Events & Courses

An astonishing transformation over the last 20,000 years has seen our planet flip from a frigid wasteland into the temperate world upon which our civilisation has grown and thrived. This most dynamic episode in Earth history saw the crust bouncing and bending in response to the melting of the great ice sheets and the filling of the ocean basins; triggering earthquakes, spawning tsunamis and provoking a lively response from the world’s volcanoes. 

Now there are signs that human-induced climate change is encouraging the sleeping giant beneath our feet to stir once again. Could it be that we are on track to bequeath to our children and their children not only a far hotter world, but also a more geologically fractious one?

Speaker Biography 

Bill McGuire (University College London)

Bill McGuire is an academic, science writer and broadcaster. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London.

Bill was a member of the UK Government Natural Hazard Working Group established in January 2005, in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami, and in 2010 a member of the Science Advisory Group in Emergencies (SAGE) addressing the Icelandic volcanic ash problem. In 2011, he was one of the authors of the IPCC report on climate change and extreme events. 

His books include A Guide to the End of the World: Everything you Never Wanted to Know, Surviving Armageddon: Solutions for a Threatened Planet and Seven Years to Save the Planet.

Bill presented the BBC Radio 4 series, Disasters in Waiting and Scientists Under Pressure and the End of the World Reports on Channel 5 and Sky News. 

He has also contributed to countless other television and radio programmes and was consultant and main contributor for the lauded BBC Horizon films; Supervolcanoes and Megatsunami - Wave of Destruction, as well as for the BBC drama, Supervolcano.

Bill has a regular Doomwatch column in the science magazine, Focus; contributes features to Focus, New Scientist and Science Uncovered, and also writes for The Guardian, The Times, The Observer, and other national newspapers.

He lives, runs and grows fruit and veg in the Peak District, where he resides with his wife Anna, sons Jake (6) and Fraser (12), and cats Dave, Toby and Cashew.