Sir Crispin Tickell, a world renowned authority on climate change and sustainable development, will be in Bermuda this month to talk about a wealth of issues facing our environment.

Sir Crispin will be a guest of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS). His lecture will address the forecasted rise in sea levels and other changes expected in the ocean around us.

He said: “Bermuda is on the cusp of oceanic change, and hence of climate change more generally. “Current warming is unequivocal, and most of this is due to an increase in human-driven greenhouse gas concentrations. In a word, we face not just climate change but climate destabilisation.”

The lecture is titled: “Vulnerable Earth: Climate Change, Prospects and Hazards.”

The announcement of the Sir Crispin event, which is open to the public, adds another name to a growing list of prominent voices who have come to Bermuda to discuss climate change as part of the BIOS Lecture Series.

Famed marine biologist Dr. Sylvia Earle was here in 2005. Robert F. Kennedy was behind her in 2006. And Dr. Kerry Emanuel came earlier this year to talk to about the threat of stronger hurricanes in a changing climate. Sir Crispin is a military man who has also served the United Kingdom at the United Nations and is science advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Part of his address in Bermuda will deal with getting politicians to include more scientific research in the shaping of environmental public policy.

He said: “Scientific research always needs money, and on the whole climate change research has attracted a lot of funding. Indeed, if you pick up scientific journals today you will find that every issue contains results of some new climate change-related research. But the politicians have to do more than commission research; they need to change their policies. And this is proving much more difficult.”

Sir Crispin’s speech is on Friday, April 20 at 7 p.m. at the Fairmont Hamilton. There is a cash bar reception beforehand. Tickets are $30 for non-members, $20 for members of BIOS.