Mike Hulme is Professor of Climate Change in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA), and Founding Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal papers and over 30 books or book chapters on climate change topics. He has prepared climate scenarios and reports for the UK Government, the European Commission, UNEP, UNDP, WWF-International and the IPCC. He is leading the EU Integrated Project ADAM (Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies) during the period 2006–2009, which comprises a 26-member European research consortium contributing research to the development of EU climate policy. He co-edits the journal Global Environmental Change and is Editor-in-Chief of the Interdisciplinary Review on Climate Change.

• List of figures; List of tables; List of boxes; Acknowledgements; Preface; Foreword Steve Rayner; 1. The social meanings of climate; 2. The discovery of climate change; 3. The performance of science; 4. The endowment of value; 5. The things we believe; 6. The things we fear; 7. The communication of risk; 8. The challenges of development; 9. The way we govern; 10. Beyond climate change; Bibliography; Index.

'This is a very rare book. A scientific book about climate change, that deals both with the science, and our own personal response to this science. It does all this supremely well, and should be compulsory reading for both sceptics and advocates. However, it does so much more, it is a book of great modesty and humanity. It uses climate change to ask questions more broadly about our own beliefs, assumptions and prejudices, and how we make individual and collective decisions.' Chris Mottershead, Distinguished Advisor, BP p.l.c.