Prof Guy Midgley, an internationally renowned climate scientist, is seen as one of the leading voices on climate change both in South Africa and globally. With a career that spans nearly four decades, Midgley has made immeasurable contributions to his field. MatieMedia’s Bianke Neethling spoke with Midgley about the man behind the science and his journey from young boy to a leader in his field.
On any given day, Prof Guy Midgley is running at a mile a minute. From back-to-back meetings and conference after conference, his days are filled to the brim.
“He is a workaholic,” says Yolanda Chirango, the scientific network manager at Stellenbosch University’s (SU) School for Climate Studies and Centre for Invasion Biology, with a laugh. “I don’t know when he sleeps… I don’t think he sleeps. He’s just involved in so many things.”
This is something one might expect from someone whose job concerns the future of the planet, but Midgley is far more than the ever-busy man whose career in science spans nearly four decades.
Prof Guy Midgley is an internationally renowned climate scientist and the acting director of Stellenbosch University’s School for Climate Studies. He is also a devoted family man and the father of three children. PHOTO: Bianke Neethling
‘Itchy feet’
Midgley’s parents sent him to school very young, he says.
“I never really knew why until I asked my uncle,” Midgley explains. “And he said, ‘Because you were a handful – you were always asking questions.’”
Midgley describes himself as a born “Capie”, but his father was a doctor with “itchy feet”, he says. This meant that they travelled across the country quite a bit, Midgley explains.
However, they eventually settled in Somerset-West and, around the time when Midgley started attending SU, his father went into farming, Midgley says.
This setting taught him a lot about agriculture, he explains.
“We lived there for several years and so got to drive tractors and plant vineyards and see all that sort of stuff – it was great,” he reminisces.
Ahead of the curve
It is in his work with the National Botanical Research Institute – where he worked for around 30 years before taking up his position at SU – that his agricultural knowledge came in handy, as he and the team he worked with were doing a lot of research into an emerging field called “ecophysiology”, Midgley explains.
This work also inspired his master’s thesis on and fed into his interest in climate change, he says.
His interest was initially stimulated when he was 16, Midgley explains.
During this time, his parents’ subscription to National Geographic led him to an article in the publication about climate variability over thousands of years, he says.
“It just blew my mind,” Midgley says. “We were just starting to understand what drove climate conditions – it was a bit of a mystery.”
Midgley was further inspired by ground-breaking scientists like Charles Keeling, who took equipment that he had invented to the top of a volcano in order to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and James Hansen, who was one of the first people to present the issue of climate change in front of the US Senate, says Midgley.
While some of his colleagues originally saw his work as a “complete waste of time”, his results spoke for themselves and it launched his now decades-long career as a leading voice on the topic of climate change, Midgley says.
Prof Guy Midgley, acting director of Stellenbosch University’s School for Climate Studies, is an avid music listener who believes his generation lived through “one of the most creative musical progressions ever”, he says. While he has a penchant for rock music, he prefers to listen to instrumental music while working, he explains. PHOTO: Bianke Neethling
Cabin pressure
Midgley’s position as one of few South African researchers looking into climate change at the time, meant that he spent more than a decade travelling across the country and overseas to speak about the topic, he says.
“He’s an ambassador for climate change related issues in South Africa, and probably globally,” says Karen Esler, the head of the department of conservation ecology & entomology at SU. Esler has known and worked with Midgley for years, she says.
“He was very involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which kept him extremely busy,” she says. “He was going back and forth – flying overseas a lot for these meetings – and at quite a lot of cost to himself personally.”
Midgley speaks about the toll that this work took on him.
“It was a pretty great time but, sadly, the pressure – the travel pressure and the time zone differences – was just crazy and it really affected my health badly,” he explains. “Sadly, I got to the point where I was in my early fifties and I just thought, ‘I’m going to have to back away somehow or I’m going to really have a health problem’.”
That is how Midgley made the decision to take a professorship at SU, he says. It seemed a good way to spend the last 10 years of his career and he really enjoyed the shift, says Midgley.
But in 2021, as he was heading towards what he thought would be a “quiet retirement”, Midgley was presented with the idea of starting a school for climate studies at SU, he explains. And, though he was reluctant at first, he thought, “Why not?”, and has been the acting director of the school ever since, he says.
“It has been easily as busy as I thought it was going to be – probably worse – but it has been fun too, so, no regrets.” Midgley says.
Prof Guy Midgley, an internationally renowned climate scientist, describes why he remains optimistic about the planet’s future. AUDIO: Bianke Neethling
World-class
“We are very fortunate to have a world-leading academic representing us,” says Prof Eugene Cloete, the deputy vice-chancellor for research, innovation and postgraduate studies at SU. “He is a really fantastic academic – world-class – but he’s also a world-class person.”
Chirango describes her experience of working with Midgley as “life-changing”.
“I had the most incredible time working with Guy, because he’s achieved so much but he’s so, so humble and so approachable,” she says. “It was absolutely amazing to see a scientist who has achieved all this stuff but can also relate to anyone – you can talk to him about anything and he’s really good at bringing out the best in people.”
Chirango also explains that Midgley “does not take himself too seriously” and his sense of humour is one of his best traits.
She recalls a fancy dress event which he attended in an “eco-warrior” costume – complete with green hair and a light-up umbrella – which was put together only two hours before the event.
He walked away that night with two awards – one for his research and another for the most creative costume, Chirango laughs.
Prof Guy Midgley, acting director of Stellenbosch University’s (SU) School for Climate Studies, recently attended this year’s Eco-Logic Awards. At this event, he won the Climate Change award as well as the prize for more creative costume, says Yolanda Chirango, the scientific network manager at SU’s School for Climate Studies and Centre for Invasion Biology. PHOTO: Sourced/The Green Times
Resilient optimism
Midgley hopes to spread the message that it is possible to have a more equal and sustainable world – and you don’t need to destroy the world to save the economy, he says.
While he realises that “the problem is far from solved”, Midgley remains optimistic about the future, he says.
“As an ecologist, I know the planet has a massive resilience,” he explains.
He also believes that people need a challenge to motivate them, he adds.
“Humans get bored if life is too easy,” he explains. “We’ve got to be struggling in some way or working towards something in some way.”
After all, Midgley says, “life is most enjoyable when you’ve got some challenges to face”.