Letter 9 — To Professor Amanda Maycock
It feels, increasingly, that our predicament is not a crisis of knowledge but of attention and courage. The scale of risk now known should have reordered the political agenda years ago. Instead, the demands of the moment still outweigh the needs of the future.
Governance and institutional change for climate science
Date: 21 October 2025
Recipient: Professor Amanda Maycock, Professor of Climate Dynamics — Institute for Climate & Atmospheric Science, University of Leeds
Context
This is the first letter of Week 2 of One Letter a Day, shifting the conversation from local governance to the academic voices shaping how we understand climate risk and response. Professor Amanda Maycock’s work on large-scale climate dynamics and her role at the science-policy interface provide a valuable vantage on how scientific knowledge translates (or fails to translate) into civic and political action.
Letter
Dear Amanda,
I’m writing as part of One Letter a Day — a year-long public correspondence that uses the simple act of a letter to reopen grounded conversations about the climate emergency. Each day I write to someone whose work shapes how we understand and respond to this crisis, and publish both letters and replies to invite further dialogue. This week focuses on climate-engaged academics and leaders here in Leeds.
Your research has helped clarify how the atmosphere’s intricate dynamics translate into the lived realities of a changing climate. Yet what has always struck me is how much of that complexity must be condensed into language that politics can absorb. As the gap between scientific clarity and collective response widens, the challenge seems less about the science itself and more about the willingness of institutions to treat that science as the boundary condition for every other policy choice.
From your vantage point at the science-policy interface, what kinds of governance or institutional change do you think are needed for scientific warnings about climate system limits to have a better chance of being translated into meaningful political and civic action?
It feels, increasingly, that our predicament is not a crisis of knowledge but of attention and courage. The scale of risk now known should have reordered the political agenda years ago. Instead, the demands of the moment still outweigh the needs of the future. I wonder what it would take for science, policy and the public to recognise that protecting our children from catastrophic harm must now override almost everything else — and how we might build the civic resolve to act on that truth.
With appreciation for your work and for the persistence it takes to keep explaining what too often goes unheard.
– Vivien
Founder, One Letter a Day
📨 Reply from Professor Amanda Maycock
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Tomorrow’s letter continues the Week 2 dialogue with Professor Paul Chatterton, exploring how creative and community-driven urban projects can help re-anchor optimism and urgency around climate action.