Mark Lynas 02 February 08

Mark Lynas has worked for nearly a decade as a specialist on climate change, and is author of three books on the subject – ‘High Tide: News from a warming world’ (2004), ‘Carbon Calculator’ (2007) and ‘Six Degrees: Our future on a hotter planet’ (2007).

High Tide was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Award for Non-Fiction, and short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award. Six Degrees was long-listed for the Orwell Prize in 2008, and won the prestigious Royal Society Prize for Science Books in the same year. Both books are listed on the bestseller ‘Environment top 50 of all time’, Six Degrees at no.12.

Six Degrees is published in the US by National Geographic, which has also made a television documentary based on the book and broadcast to an audience of many millions on the National Geographic channel internationally. Lynas was selected as a National Geographic ‘Emerging Explorer’ in 2006, and was placed at no.7 in the Independent’s Green List 2007. He writes for various newspapers and magazines, recently including the Guardian and the Independent, and is a fortnightly contributor to the New Statesman.

Mark was co-writer and science advisor for the Age of Stupid film, featuring Pete Postlethwaite as a man stuck in a climate-devastated future world of 2055. He also appears in the film as the ‘man in the shed’, explaining what emissions paths will be necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change. The film has sparked two campaigns: Not Stupid, to mobilise people in advance of Copenhagen, and 10:10, the campaign for individuals, businesses and governments to reduce their emissions by 10% by the end of 2010.

In November 2009 he was appointed advisor on climate change to the President of the Maldives, His Excellency Mohammed Nasheed, and is involved in the Maldives’ effort to be the first carbon neutral country on Earth by 2019. He is a frequent speaker around the world on climate change science and policy, focusing in particular on how carbon neutral targets can break the international logjam on climate mitigation, and how emissions reduction should be seen as an opportunity not a sacrifice.

Mark Lynas is a partner in Oxford Climate Associates, a climate consultancy firm specialising in strategic policy analysis and advice, and on drawing up and managing carbon neutrality plans for national governments and other agencies. In November 2009 he was appointed a Visiting Research Associate at Oxford University’s School of Geography and the Environment.

He lives in Oxford, UK, with his wife Maria, and two children, Tom and Rosa.