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Marsh Distinguished Lecture Series - October 2001

Thomas E. Downing

Senior Research Fellow, Environmental Change Institute,
University of Oxford, and Fellow of Linacre College
"Global Change Vulnerability: Measuring the Metaphysical?"
Friday, October 26, 2001, 12:00 - 1:30 p.m.
Sackler Science Center, Room N104

Vulnerability is now on the stage of global change science - vulnerability/adaptation science is proposed as one strand of sustainability science. Yet, vulnerability is not an observable phenomenon. Key issues include: Who or what is vulnerable? To what? Over what time scales? And, who says? Tom Downing focuses on topics related to the impact of climatic variations: extreme events and climate change in Europe; drought and food security in developing countries; and vulnerability and the human dimensions of global change. Formerly, Downing worked as a Research Scientist in the Atmospheric Impacts Research Group at the University of Birmingham and as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado. He received his Ph.D. in 1988 from Clark University, Graduate School of Geography.