Prof Richard Betts
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Prof Richard Betts
@richardabetts.bsky.social
17K followers 760 following 180 posts
Climate scientist, University of Exeter and Met Office. Expert Adviser to the Adaptation Committee of the Climate Change Committee. Lead author IPCC AR4, AR5 & AR6. Live music lover, supporter of grassroots venues. Cycles a lot, rock climbs occasionally.
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And more! 😊
November 15, 2025 at 8:17 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
More Amazon sustainability science at COP30 today!
November 15, 2025 at 3:19 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Our next COP30 event -
tomorrow (Saturday)

Global Carbon Budget
AmazonFACE
Science Panel for the Amazon
Science Panel for Borneo
Science Panel for the Congo Basin
November 14, 2025 at 8:56 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
If you’re at COP30 please join us to discuss what the world would be like without forests! UK pavilion Thursday 16:30 - 18:00 including food and drink after 😃
November 11, 2025 at 2:34 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Yep all good thanks!
October 10, 2025 at 9:47 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Just boarding the Eurostar at Brussels myself now! Arrived from Munich via Frankfurt. Glad you had a good trip, and thanks for promoting international rail travel! 🚆😀
Photo of the front of the Eurostar train at a station platform, with grey, blue and yellow livery
October 10, 2025 at 6:52 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Great to visit the Kransberg ROOF experiment at the Technical University of Munich, studying the effects of drought on a mixed temperate forest 🌲🌳

Always fun to fly above the treetops in a canopy crane 🙂

www.plant-ecology.info/kroof-kranzb...
Photo of Richard Betts wearing a red helmet and standing in the basket of a crane above the treetops of a spruce and beech forest, with cloudy skies
October 8, 2025 at 9:32 AM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Provisional statistics from the Met Office show that summer 2025 will ‘almost certainly’ be the warmest summer on record for the UK

It would move 2018 off the top spot and relegate 1976 out of the top five warmest summer in a series which dates back to 1884

www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...
Met Office-branded bar chart showing the top 10 warmest UK summers (average temperature for June, July and August) Year, degrees C 2025: 16.13 (average to 25th August) 2018: 15.76 2006: 15.75 2003: 15.74 2022: 15.71 1976: 15.70 1995: 15.62 1933: 15.38 2023: 15.36 1899: 15.29
August 26, 2025 at 1:08 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
I wasn't at Victorious but I'd be surprised if they did anything different to when they played at Beautiful Days last weekend

Nobody kicked them off the stage and even Devon Live listed the Mary Wallopers as one of the highlights of the festival!

