Skip to content

School of Geography and the Environment

Professor Diana Liverman

Diana Liverman

Position:

Please note Professor Diana Liverman is on leave of absence during the 2009 calendar year.
Director of ECI
Professor of Environmental Science, School of Geography

Contact:

For enquiries about the ECI directorate, please email:, and you will be directed to the relevant personnel.
www: Diana's Personal Webpage

Member:

School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE) Climate Systems and Policy Research Cluster
ECI Climate Research Theme

ECI Director takes a leave of absence in 2009 to sit on a committee advising the US Government on responses to climate change.

During the 2009 calendar year, ECI Director Professor Diana Liverman is taking a one year leave of absence to pursue research at the University of Arizona. During this time Professor David Banister will act as temporary Director. ECI has also appointed a Deputy Director, Steve Morgan, who will be actively involved in the management of the ECI. Enquries for the Directorate should be made to: .

Oxford Professor Diana Liverman has been appointed to the new committee on ‘America’s Climate Choices’ convened by the US National Academies at the request of Congress, to advise the Government on responses to climate change. The US Committee on America’s Climate Choices brings together 21 distinguished scientists, political, civic and business leaders to examine the challenges of climate change and provide advice to Congress on the most effective steps and most promising strategies that can be taken to respond. The Committee will convene a major climate Summit in Washington in Spring 2009. The Committee will co-ordinate four panels to study global climate change, including the science and technology challenges involved in reducing emissions and adapting to climate change. Professor Liverman will become Vice-Chair of the panel on ‘Informing Effective Decisions and Actions Related to Climate Change’.

Professor Liverman said: ‘The study on America's Climate Choices could not come at a more important time for both the US and international research and policy on climate change. It will be a great privilege to participate in the study during a period of change and challenge in US climate policy, and I hope that I can add insights from the UK and international experiences to the discussions.’ Professor Liverman will be on leave from her position as Director of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute and will be based at the University of Arizona during 2009

Profile

As Director of the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) I coordinate the work of more than 100 interdisciplinary contract researchers and doctoral students who work primarily in the areas of climate, energy and ecosystems with a strong applied and policy focus. ECI hosts or co-hosts national and international projects that include the UK Climate Impacts Programme, the Oxford node of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, the UK Energy Research Centre, and the ICSU Global Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECAFS) international project office. ECI also hosts a node of the James Martin 21st Century School for Oxford University.

My professional career prior to moving to Oxford was based in the United States with degrees in geography from Toronto (MA) and UCLA (PhD), postdoctoral fellowships from NCAR and the MacArthur Foundation, and faculty positions in geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Penn State and the University of Arizona (where I was also Director of the Centre for Latin American Studies and Dean of Social and Behavioural Sciences).

My personal research has focused on the human dimensions of global environmental change including climate change policy and impacts, the social causes and consequences of land use change, and environmental management in the context of globalisation, especially in the Americas.

This research has led me to a variety of leadership roles including chair of the US National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change and the science committee for GECAFS, chair of the Latin American Studies Association Environment section; co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Inter-American Institute for Global Change; and member of committees for IGBP-Analysis, Integration and Modeling in the Earth Sciences (AIMES), the US National Academy of Sciences committee on the US Climate Change Science Plan, NOAA Social Science Advisory Board, NASA, NOAA Global Change Program, the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research and the Global Change, Publication and Honors Committees of the Association of American Geographers. I am a member of editorial boards of the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Global Environmental Change, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, and Climatic Change. I have been a contributing author and reviewer for three Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments, including the most recent (2007) and have given evidence to congressional and parliamentary committees in the US and UK.

In the last few years I have been honoured to give several plenary and distinguished lectures including at the Earth Systems Science Partnership Summit in Beijing China; the Nordic Geographers meeting in Lund; the Humboldt Lecture in the Department of Geography, UCLA; a Darwin Lecture in Cambridge; and I was a distinguished visiting scholar at Queens University and Memorial Universities in Canada.

Current Research

My current research includes work on geographies of the new carbon economy, neoliberalism and the environment, making climate science and forecasts more useful to stakeholders, understanding environmental problems and governance on the US-Mexico border, and theorizing vulnerability to global change.

  1. Tyndall Centre (NERC/ESRC/EPSRC): As the leader for Programme 1 on climate policy I am coordinating a series of projects that focus on the role of non nation state actors (corporations, cities, carbon brokers) in the international climate regime including:
    • theorising the role of non state actors using Gramsci and Foucault
    • a critical examination of emissions reductions commitments and reporting by non state actors
    • case studies of carbon offsetting companies d) analysis of carbon offsets, avoided deforestation and the CDM in post 2012 negotiations and practices.
    Collaborators include Alex Haxeltine and Chucks Okereke at UEA, Harriet Bulkeley at Durham, and Adam Bumpus, Heather Lovell, Phil Mann and Heike Schroeder at Oxford.
  2. James Martin 21st Century School: I run a postdoctoral and sabbatical visitor fellows programme that focuses on climate policy and has brought 15 scholars to Oxford over a three year period to work on projects that include critical review of the Kyoto mechanisms and ETS, media coverage of climate change, institutions for adaptation, and contributions to the Stern Review and to the German G8 and EU climate discussions. We have organised a series of national and international workshops on theorising the carbon economy, reporting climate change in the developing world, climate change and the future of the Amazon, resilience and adaptation in Africa, as well as side events during climate change negotiations and sessions at international conferences of IHDP. Fellows have included Simon Batterbury, Emily Boyd, Max Boykoff, Dave Frame, Cameron Hepburn, Nate Hultman, Maria Lemos, Peter Newell, Roger Pielke, Scott Prudham, Sam Randalls, Timmons Roberts, John Schellnhuber, Emma Tompkins, Jimin Zhao Staff profiles can be viewed here.
  3. Global Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECAFS): GECAFS was established as one of four core projects of the new "Earth Systems Science" partnership between IHDP, WCRP, IGBP and Diversitas. The International Project Office (funded by NERC and ESRC) is based in ECI and coordinates international research and outreach on vulnerability of food systems to global change with case studies in southern Africa, the Caribbean, and the Indo-Gangetic Plain and collaborations with FAO and CGIAR. Research staff: John Ingram and Polly Ericksen.
  4. Climate communication: I have been involved in research on communicating climate information to stakeholders for a number of years, leading projects on the use of seasonal forecasts in Latin America, and initiating a major climate outreach project at the University of Arizona (CLIMAS). ECI hosts two major climate outreach activities funded by DEFRA – the UK Climate Impacts Programme, which provides information about climate change to local government, business and other decision makers in the UK to improve their ability to plan and adapt, and the Oxfordshire Climate Xchange which works on climate change with our local community. We also collaborate on an innovative project – TippingPoint – which brings climate scientists together with the arts community to find creative ways of communicating and responding to climate change. Coinvestigators: Chris West (UKCIP), Ian Curtis (Climate Xchange)
  5. Environmental change and policy in Latin America: I continue my work on neoliberalism and environmental management in Latin America through projects on the environmental impacts of NAFTA (with Silvina Vilas) and, through my postgraduate students, on how environmental and economic change influence climate vulnerability and adaptation in Guatemala (Alex Guerra), Peru (Erika Trigoso), and Mexico (Arnoldo Matus Kramer).

Current Teaching

I am involved in postgraduate teaching for the MSc in Environmental Change and Management and also offer lectures in the MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, the MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management, and the MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy. I offer a postgraduate option seminar in Latin American environmental policy or Environmental Policy in the Americas. In 2005-06 my lectures included a series on Environment and Development, a series on North American environmental policy and a specialised seminar on neoliberalism and environment in the Americas. I also teach guest lectures on climate policy and on the human dimensions of global environmental change. My textbook for the North American Market – World Regions in Global Context (with Sallie Marston and Paul Knox) – is now in its third edition and won the Texty Award.

Current Graduate Students

Past Graduate Students

I supervised the following PhD students at the University of Arizona:

  • Margaret Wilder (2002)
  • Hallie Eakin (2002)
  • Dereka Rushbrook (2005)
  • Lydia Breunig (2006)

Publications

A recent list of Professor Diana Liverman's publications is available on her personal website.

