About

Erica Gies is an award-winning independent journalist who writes about water, climate change, plants and critters for Scientific American, The New York Times, Nature, The Atlantic, The Guardian, National Geographic, The Economist, Washington Post, bioGraphic, Wired, and more.

Her stories hail from North America, especially California and British Columbia, and the wider world. In a quest for commonalities that bind us and innovations that inspire, she has reported from many intriguing places: Iraq, Peru, Cambodia, India, Syria, Kenya, China, Qatar, Laos, the United Kingdom, Guyana, Vietnam, France, and Indigenous nations and territories, including those belonging to Navajo (Diné), Kwiakah, Makushi, Kitasoo/Xai’xai, ‘Namgis, Heiltsuk, and Native Hawaiian peoples.

Her book, Water Always Wins: Thriving in an age of drought and deluge, is about the global “Slow Water” movement that are helping us adapt to the increasing floods and droughts brought by climate change. Published in North America, the United Kingdom, China, and as an audio book, Water Always Wins won the Rachel Carson Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism among other awards. Erica is represented by The Martell Agency in New York.

She has given keynotes at numerous international conferences and has advised the EPA and the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. She was the Harvey Southam Lecturer at the University of Victoria, the Leeson Lecturer at the University of Rhode Island, and spoke at the University of Santa Barbara’s Capps Forum of Ethics and Public Policy. She was a featured author at the Tucson Festival of Books and has appeared on PBS Amanpour & Co, Fox News The Next Revolution, NPR Science Friday and Morning Edition, CBC What on Earth and The Current, radio programs in New Zealand, Australia, and the U.K., and many podcasts.

Erica is a National Geographic Explorer, served as a staff editor at various publications, and cofounded and edited two environmental news startups, Climate Confidential and This Week in Earth. She studied journalism and holds a master’s degree in literature, with a focus in eco-criticism, which is an actual thing.

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, she spent childhood vacations camping and hiking in state and national parks and swimming in any body of water she came across. These outside hours and days left indelible imprints: the rushing sound of wind in pines, water striders gliding atop mountain creeks, towering redwoods, the pattern and play of crashing waves, the spicy smell of chaparral on a sunny afternoon. She remains an ardent fan of critters, plants, hydrology, wilderness, and hiking.

Erica lives in Victoria, British Columbia, and in San Francisco, with her partner and her half-wild, half-lovebug tabby cat.

Download her CV here.

Write to her at [email protected]