www.devonlive.com/whats-on/mus...
Lineup poster for Beautiful Days festival 2025 MAIN STAGE SEX PISTOLS FEATURING FRANK CARTER – FRANK TURNER & THE SLEEPING SOULS – LEVELLERS – SHED SEVEN – THE MARY WALLOPERS – SPIRITUALIZED – KULA SHAKER – THERAPY? – TERRORVISION – SLEEPER – MISTY IN ROOTS – KID KAPICHI – THE BLUETONES – PANIC SHACK – BAR STOOL PREACHERS – MAD DOG MCREA – THE MEFFS – MILLIE MANDERS & THE SHUTUP – YOUNG KNIVES – GIRLBAND! – THE KAIROS – HEAVY LUNGS – GRANDMAS HOUSE THE BIG TOP PETER DOHERTY – MERCURY REV – FANTASTIC NEGRITO – JOHN GRANT – KATE RUSBY – JULIE FOWLIS – SPELL SONGS FEATURING KARINE POLWART, JULIE FOWLIS, SECKOU KEITA, KRIS DREVER, RACHEL NEWTON, BETH PORTER & JIM MOLYNEUX – JOHN BRAMWELL & THE FULL HARMONIC CONVERGENCE – PENGUIN CAFE – SETH LAKEMAN – ELEPHANT SESSIONS – JON BODEN & THE REMNANT KINGS – GIGSPANNER BIG BAND – FANNY LUMSDEN – JUSTIN ADAMS & MOHAMED ERREBBAA – NICK HARPER – AMELIA COBURN – HEATHER FERRIER TRIO – RIANNE DOWNEY – THE AUTUMN SAINTS – RUBY KELLY – THE BAR-STEWARD SONS OF VAL DOONICAN’S SUNDAY SERVICE – LEVELLERS COLLECTIVE THE LITTLE BIG TOP FISH56OCTAGON – HENGE – BEANS ON TOAST – YOUTH – GIRLS NEXT DOOR – A.SKILLZ – OMEGA NEBULA – REACH UP DISCO WONDERLAND – DJ CHRIS TOFU – MARK XTC – ELECTRIC SPANK – ZUBZUB – SLEDGE HEAD – THE KABINS – DELIGHTS – FOREIGN VOICES – GRANNY TAKES A TRIP – EZ DICKENS BAND – INSTINCTS TAKE OVER – DJ AMBIESSENCE – DJ SHINYBEAST – BIG FISH LITTLE FISH – SILENT DISCO WITH ROB RINSEOUT, ALEX SOULOUD B2B BEN MCGOWAN, KING FARMER, JUST A COUPLE OF MUMS, HYBRIDIZED, ZYPS, SILENT DISCO CLUB & FRANKIE G THEATRE TENT CABARET EXTREME present CIRCUS UNLEASHED – CHARLIE BICKNELL & LOUISE INNES present CABARET WITH CLAWS – LE NAVET BETE – ENTERTAININGLY DIFFERENT – PROFESSOR SLUG’S HOUSE OF BUGS – BRIAN BILSTON & HENRY NORMAL – FIERY JACK’S FAMILY ALBUM – WEBBER! THE MUSICAL
August 23, 2025 at 11:37 AM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Climate discussion at the Beautiful Days festival in Devon this weekend

Josie Baker (PhD student)
Sarah Lunnon (co-founder, Just Stop Oil)
Will Page (community volunteer)
and me

Plus music from Bearsong

12 - 2pm Saturday in the Rebel Tent - if you're there, come along and join the conversation!
Poster for event at the Beautiful Days festival in the Rebel Tent. Fair and Just Climate Action, Discussion, Saturday 12-2pm. Photos of 5 people: Mark Hedley AKA Bearsong playing a guitar; Josie Baker; Will Page; Sarah Lunnon; Prof Richard Betts
August 13, 2025 at 7:41 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Crewkerne station in Somerset is closed until further notice because the ground is so dry that the railway embankments can't support trains running at normal speeds

Another example of how our infrastructure isn't resilient to climate change - adaption needed!

www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-...
Photo of a main in a bright orange jacket and helmet standing in front of a railway line, pointing at the line with one hand and holding a lump of clay in the other
July 23, 2025 at 4:12 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Yes climate change is already killing people

www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/pub...
Bar chart showing heat-related deaths in several European cities from 23 June to 2 July 2025, distinguishing between numbers due to human-caused climate change and those due to natural variability Milan: 317 from human caused climate change, 182 natural Barcelona: 286, 54 Paris: 235, 138 London: 171, 92 Rome: 164, 118 Madrid: 108, (then some relatively small number not given) Athens: 96, 79 Budapest: 47, 24 Zagreb: 31, 25 Lisbon: 21, 71 Frankfurt: 21 (then some relatively small number not given) Added text says two-thirds of heat deaths in London were attributable to climate change Guardian graphic, source: World Weather Attribution, Grantham Institute, Imperial College London
July 20, 2025 at 10:42 AM
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Great to hang out with @davidho.bsky.social and @dougmcneall.bsky.social yesterday after the Exeter Climate Conference
Photo of Richard Betts, David Ho and Doug McNeall in a grassy area with picnic tables by a river
July 5, 2025 at 1:08 PM
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Came by train - strongly encouraged by the festival to keep emissions down and try to minimise traffic congestion in the local area. They provide a shuttle bus from Castle Cary station, extra trains run during the festival. Coach travel also encouraged with combined coach+festival tickets sold early
June 24, 2025 at 3:08 PM
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Home for the next week! The pink marquee is the Speakers Forum stage. Very convenient location right in the middle of the festival 😀
June 24, 2025 at 3:01 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Arrived! 😀
June 24, 2025 at 3:01 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Excited to be speaking at Glastonbury this week!

