About
My name is Graham Wayne. I live in Devon, England and I spend as much of my time as I can writing - I’ve recently finished my second novel (the first is yet to be published) – the first chapter is here as a short story. I also write about subjects that interest me, principally climate change. To make ends meet, I repair computers and teach people how to get the best out of them.
I was raised to be a musician by my opera singer mother and ex-actor father. When I left school I did everything there is to be done in the entertainment business, working in agency, management, publishing and so on. I also studied audio engineering and worked freelance as a live sound engineer, and in many top studios as a recording engineer, where I was introduced to computers at the start of the ’80s.
Around this time I did something that turned out to be very important: I went to writing school, at the Arvon Foundation. It was a turning point for me, because I haven’t really stopped writing since. And because I needed something to write on, I bought a computer – a C64 – and my three obsessions merged into one: music, writing and computing.
I started programming straight away, then went into software publishing working for Rainbird Software, where I met the Apple Mac and fell in love. I had previously been trained between gigs as a print machine minder and when I saw the first pre-press software (Pagemaker) I knew there was a revolution coming. I formed a digital design company financed on the back of my journalism – I was widely published in the early 90s in various magazines like PC World – writing about computing, games and audio engineering. I also became a consultant to several print and repro houses looking to adapt the new technology, and in time I developed business consultancy on the back of the introductions I was getting.
This lead to my becoming a full time business consultant, accredited by the then Department of Trade and Industry. Eventually - and inevitably – I took the role of CIO on the board of The Mastertronic Group of companies, my last full-time role, which I left in 2006.
These days I write mainly for this blog, with occasional pieces appearing in the Guardian, John Cook’s Skepticalscience and recently, I co-presented a number of Irregular Climate podcasts, working with Canadian writer Dan Moutal.
Graham, I noted with great interest your recent piece on peak oil (‘Peak oil is the villain government needs’). I am currently researching the prevalence and contours of British media coverage of peak oil, in the context of press reporting of climate change. In the off chance you might be interested in seeing a draft copy, I was keen to send you it, but have no email address. If you can let me have an address, I’d be happy to send it.
Yours sincerely
Dr Neil Gavin, Politics Department, The University of Liverpool
Hi Graham,
We met last week at the MeCCSA event and I wanted to email you about some of the things that we were discussing but i’ve stupidly left your card back in Bristol (i’m currently snowed-in in Cambridge). If you could get in touch that’d be great, i’ve got some ideas I’d like to discuss off-list if possible.
Cheers,
Mat Hope
Please only post in this section if you want to contact me directly – trying to further discussions held in other fora is not appropriate.
Hi Graham,
We’ve corresponded before (5-6 years ago I think) regarding Rainbird Software. You were also good enough to employ me there way way back in early 1988!
It would be great if you could get back in touch, as I am currently writing a magazine article about TelecomSoft and would like to ask a few questions!
Cheers!
Dear GP Wayne. Your debating with sceptics & deniers on The Guardian website is heroic. I would say keep it up except that I think it may be a waste of your time. Either way, keep up the good work trying to persuade the public about the dangers we face from climate change. Best regards, Cameron
Hey Cameron – thanks for that. Nice of you to pop by…
Dear Mr Wayne,
For some time now, I’ve very much enjoyed your contributions in the discussion threads on the Guardian’s CiF, particularly as regards environmental science.
As an American who has settled permanently in the UK, it distresses me to no end to witness how AGW is understood in my home country, and I am particularly heart-broken when I hear the long-debunked denier soundbites coming from my friends, family and other loved-ones back home.
I only just discovered your blog this morning and I see that I’ve got some catching up to do!
A word of thanks then, because whenever I encounter a like-minded person who can so succinctly and cogently argue against the deniers, well, I realise that we are many and I am convinced that scientific truth can and shall prevail.
All the best,
Michael
Hi Michael – nice that you found time to stop by. Hope we’ll see you again…
Hello Mr.Wayne.
I have a Question.Im a student and i am doing a Presentation about the climate change at school and i found http://klimafakten.de/behauptungen/behauptung-der-klimawandel-ist-nicht-so-schlimm this. My Question is where do you have the Informations from? And if you wrote more about (not in books,on the internet) .
I would be very thankful if you could help me a bit.
Sincerly,Mary.
Hello Mary. I’m amazed that someone has translated my writing – I hope it’s a good translation! In answer to your question, climate change is a complex subject because it draws on many scientific disciplines. It is also made more complex by the political and economic arguments, which get mixed up with the science and make everything harder to understand.
My main sources of information have been reliable sites like the Royal Society (UK science association – http://royalsociety.org/), NOAA, NASA, and I can recommend http://www.skepticalscience.com for very good science explanations – I wrote some of them myself, aimed at ordinary people, trying to explain how the science supports the theory of climate change, and also showing why so many arguments against climate change are not true.
In truth, you would do well to avoid blogs – even mine – because a lot of people add political ideas to the science, as I do from time to time. Stick to the national science institutions or honest sites that refer always to the primary science and let you read the science for yourself. It isn’t easy, but I think it is worth the effort if you really want to understand climate change and what it means.
In answer to your last question, other than here and in SkepticalScience, I have written a few articles in the Guardian (UK news site), but that’s about all.
Hello Mr.Wayne.Im a student and i am doing a Presentation about the climate change at school together with Mary. I also got a question. Do you got more informations, about how far humans can influence the climate change ? I would be very thankful if you could help me. Sincerly, Bonita.
Bonita, you and Mary should use the best source of information about climate change – the IPCC (http://www.ipcc.ch/). Their reports will tell you everything you need to know about how far humans can influence climate change.
Dear Mr. Wayne. Could you please tell me what Royer, Annan etc. are ? Are these just the names of this Klimamodels or is that something else? I would be very thankful if you could help me
Hi Bonita – these are names of scientists – for example, historical climate (Annan and Hargreaves, 2006) and Paleoclimate (Royer, 2007) are studies by the named scientists.
By the way, remember that Google is your friend. You can always look up these names to work out who they are or what they mean.
Thank you very much
I will keep it in mind.