor Daniela Schmidt – expert in the causes and effects of climate change on marine systems. Dani is also a Lead Author on the IPCC reports. Also part of the Waves of Change project with Dr Camilla Morelli, looking at the intersection of social, economic and climatic impacts on young people’s lives and futures around the world.

Climate activism / Extinction Rebellion

Dr Oscar Berglund – expert on climate change activism and particularly Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the use of civil disobedience. Follow on Twitter @berglund_oscar.

Land / Nature / Food

Dr Jo House – expert on land and climate interactions, including emissions of carbon dioxide from land use change (e.g. deforestation), climate mitigation potential from the land (e.g. afforestation, bioenergy), and implications of science for policy. Previously Government Office for Science’s Head of Climate Advice. Follow on Twitter @Drjohouse.

Professor Steve Simpson – expert marine biology and fish ecology, with particular interests in the behaviour of coral reef fishes, bioacoustics, effects of climate change on marine ecosystems, conservation and management. Follow on Twitter/X @DrSteveSimpson.

Dr Taro Takahashi – expert on farming, livestock production systems as well as programme evaluation and general equilibrium modelling of pasture and livestock-based economies.

Dr Maria Paula Escobar-Tello – expert on tensions and intersections between livestock farming and the environment.

Air pollution / Greenhouse gases

Dr Aoife Grant – expert in greenhouse gases and methane. Set up a monitoring station at Glasgow for COP26 to record emissions.

Professor Matt Rigby – expert on sources and sinks of greenhouse gases and ozone depleting substances. Follow on Twitter @TheOtherMRigby.

Professor Guy Howard – expert in contribution of waste and wastewater systems to methane emissions in low- and middle-income countries

Plastic and the environment

Dr Charlotte Lloyd – expert on the fate of chemicals in the terrestrial environment, including plastics, bioplastics and agricultural wastes. Follow on Twitter @DrCharlLloyd.

Cabot Institute for the Environment at COP28

We will have three media trained academics in attendance at the Blue Zone at COP28. These are: Dr Alix Dietzel (week 1), Dr Colin Nolden (week 2) and Dr Karen Tucker (week 2). We will also have two academics attending virtually: Dr Caitlin Robinson and Dr Katharina Richter.

Read more about COP on our website at https://bristol.ac.uk/cabot/what-we-do/projects/cop/
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This blog was written by Amanda Woodman-Hardy, Communications and Engagement Officer at the Cabot Institute for the Environment. Follow on Twitter @Enviro_Mand and @cabotinstitute.

Watch our Cabot Conversations – 10 conversations between 2 experts on a climate change issue, all whilst an artist listens in the background and interprets the conversation into a beautiful piece of art in real time. Find out more at bristol.ac.uk/cabot/conversations.

Blogging the tweets (‘bleeting’) received from our Annual Lecture with Kevin Anderson

By Amanda Woodman-Hardy

This week we held our Annual Lecture with special guest Kevin Anderson from the Tyndall Centre at the University of Manchester. As I was helping out at the event, I didn’t get to see all of it (I’ll be watching it online when the video is posted) so I thought instead I would share with you some of the tweets and comments received from members of the public who attended the event.

We handed out postcards on the night with two sides, one asking what had inspired you this evening and the other side asking what will you do as a result? We had a very diverse audience with people from government, charities and NGOs, education, health, and sustainability organisations. This lead to some very diverse responses. Some were interesting, relevant and empowering. Others were depressing, shocking or hopeless. This in itself shows the problems that we face in communicating climate change to people who are from different backgrounds, with different beliefs and different personal levels of optimism, pessimism and realism.

Kevin Anderson was quite blunt in explaining that if we keep doing what we’re doing and don’t make any changes to our lives now to make them more energy efficient and sustainable, then climate change will cause at least 4 – 6 degrees of warming with potentially horrendous consequences for the people and biodiversity of the world.

Some interesting tweets came through Twitter on the night and the days that followed, showing that the outcome of the event had stuck in people’s minds.

The negative tweets

“The fiction of climate science -in particular emission modelling is hard wired by policy paymasters.K. Anderson”

“Looking for good news that humans aren’t doomed, but not hopeful!”

“#cabot2012 The future is impossible.”

“well, #cabot2012 was extremely interesting, sobering and downright scary. My summary – don’t bank on your grandkids having a planet.”

“Looking for optimism but ending in pessimism…”

“Kevin Anderson blowing apart any notion of limiting global temp rise to 2C as a realistic goal. 4,5 or even 6 far more likely. #cabot2012”

The positive tweets

“Key questions @cabotinstitute … How can we frame the issue for people who would avert their attention? Including us? Lots on rule…”

Some ideas to reduce demand http://www.bristol247.com/2012/11/06/how-you-can-be-part-of-the-low-carbon-revolution-85245/

“What a fantastic #Cabot2012 lecture from Kevin Anderson this evening – many thanks to the @cabotinstitute – I AM FEELING INSPIRED FOR CHANGE”

“Eye opening talk from Kevin Anderson last night #cabot2012, time to face up to reality of climatechange”

“Well done #Cabot2012 for hosting Kevin Anderson’s challenging lecture today! His is a message we, as scientists, should be listening to.”

“Kevin Anderson: “There are lots of things we can do, both from the bottom-up and the top-down.” #Cabot2012”

“Strange that so many climate change scientists persist in flying to international conferences. Great talk from Kevin Anderson #cabot2012”

“Straight talking presentation about the reality of carbon and climate change last night from Kevin Anderson #cabot2012 http://ow.ly/f5DHC”

“#cabot2012 Kevin Anderson brilliant talk “all estimates in analysis are way below reality” 4degree future increase Global mean surface temp”

The remarks on the postcards were just as varied. What follows are the responses from a random selection of postcards filled in by attendees on the night.

What inspired you this evening?

“Driving certain cars on the market would reduce emissions by 40 -50%”.

“Why can’t we stop having babies?”

“You can’t trust very much of what you are told but there are true independent voices out there”

“The feisty nature of the audience”

“The fact that a climate scientist admitted that many numbers that projections and estimates are based on are incorrect”

“It was refreshing to see an academic so unequivocally calling out his colleagues for their hypocritical behaviour in talking about climate change but continuing to engage in high-emitting activities”

“Confirmation that we need to act”

“Kevin was willing and determined to be honest”

“That real change is possible through simple things such as stopping flying, walking and cycling to get around”

What will you do as a result?

“Won’t have children and accept that the human race is ****ed – we deserve it”

“I would like to see the Cabot Institute commit to the values it appears to espouse by reducing emissions from its events and research as much as possible – e.g. by not flying academics to climate change conferences”

“Keep trying to learn the facts and be vocal with others about what I learn”

“Talk to people who are not already converted”

“Spread the word and read up more about climate change”

“Support/lobby MP and continue to strive for greener low carbon lifestyle. Influence others.”

“Stay positive, be honest, change the economy”

“Try to stop flying. Try to shop more by bicycle rather than driving”.

It is refreshing to see a group of randomly selected respondents who want to make a change. The main message that came out of Kevin Anderson’s talk was to spread the word and educate others in the hope of reducing emissions in our everyday lives.

You can read all the responses from the event here

Did you go to the Kevin Anderson event? What do you think of everyone’s responses above? Is it what you expected? Is there something that hasn’t been said? Feel free to comment on this blog, we would love to hear your opinions.