A researcher and writer on environment and society, including ‘The Climate Chronicles’, and is author of several books on climate, nature and the stories we tell.
Jules Pretty is Emeritus Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex. His sole-authored books include The Low-Carbon Good Life (2023), Sea Sagas of the North (2022), The East Country (2017), The Edge of Extinction (2014), This Luminous Coast (2011), The Earth Only Endures (2007), Agri-Culture (2002), The Living Land (1998), and Regenerating Agriculture (1995).
Jules is former Deputy-Chair of the UK government’s Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, and has served on advisory committees for BBSRC and the Royal Society. He was appointed A D White Professor-at-Large by Cornell University from 2001, and was Founding Editor of the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. He received an OBE in 2006 for services to sustainable agriculture, an honorary degree from Ohio State University, and the British Science Association Presidential Medal (Agriculture and Food) in 2015. He was appointed President of Essex Wildlife Trust in 2019, is Chair of the Essex Climate Action Commission, and was also a trustee for WWF-UK.
This Luminous Coast was winner of New Angle Prize for Literature, and The East Country was winner of the East Anglian book of the year. He is host of 80 podcasts and films (in the series Louder Than Words and Brighter Futures), and writes the series The Climate Chronicles at www.julespretty.com.
Creative Showcase
Jules has contributed a piece to our Creative Showcase, an evolving collection of new and recent works from our members.
Story for Climate and Nature Recovery presents his YouTube channel of short films with stories about people and places and how story can help bring transformation. "In the face of the great interlocking crises, what kinds of language, story, and values might we use to find multiple, complementary ways out of the dark woods?"
Jules's ClimateCultures posts
Cloud Mountain, Thunder Dragon: Stories of Gross National Happiness
A Personal Anthropocene History #14: Bronze Bell, Sea-bed Oak, Wayang Kulit Shadow Puppet
The Next Dawn of Everything — Stories of Human Cultures