CLIMATE POETRY: Kate Simpson and James Ford, ‘Adaptation Gap’

Poets have long used their craft to reframe issues, convey emotion and share ideas, and climate change is an increasing feature of poetry shared across the world. To mark the launch of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures last year, our partners, the University of Leeds Poetry Centre, paired University of Leeds poets with Priestley Centre climate researchers to have a conversation that inspires a new poem.

Kate Simpson is part of a Doctoral Training Programme in Extinction Studies, sitting between the School of English and the School of Earth and Environment.

Professor James Ford is Priestley Chair in Climate Adaptation and his research focuses on climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability, working closely with Indigenous communities in the Arctic and globally with a major focus on health and well-being, food security, wildfires, and resource management.

Following their conversation, Kate wrote the poem ‘Adaptation Gap‘ based on an epigraph from Emily Berry’s ‘Unexhausted Time’: