Andrew Revkin

Andrew Revkin is the founding director of the new Initiative on Communication and Sustainability at Columbia University's Earth Institute. There he is building programs, courses, tools, and collaborations aimed at bridging gaps between science and society in order to cut climate risk and spread social and ecological resilience.

Revkin has written on climate change more than 30 years, reporting from the North Pole to the White House, the Amazon rain forest to the Vatican—mostly for The New York Times. He has won the top awards in science journalism multiple times.

He has written acclaimed books on the history of humanity’s relationship with weather, the changing Arctic, global warming and the assault on the Amazon rain forest, as well as three book chapters on science communication. The Golden-Globe-winning HBO film “The Burning Season” was based on Revkin’s biography of slain rain forest defender Chico Mendes. 

A lifelong musician, he was a frequent accompanist of Pete Seeger and is a performing songwriter. He lives in the Hudson River Valley.