Fred Pearce is a former news editor at ''New Scientist'' magazine, and is currently its environment and development consultant. He also writes regularly for the ''Independent'' and the ''Times Higher Education Supplement'', the ''Boston Globe'' and ''Foreign Policy in the US'' and has written reports and extended journalism for WWF, the UN Environment Programme, the Red Cross, UNESCO, the World Bank and the UK Environment Agency. He is syndicated in Japan, Australia and elsewhere and has filed articles from more than 50 countries in the past decade. He was voted BEMA Environment Journalist of the Year in 2001 and has been short-listed for the same award in 2000, 2002 and 2003. He is a past recipient of the Peter Kent Conservation Book Award and the TES Junior Information Book Award. His books (for both adults and children) have been translated into eight languages. He is a regular broadcaster on radio and TV, with interview credits from ''Today'' to Richard and Judy to the Open University.