I’m returning to the Speakers Forum stage in the Green Furures area of the Green Fields

Friday at 12 noon - Climate Breakdown (panel discussion)

Saturday 5pm - Trump and Climate Change (interviewed by Roger Harrabin)

#Glastonbury2025
Lineup poster for Glastonbury Festival Speakers Forum, with several dozen names in multi-coloured writing on a black background. Details can be found here https://glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/line-up/line-up-2025/
June 24, 2025 at 3:01 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
The melting-glacier-landslide tragedy in Switzerland reminds me of the special journal issue on Climate Forcing of Geological and Geomorphological Hazards edited by @billmcguire.bsky.social @profmarkmaslin.bsky.social me and others

Back in 2010 it was about future risks, but now its very real ☹️

🧵
Cover of an issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, entitled "Climate forcing of geological and geomorphological hazards", volume 368 number 1919 pages 2309-2588, with a monochrome photograph of the glaciated volcano Mount Rainier in Washington State, USA
May 30, 2025 at 4:38 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Wow, the Exeter map is fascinating! I cycled right past the Cholera Burying Ground a couple of hours ago - now Bury Meadow Park
Hand-drawn map in black lines with red marks, entitled "Map of Exeter in 1832 showing the localities where deaths caused by pestilential cholera occurred in the years 1832, 1833 & 1834"
May 27, 2025 at 7:33 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Fantastic to have @hausfath.bsky.social visit us at the Met Office yesterday to chat about climate datasets, carbon removal and science communication. Great to see you Zeke, thanks for dropping by!
Photo of 2 climate scientists, Richard Betts and Zeke Hausfather, in front of the glass-fronted building of the Met Office HQ
May 20, 2025 at 7:47 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Deadline today! Submit your abstract for a poster presentation at the Exeter Climate Conference lnkd.in/eJwHmKtd

Themes:

Communicating with users of climate science
Carbon cycle & future pathways
Extremes, impacts & adaptation
Energy transitions
Geoengineering & responsible climate intervention
Panel of text: The Exeter Climate Forum. The Exeter Climate Conference: Research to inform the Road to COP30. 2 - 4 July 2025. Call for poster abstracts
April 30, 2025 at 9:53 AM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Tomorrow (Monday) at #EGU25 I’ll be stepping in to present the science plan for the AmazonFACE experiment on behalf of my colleagues

17.47 in session BG3.11

meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/EGU25-...
April 27, 2025 at 2:28 PM
richardabetts.bsky.social
En route from Exeter to Vienna for #EGU25

Looking forward to seeing everyone! 😊

#Train2EGU
#GreenEGU
April 27, 2025 at 8:08 AM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Although NOAA's page on atmospheric CO2 levels has vanished, you can still get this vital information from Ralph Keeling's team at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego keelingcurve.ucsd.edu

Please follow bsky.app/profile/keel... for updates and share

Don't let science be hidden
A graph of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at the Mauna Loa observatory, Hawaii, from 1958 to 4th February 2025. It shows carbon dioxide levels rising at an accelerating rate over the decades. This is known to be due to emissions of carbon dioxide from human activity, mainly fossil fuel burning but also deforestation. The first CO2 concentration value in March 1958 was 315 parts per million (ppm). The latest daily value is 426 ppm. The graph also shows a seasonal cycle of a few ppm within each year, which is known to be linked to the growing season in the northern hemisphere causing a temporary uptake of carbon in spring and summer and release in autumn. The graph is produced routinely by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.
February 5, 2025 at 10:27 AM
richardabetts.bsky.social
Southern California now sees longer fire weather seasons, like many other places worldwide

Human-caused climate change means hot, dry, windy conditions happen more often, priming landscapes to burn more easily if ignition occurs

Matt Jones et al 2022 agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
Map of global land showing gridded data of changes in Fire Weather Season Length, with increases of over 40 days per year in south-western North America, much of South America, eastern and southern Africa, south-eastern Europe and central and eastern Australia. Hardly anywhere has a decreased fire season length.
January 9, 2025 at 8:01 PM