Seth Wynes

Seth Wynes joined the Department of Geography and Environmental Management in 2024 as an Assistant Professor in the human dimensions of climate change. His interdisciplinary research sits at the intersection of climate communication, behavioral science, and AI safety. Broadly speaking, he examines how people and governments think about the mitigation of large-scale risks, with work ranging from evaluating the impact of climate policies to understanding how the public perceives the risks of large language models. To do this he makes use of surveys, randomized controlled trials, interviews, and carbon accounting. Recent and ongoing projects include estimating the emissions impact of dietary changes and evaluating climate advice from large language models. His research is supported by SSHRC and CIFAR.

Seth is looking for graduate students who want to answer empirical questions about climate mitigation, public attitudes toward AI safety and data centre build-out, or the intersection of food systems, climate, and (wild) animal welfare. Students who have some experience with statistics, survey design, or computational modelling and want to build on it are especially encouraged to reach out.

• Climate change mitigation

• Low-carbon transportation

• Food systems

• Artificial intelligence

• Public perceptions

• GEOG 359 - Low Carbon Transition
  • Taught in 2025, 2026
• GEOG 405 - Wetlands
  • Taught in 2026
• GEOG 415 - Economic Geography Project
  • Taught in 2026
• GEOG 417 - Climate Change Communication
  • Taught in 2025, 2026
• GEOG 452 - Resource Management Project
  • Taught in 2025, 2026

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Wynes, S., Shah, A., & Milardović, V. (2026). Large language models exhibit status quo bias in climate-relevant advice. Environmental Research Communications, 8(10), 105009.https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/aea1eb

• Wynes S (2026) Should Anticipated AI Risks Influence Climate Research Agendas? Oxford Open Climate Changehttps://doi.org/10.1093/oxfclm/kgag008

• Wynes S, Davis SJ, Dickau M, Ly S, Maibach E, Rogelj J, Zickfeld K, Matthews HD. (2024) Perceptions of carbon dioxide emission reductions and future warming among climate experts. Communications Earth & Environmenthttps://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01661-8

• Wynes S, Matthews HD. (2023) Missing density: Elected officials and members of the public who support climate action show less support for compact cities than clean transport.Climate Policyhttps://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2023.2190870

• Wynes S, Dickau M, Kotcher JE, Thaker J, Goldberg MH, Matthews HD, Donner SD (2022) Frequent pro-climate messaging does not predict pro-climate voting by United States legislators. Environmental Research: Climate https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/aca8c4

• Wynes S (2022) Guidance for health professionals seeking climate action. The Journal of Climate Change and Health https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2022.100171

• Matthews HD, Wynes S (2022) Current global efforts are insufficient to limit warming to 1.5°C. Science 376(6600) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abo3378

• Wynes S (2021) COVID-19 disruption demonstrates win-win climate solutions for major league sports. Environmental Science & Technology 55(23) https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c03422

• Wynes S, Kotcher J, and Donner SD (2021) Can citizen pressure influence politicians’ communication about climate change? Results from a field experiment, Climatic Change, 168(6). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03215-9

• Liang KE, Dawson JQ, Stoian MD, Clark DG, Wynes S and Donner SD (2021) A carbon footprint study of the Canadian medical residency interview tour, Medical Teacher, 1-7.https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2021.1944612

• Wynes S, Motta M, and Donner SD (2021) Understanding the climate responsibility associated with elections. One Earth, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.02.008

• Wynes S, Zhao J, and Donner SD (2020) How well do people understand the climate impact of individual actions? Climatic Change, 162(3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02811-5