Mark Lynas 19 November 06

Mark Lynas was born in Fiji in 1973, and grew up in Peru, Spain and the UK. After gaining a first-class honours degree in history and politics from the University of Edinburgh (where he also edited the university’s student newspaper), he joined a web start-up called OneWorld.net – helping turn it into the world’s most-accessed internet portal for human rights and sustainable development issues. He was also active in the flourishing environmental direct action scene during the late 1990s, joining road protests and campaigning against genetically-modified crops, as well as participating in Reclaim the Streets protests in London and Oxford.

Since going freelance in 2000 to work full-time on climate change, Mark has written three books and many articles in the UK and international media. His first publication, High Tide: News from a Warming World, was published by Flamingo/HarperCollins in 2004, and detailed Mark’s exploration of the dramatic impacts of climate change around the world. His second, the Collins Gem Carbon Calculator, published in early 2007, showed how people can calculate – and reduce – their carbon footprints. His latest book, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, was published in April 2007 by Fourth Estate, and shows – degree by degree – what will likely happen to different places this century as global warming accelerates. Six Degrees is published in the United States by National Geographic, which has also made a feature-length TV documentary based on the book.

Mark’s journalism work has included regular contributions to the Guardian, Independent and other newspapers. He writes a fortnightly column for the New Statesman magazine. He is also a regular contributor to television and radio discussions on the subject of climate change, and is a well-known lecture speaker on the subject.

Mark was selected as one of US science journal Seed Magazine’s ‘Revolutionary Minds’ in 2004, and his book High Tide was longlisted for both the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction and the Guardian First Book Award. In 2006 he was selected by National Geographic as one of its Emerging Explorers. According to National Geograhic, its Emerging Explorers program “recognizes and supports uniquely gifted and inspiring young adventurers, scientists, photographers, and storytellers – explorers who are already making a difference early in their careers”. In July 2007 he was placed at no.7 in the Independent’s ‘Green List 2007’ – after Al Gore (1) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (2) but before James Lovelock (11) and Prince Charles (13).

Mark is married and lives in Wolvercote, Oxford with his wife Maria, son Tom and daughter Rosa. He recently helped to launch the Low-Carbon Wolvercote initiative, which aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the community – putting the village in the forefront of efforts to mitigate climate change.