Andrew C. Revkin is an American science and environmental journalist, author and educator. He has written on a wide range of subjects including destruction of the
Amazon rain forest, the
2004 Asian tsunami, sustainable development,
climate change, and the changing environment around the
North Pole. From 2019 to 2023 he directed fthe Initiative on Communication and Sustainability at The Earth Institute of Columbia University.[1]
Previously he was strategic adviser for environmental and science journalism at
National Geographic Society.[2] Through 2017 he was senior reporter for climate change at the independent investigative newsroom
ProPublica.[3] He was a reporter for The New York Times from 1995 through 2009. In 2007, he created the Dot Earth environmental blog for The Times. The blog moved to the Opinion Pages in 2010 and ran through 2016. From 2010 to 2016 he was also the Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding at
Pace University.[4] He is also a performing songwriter and was a frequent accompanist of
Pete Seeger.
Early in his career he held senior editor and senior writer positions at Discover magazine and Science Digest, respectively.[8]
From 1995 through 2009, Revkin covered the environment for The New York Times. In 2003, he became the first Times reporter to file stories from the North Pole area and in 2005-6 broke stories about the
Bush administration's interference with scientific research, particularly at
NASA.[9]
In 2010, he joined Pace University's Academy for Applied Environmental Studies as Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding.[10]
Revkin has also written books on humanity's weather and climate learning journey, the once and future
Arctic, the
Amazon, and global warming.[11] He was interviewed by
Seed magazine about his book The North Pole Was Here, which was published in 2006. He stressed that "the hard thing to convey in print as journalists, and for society to absorb, is that this is truly a century-scale problem."[12]
Revkin is among those credited with developing the idea that humans, through growing impacts on Earth’s climate and other critical systems, are creating a distinct geological epoch, the
Anthropocene.[13] He was a member of the "Anthropocene" Working Group from 2010 to 2016. The group is charged by a branch of the International Commission on Stratigraphy with gauging evidence that a formal change in the
Geologic Time Scale is justified.[citation needed]
Works
Weather: An Illustrated History, from Cloud Atlases to Climate Change. New York: Sterling, 2018,
ISBN1454921404
The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World. Boston: Kingfisher, 2006,
ISBN9780753459935
Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast. New York: Abbeville Press, 1992,
ISBN978-1558593107
Rock Star (2001), starring
Mark Wahlberg and
Jennifer Aniston, was based on "A Metal-Head Becomes a Metal-God. Heavy," a 1997 New York Times article by Revkin. The article described how a singer in a
Judas Priest tribute band rose to replace his idol in the real band.[8]
^"Skipping Ahead". Seed. 21 April 2006. Archived from the original on 22 April 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2009.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
link)
^Steffen, W.; Grinevald, J.; Crutzen, P.; McNeill, J. (2011). "The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 369 (1938): 842–867.
Bibcode:
2011RSPTA.369..842S.
doi:
10.1098/rsta.2010.0327.
PMID21282150.