Published Highlights

  • Ericksen, P.J., J.S.I.Ingram, D. Liverman (eds) 2009. Special issue of Environmental Science and Policy on "Food Security and Environmental Change" 12(4).
  • Castree, N. Demeritt D., Liverman D. and Rhoads B. eds. 2009. A Companion to Environmental Geography. Wiley Blackwell. 588pp.
  • Bumpus A.G. and Liverman D.M (2008). Accumulation by decarbonisation and the governance of carbon offsets. Economic Geography 84(2): 127-156.
  • Liverman, D. (Oct 2007) "From Uncertain to Unequivocal" A constructively critical discussion of the IPCC Working Group 1 Report on Climate Change 2007-The Physical Science Basis and its implications for impact research and for policy. pp 28-32 in Environment Vol 49 No 8
  • Marston, S.A., Knox, P. and Liverman D.M. 2005. World Regions in Global Context: Peoples, Places, and Environments. Saddlebrook, NJ: Prentice Hall. 2nd edition. 672pp.
  • Liverman D.M. 2007. Survival into the Future in the Face of Climate Change. Survival: The Survival of the Human Race (2006 Darwin Lectures). E. Shuckburgh. Ed. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 187-205.
  • Vilas S. and Liverman D.M. 2007. "Scale, Technique and Composition Effects in the Mexican Agricultural Sector: The Influence of NAFTA and the Institutional Environment”. International Environmental Agreements, Vol. 7, No. 2. (June 2007), pp. 137-169.
  • Hibbard K.A., Crutzen P.J., Lambin E.F., Liverman D.M., Mantua N.J., McNeill J.R., Messerli B. and Steffen W. 2007. Decadal-scale Interactions of Humans and the Environment. Sustainability or Collapse: An Integrated History and future Of People on Earth. Dahlem Workshop 96. R. Costanza, L.J. Graumlich and W. Steffen. Eds. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press: 341-378.
  • Liverman D.M. and Vilas S. 2006. Neoliberalism and the environment in Latin America Annual Review of Environment and Resources 31(1): 327-363.
  • Liverman D.M. 2006. People and Places at Risk. Burning Ice: Art and Climate Change. D. Buckland, A. MacGilp and P. S. Eds. London, Cape Farewell: 148-149.
  • Root T., Liverman D. and Newman C. 2006. Managing Biodiversity in the Light of Climate Change: Current Biological Effects and Future Impacts. Key Topics in Conservation Biology. D. Macdonald and K. Service. Eds. Oxford, Blackwells: Chapter 6.
  • Liverman D.M. 2005. Equity, Justice and Climate Change. pp 20-25 in Climate Change: the greatest threat we face? Report of the Liberal Summer School, Centre for Reform, London.
  • Liverman, D.M. 2004. Who governs, at what scale and at what price? Geography, environmental governance and the commodification of nature. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 94(4): 734-738.
  • Bales, R. C., Liverman, D.M., and Morehouse, B. 2004. Integrated assessment as a step toward reducing climate vulnerability in the southwestern United States. Bureau of the American Meteorological Society 85(5): 1175-77.
  • Vasquez M. and Liverman D.M. 2004. The political ecology of land-use change: Affluent ranchers and destitute farmers in the Mexican Municipio of Alamos.Human Organization 63(1): 21-33.
  • Liverman, D., R. G. Varady, O. Chávez, R. Sánchez, A. Browning-Aiken, and L. Stauber .2004. Environmental change in the U.S.-Mexico border region: issues and actions. In Fronteras y Comunidad Latina en America del Norte, ed. by A. Mercado Celis and E. Gutiérrez Romero. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centro de Investigaciones Sobre América del Norte.
  • Liverman, D.M., B. Yarnal, and B.L. Turner II. 2004. The Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. Chapter in G. Gaile and C. Wilmott. Geography in America at the dawn of the 21 st Century. Oxford University Press: New York.
  • Committee to Review the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan, National Research Council. 2004. Implementing Climate and Global Change Research: A Review of the Final U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan Washington DC: National Academy Press 152pp.
  • Committee to Review the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan, National Research Council. 2003. Planning Climate and Global Change Research: A Review of the Draft U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan. Washington DC: National Academy Press. 99 pp.
  • Cavazos T., Comrie A.C., Liverman D.M. 2002. Intraseasonal variability associated with wet monsoons in southeast Arizona.Journal of Climate 15 (17): 2477-2490
  • Liverman D.M. and Merideth R.W. Jr. 2002. Climate and society in the US Southwest: the context for a regional assessment. Climate Research. Vol. 21: 199–218.
  • Liverman, D.M. 2001. Vulnerability to drought and climate change in Mexico. Pp 201-216 in Kasperson J.X. and Kasperson R. eds. 2001. Global Environmental Risk. NY: UNU and Earthscan.
  • Liverman D.M. 2001. Environmental Risks and Hazards. pp. 4655-4659 in N. J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes. Eds. 2001 International Encyclopedia of the Social Behavioral Sciences. Pergamon, Oxford.
  • Liverman, D.M. 2001. The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAIGC) in Canadell J. and Mooney H.A. Eds. Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change The Earth System: Biological and Ecological Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Volume 2. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
  • Liverman D.M. and K.L. O’Brien. 2001. Southern Skies: international environmental policy in Mexico.Chapter in The Social Learning Group. Eds. Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks: A Comparative History of Social Responses to Climate Change, Ozone Depletion and Acid Rain. Volume 1. The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.