Inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888
Joel K. Bourne Jr. is an award-winning journalist who has covered national and international environmental issues for the past 20 years. A former senior editor for the environment for National Geographic, he has reported on numerous controversial issues, including oil exploration in Alaska, the future of New Orleans, the global food crisis, and most recently the cover story on the BP oil spill in the October 2010 issue.
Bourne seems to have a pulse on breaking news. His 2004 National Geographic feature on Louisiana’s wetland loss reported the hurricane threat to New Orleans ten months before Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. His October 2007 article on biofuels was part of a suite of stories that won the magazine top honors for Outstanding Explanatory Reporting from the Society of Environmental Journalists in 2008, and his ongoing coverage of food sourcing and sustainability echo the wave of pop culture films and books about this increasingly important topic.
A powerful and trusted voice in the media, Bourne, who holds a Bachelor of Science in Agronomy from NC State and a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia University, has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including CNN‘s American Morning, CNN International, the National Geographic Channel and NPR. Prior to his tenure at National Geographic, Bourne’s work appeared in National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, Audubon, Science, Outside and many other publications.
Popular Presentations
The End of Plenty
There are more than a billion people on the planet today that do not have enough to eat—more than at any other time in human history. Join Bourne as he explores some of the brightest ideas being considered in response to this crisis.
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Not So Many Fish in the Sea
The world’s oceans—once thought to be a virtually limitless resource for healthy protein—now contain only 10 percent of their predatory species. Nearly every major fish stock is either depleted or on the verge of collapse as we eat ourselves down the food chain. Bourne, who has spent decades researching the issue, shares the latest advances in aquaculture.
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Biofuels—the Good, the Bad, the Ugly
Not long ago, biofuels were all the rage—proponents were saying that homegrown fuel was going to wean us off foreign oil, help cure climate change, and ignite our moribund rural economy. Other researchers called it a total waste of the nation’s tax dollars and food resources. Bourne explores the heavily subsidized corn-ethanol industry of the U.S., its trickle down impact on food exports to hungrier nations, and the next generation of biofuels that have the potential to restore some balance to the system.
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The Expensive Cost of Cheap Oil
As the easy oil dwindles and the price at the pump continues to rise, the push to explore for oil in deeper, or icier, or more dangerous waters is relentless. Bourne has been on the front lines of the oil wars with researchers and roughnecks, and brings to the discourse an authoritative, science-based perspective on the environmental and social impacts of this quest as well as a peek at more sustainable solutions.
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The Quest for Fresh Water
In the future experts believe wars will fought not over oil or ideologies, but over something much more critical to human life: water. For more than a decade Bourne has reported on the increasingly dire quest for fresh water, from the parched soils of sub-Saharan Africa, to China’s Pearl River Delta, to California’s Central Valley.
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Listen to Radio Interview With Joel Bourne
Boyd Matson Interviews Joel Bourne for NG Weekend Radio Show
Is Another Deepwater Disaster Inevitable? The largest U.S. oil discoveries in decades lie in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico—one of the most dangerous places to drill on the planet.
Photograph by Joel Sartore
A heroic system of dams, pumps, and canals can’t stave off a water crisis.
Photograph by Edward Burtynsky
They can grow to be the tallest trees on Earth. They can produce lumber, support jobs, safeguard clear waters, and provide refuge for countless forest species. If we let them.
Photograph by Michael Nichols
Our hot and hungry world could face a perpetual food crisis.
Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Making fuel from crops could be good for the planet—after a breakthrough or two.
Photograph by Robert Clark
The sinking city faces rising seas and stronger hurricanes, protected only by dwindling wetlands and flawed levees. Yet people are trickling back to the place they call home, rebuilding in harm’s way.
Photograph by Tyrone Turner
Loving our coasts to death.
Photograph by Tyrone Turner
The interests of big oil, wild creatures, and native populations collide on the largest remaining piece of U.S. wilderness, Alaska’s North Slope.
Photograph by Joel Sartore
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Experience the wonder of deep-sea exploration with the man who found the Titanic.
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In her presentation “Connect With Anybody, Anywhere” Annie Griffiths shares her experiences as a journalist bridging cultural, racial, and religious divides. A passionate conservationist, her recent project with author Barbara Kingsolver aims to help save the last wild spaces in the United States.
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An accomplished scholar of human origins and the discoverer of the “Lucy” skeleton.
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