John Adams

I am an Emeritus Professor of Geography at University College London.

I was a member of the original Board of Directors of Friends of the Earth in the early 1970s and have been involved in debates about environmental issues ever since. I am intrigued by the persistence of attitudes to risks. For the past 30 years, the same arguments, slogans and insults have been shouted past each other by the participants (or their descendants) in disputes about issues for which conclusive evidence is lacking. My current work on both risk and transport issues seeks to understand these attitudes and the reasons for their persistence, in the hope of transforming shouting matches into more constructive dialogues.

My website encapsulates my present research interests. My attraction to transport risks and threats to the environment grew out of my involvement in the 1970s and 80s as a participant in public inquiries into the UK Government’s road building plans.

In the last few years my interest in risk has broadened to include its financial aspects. I am an Honourary Member of the Institute of Risk Management.