Climate change expert outlines humanity's role in speeding global warming

Climate change expert Professor Sir David Hendry will explore how humanity has accelerated global warming when he delivers the annual China Institute Li Siguang lecture at the University of Birmingham on Wednesday 20th November.

And his talk ‘Climate Change in the Long Run’ will illustrate how climatologists, volcanologists, dendrochronologists, meteorologists, geophysicists and health scientists are working together to tackle climate change and its consequences.

There are still seats available and anyone wishing to attend the lecture, which starts at 4pm, in University House, shouldregister. 

The Earth’s climate has varied over a huge range from frozen to very hot over geological time, driven by natural forces. During this period, most previous species of life have become extinct from the impact of that climatic variation.

The talk traces the `great extinctions’ and their associated major climate events, then shows that humanity can easily affect our oceans and atmosphere–and is doing so.

The lecture links to the work being undertaken with Nankai University where the University of Birmingham has established a Joint Research Institute that sees experts from both universities working together on global environmental challenges.

Professor Sir David commented: “I’m delighted to provide this year’s China Institute Li Siguang Lecture. Although climate change is a long run process in nature, humanity has accelerated it dramatically for reasons explained in my lecture.

Climate change is a global phenomenon and requires international multi-disciplinary research and I am very pleased to know that the University of Birmingham, through the Nankai-Birmingham Joint Research Institute, is supporting collaborative research with China.”

Professor Sir David Hendry is Director, Program in Economic Modeling, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, Co-director of Climate Econometrics, and Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford University.

His Climate Econometrics research group has developed tools to model evidence on evolving processes that are also subject to abrupt shifts, as climate data are. His research interests span econometric methods, theory, modelling and history; computing; empirical economics; macro-econometrics; climate econometrics; and forecasting.

He was knighted in 2009; the ISI lists him as one of the world’s 200 most cited economists and he is a Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate. He founded the Econometrics Journal and has been Econometrics Editor of the Review of Economic Studies and the Economic Journal.

The Joint Research Institute on Green Economy and Sustainable Development, established by the Universities of Birmingham and Nankai, allows research activities in interdisciplinary areas, faculty exchange, and joint PhD education.

It brings together science and social science research - for example, setting the global policy agenda by combining understanding of how individuals and economy respond to environmental policy with scientific research identifying problems and how they might be solved.

• For more information, interviews and an embargoed copy of the research paper, please contact Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham on +44 (0) 121 414 8254 or +44 (0)782 783 2312 . For out-of-hours enquiries, please call +44 (0) 7789 921 165.
• The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries.
• The history of collaboration between China and the University of Birmingham dates back almost to the foundation of the University in 1901. The China Institute was created to reflect the University’s extensive academic activities its colleagues undertake in China.
• Nankai University was established in 1919, and is a China national 211 and 985 University. It ranks between 11-15 in China (NetBig). It is a comprehensive university, with 80 undergraduate disciplines, 231 Master’s programmes and 172 PhD programmes, in areas such as arts, social sciences, law, economics, medicine and engineering.
• The University of Birmingham is proud of its long history of engagement with China, welcoming its first students from China in 1907.
• Li Siguang is one of the best-known scientists in China, with a record of important discoveries as an academic. In geological circles, his work inspired the theory of plate dynamics and understanding how continents and oceans move around the planet.
• He was behind the discovery of much of China’s oil and gas reserves. He was a pioneer in predicting earthquakes, a trailblazer in establishing the geological history of China and an acute discoverer of new resources.
• Born in Huanggang, Hubei Province in 1889 Li Siguang arrived in Birmingham in 1914 to study in the University of Birmingham’s School of Mining. Li Siguang received his BSc in 1917 and his MSc in 1918. Having then spent several years researching geology in China, Li Siguang returned to the University of Birmingham for his doctorate, which was awarded in 1931. Subsequently his daughter studied for an MSc in Metallurgy Physics, graduating in 1948.