Fred Pearce

British environment writer Fred Pearce writes that he is “a skeptic in the best sense of the word.” One of his columns for The Guardian is titled Greenwash and focuses on exposing false environmental claims. Politely but very firmly, Pearce unmasks food retailers who advertise their desire to buy sustainably produced palm oil, but don't act accordingly. Or he offsets Qatar's plans to use biofuels for its airline against the country’s vast domestic consumption of fossil fuels.

Based on these and many other publications, Pearce is acknowledged as one of Britain's finest science writers, famed for his contrary and counter-intuitive opinions. Over the past 20 years, he has reported on the environment, popular science, and development issues, in newspapers, scientific magazines and a wide range of books.

Pearce is currently an environmental consultant for New Scientist magazine and a regular contributor to the London Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Country Living, as well as numerous other British and foreign publications. His writing has featured in US publications such as Foreign Policy, Audubon Magazine, Seed, Popular Science and Time.  He also writes a monthly column for the prestigious web-based environmental magazine Yale360.

Recent books by Pearce include Peoplequake, The Last Generation, When the Rivers Run Dry, Earth: Then and Now and Confessions of an Eco Sinner. He has also written reports and extended articles for WWF, the UN Environment Programme, the Red Cross, UNESCO, the World Bank, the European Environment Agency, and the UK Environment Agency.