Sir Crispin Tickell has long been a pioneer in linking environmental and in particular climate change to the worlds of politics and business. For many years he was an informal adviser on such issues to successive British Prime Ministers. Until recently he was Director of the Policy Foresight Programme at the James Martin 21st Century School at Oxford University. He is associated with several other British universities as well as universities in the United States.
Most of his career was in the Diplomatic Service. He was Chef de Cabinet to the President of the European Commission (1977-80); Ambassador to Mexico (1981-83); Permanent Secretary of the Overseas Development Administration (now DFID) (1984-87); and British Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1987-90).
He then became Warden of Green College, Oxford (1990-97), and set up the Green College Centre for Environmental Policy and Understanding, which later became the Policy Foresight Programme at the James Martin School. Among other things he was President of the Royal Geographical Society (1990-93); Chairman of the Board of the Climate Institute of Washington DC (1990-2002); Convenor of the Government Panel on Sustainable Development (1994-2000); a Trustee of the Baring Foundation (1992-2002); Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species (1992-99); a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (1992-2006); Chancellor of the University of Kent (1996-2006); Inaugural Senior Visiting Fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment (2002-03); and Adviser At Large to the President of Arizona State University from 2002. Since 2007 he has been President of Tree Aid. He also has business interests, including being Director (Non Executive) of IBM (UK) (1990-95).
Bibliography
Climatic Change and World Affairs, Harvard University 1977; Pergamon Press 1978. Revised edition Harvard University and University Press of America 1986.
Mary Anning of Lyme Regis, Lyme Regis Museum 1996, 1998 & 2003
Also contributor to many books & papers, including:
The Evacuees, edited by B.S. Johnson, 1968
Life After Death, edited by Robin Denniston, 1976
The United Kingdom -The United Nations, edited by Erik Jensen and Thomas Fisher, 1990
Sustaining Earth: Response to the Environmental Threats, edited by David J.R. Angell, Justyn D. Comer, Matthew L.N. Wilkinson, 1990
Greenhouse Glasnost: edited by Robert Redford, 1990
Sir Francis Galton: edited by Milo Keynes, 1991
Monitoring the Environment: edited by Bryan Cartledge, 1992
Threats Without Enemies: edited by Gwyn Prins, 1993
Sustainable Development and the Energy Industries: edited by Nicola Steen 1994
Science for the Earth: edited by Tom Wakeford & Martin Walters 1995
The Changing World: edited by Patricia Fara, Peter Gathercole and Ronald Laskey 1996
Remaking the Landscape: edited by Jennifer Jenkins 2002
Managing the Earth: edited by James C. Briden & Thomas E. Downing 2002
Johannesburg Summit 2002: Challenges and Partnerships: edited by Diana Fortescue 2002
A Parliament of Science: edited by Michael Tobias, Teun Timmers and Gill Wright: 2003
Scientists Debate Gaia: edited by Stephen H. Schneider, James R. Miller, Eileen Crist, & Penelope J. Boston: 2004
Roy Jenkins: A Retrospective: edited by Andrew Adonis and Keith Thomas: OUP: 2004
Great Natural Historians: edited by Robert Huxley, Thames & Hudson 2007
Sudden and Disruptive Climate Change: edited by Michael MacCracken et al, Earthscan 2008 Book reviews for the Financial Times, Nature, The Literary Review, The Times Higher Education Supplement, and others