Losing Hugh is like losing a friend who is also an encyclopedia combined with a powerful analytical engine, switched on all the time but with a sense of humour! He and i have recently been trying to increase the influence of his thinking and DATA on Bangladesh, and whether or not climate change is the main issue to be concerned with. He erred (in my view) to give too much prominence to population (I see it as a dependent variable), but we were agreed that most problems in the country were related to long-standing problems which climate change WILL magnify but must be dealt with outside of that frame of reference - in order to make it possible to deal with climate change. He insisted on referring to the data, and where it seemed to be missing then trying to collate it through his network of friends and colleagues. He was certain that so far there was little evidence of any significant impacts of climate change in the country, a view (supported by his data) that did not endear him to most Bangladeshis (and many from outside organizations) for whom the climate change narrative was either a moral or a financial advantage... Some do not understand: but he was not a climate change "denier", simply arguing for science rather than imagined problems that cannot be substantiated. He gave two seminars for us at IDS a couple of years ago, and caused a lot of good thinking and puzzlement among the students!
He was very willing to accept that climate change was coming - but that the country needed to sort out lots of existing problems to enable it to adapt to this future and that not enough was being done to do that (partly because of the "diversion" to focus on climate change. One of his best legacies will be to try to continue these discussions. I am surprised at the depth of my feelings of loss, and realise that it is because I will miss his great sense of purpose and devotion to getting things right.
Losing Hugh is like losing a friend who is also an encyclopedia combined with a powerful analytical engine, switched on all the time but with a sense of humour! He and i have recently been trying to increase the influence of his thinking and DATA on Bangladesh, and whether or not climate change is the main issue to be concerned with. He erred (in my view) to give too much prominence to population (I see it as a dependent variable), but we were agreed that most problems in the country were related to long-standing problems which climate change WILL magnify but must be dealt with outside of that frame of reference - in order to make it possible to deal with climate change. He insisted on referring to the data, and where it seemed to be missing then trying to collate it through his network of friends and colleagues. He was certain that so far there was little evidence of any significant impacts of climate change in the country, a view (supported by his data) that did not endear him to most Bangladeshis (and many from outside organizations) for whom the climate change narrative was either a moral or a financial advantage... Some do not understand: but he was not a climate change "denier", simply arguing for science rather than imagined problems that cannot be substantiated. He gave two seminars for us at IDS a couple of years ago, and caused a lot of good thinking and puzzlement among the students!
He was very willing to accept that climate change was coming - but that the country needed to sort out lots of existing problems to enable it to adapt to this future and that not enough was being done to do that (partly because of the "diversion" to focus on climate change. One of his best legacies will be to try to continue these discussions. I am surprised at the depth of my feelings of loss, and realise that it is because I will miss his great sense of purpose and devotion to getting things right.
