Jeff Goodell is an American author and contributing editor to ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' magazine.
[ Goodell's writings are known for a focus on energy and environmental issues. He is Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a 2020 ]Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the a ...
.
Youth and education
Jeff Goodell was born in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
The city was es ...
. He grew up in Sunnyvale and worked briefly at Apple Computer in the early 1980s. He graduated from University of California, Berkeley, in 1984, then helped edit Zyzzyva
''Zyzzyva'' is a triannual magazine of writers and artists. It places an emphasis on showcasing emerging voices and never before published writers in addition to the already established. Based in San Francisco, it began publishing in 1985. ''ZYZ ...
, a literary magazine in San Francisco. He moved to New York City and attended graduate school at Columbia University, where he received an M.F.A. in 1990.
Career
Goodell started his journalism career at ''7 Days'', a Manhattan weekly founded and edited by Adam Moss
Adam Moss is an American magazine and newspaper editor. From 2004 to 2019, he was the editor-in-chief of ''New York'' magazine. Under his editorship, ''New York'' was repeatedly recognized for excellence, notably winning Magazine of the Year in ...
. He covered cops, crime, AIDS, and politics. In 1990, 7 Days won a National Magazine Award for General Excellence. After freelancing for a few years, Goodell became a Contributing Editor at Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
in 1995. Since then, he has written hundreds of pieces for the magazine, including cover stories about climate politics, Steve Jobs, and President Barack Obama.
Goodell has published six books, including ''Sunnyvale'' (2000) a personal memoir about growing up in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
and the breakdown of his family; ''Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith'' (2002), about the Pennsylvania Quecreek Mine Rescue of nine trapped coal miners in 2002, which was a ''New York Times'' Best Seller; and '' Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future'' (2006), which the ''New York Times'' called "a compelling indictment of one of the country's biggest, most powerful and most antiquated industries...well-written, timely, and powerful."
In 2010 he published ''How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth’s Climate''["Can We 'Cool the Planet' through Geoengineering?"](_blank)
NPR interview on ''Fresh Air
''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to ...
'', April 15, 2010 about geoengineering, global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, and climate change mitigation. The book discusses ideas by Ken Caldeira
Kenneth Caldeira (born 1960) is an American atmospheric scientist. His areas of research include ocean acidification, climate effects of trees, intentional climate modification, interactions in the global carbon cycle/climate system, and sustain ...
, James Lovelock, David Keith, Raymond Pierrehumbert
Raymond Thomas Pierrehumbert is the Halley Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. Previously, he was Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. He was a lead author on the Third Assessment Report of th ...
, Stephen Salter, and Lowell Wood among others. In 2011, ''How to Cool the Planet'' won the Grantham Prize The Grantham Prize was an annual journalism award awarded between September 2005 and October 2012. It was established by Jeremy Grantham and Hannelore Grantham and the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting to annually recognize th ...
(Award of Special Merit).
His most recent book, ''The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World'', which describes visits to places likely to be inundated by rising sea levels, was published by Little, Brown in October 2017. It was a ''New York Times'' Critics Top Book of 2017 and selected by the ''Washington Post'' as one of the 50 best non-fiction books of 2017.
As a commentator on energy and climate issues, Goodell has appeared on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC, Fox News and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Awards and honors
* 2011 Grantham Prize The Grantham Prize was an annual journalism award awarded between September 2005 and October 2012. It was established by Jeremy Grantham and Hannelore Grantham and the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting to annually recognize th ...
(Award of Special Merit).
* 2012 Sierra Club David R. Brower Award for excellence in environmental journalism.
* 2020 American Meteorological Society
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its mission is to advance th ...
Louis J. Battan Author's Award.
* 2021 Covering Climate Now
''Climate crisis'' is a term describing global warming and climate change, and their impacts. The term and the alternative term ''climate emergency'' have been used to describe the threat of global warming to humanity (and their planet), and to ...
Journalism Award
* 2022 New York Press Club The New York Press Club, sometimes ''NYPC'', is a private nonprofit membership organization which promotes journalism in the New York City metropolitan area. It is unaffiliated with any government organization and abstains from politics. While the c ...
Award
Fellowships
* 2016-201
New America National Fellow
* 202
Atlantic Council Senior Fellow
* 202
Guggenheim Fellow
Works
Books
* ''The Cyberthief and the Samurai: The True Story of Kevin Mitnick-And the Man Who Hunted Him Down'' (1996)
* ''Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family'' (2000)
* ''Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith'' (2002)
* '' Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future'' (2006)
* ''How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth’s Climate'' (2010)
* ''The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World'' (2017)
Anthologies
* ''Best Business Writing 2012'' (Columbia Journalism Review Books, 2012)
* ''Best American Science Writing 2012'' (Ecco, 2012)
* ''Best American Science And Nature Writing 2022'' (Mariner, 2022)
Audiobooks
* ''The Big Melt: A Journey to Antarctica's Doomsday Glacier''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodell, Jeff
American magazine editors
American male journalists
Sustainability advocates
American non-fiction environmental writers
Living people
Writers from Sunnyvale, California
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
Activists from California