Tom is a climate scientist and faculty member in the Department of Geography at King’s College London. His research focuses on the planet’s most severe weather and how it is changing with the global climate. These interests have taken Tom to some of the most extreme and rapidly changing environments on Earth, including through his role as a National Geographic Explorer. This background has shaped the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship that he currently holds, and which brings him to CSER.
Reducing Global Catastrophic Risks from Unseen Climate Extremes.
This project addresses the very large disconnect between the recognised pathways to impacts from weather and climate extremes, and their much less understood potential for catastrophic consequences. For example, extreme heat is already a major killer (e.g., >200,000 combined deaths in only a handful of the deadliest events since 2000), but might catastrophic impacts be likely as heat reaches levels that are unsurvivable – perhaps for the first time in the history of civilisation? Other novel hazards may also emerge as the climate departs further from collective experience. The threat from such unseen extremes urgently needs to be understood, but if the hazards lack any historical precedent, how can we be confident that we know what to look for? Tom will explore such questions during his time visiting CSER.