Scorched

ABOUT the author

*** 2009 SAB Environmental Journalist of the Year ***

Leonie Joubert is a freelance science journalist, columnist and author. Her books Scorched: South Africa’s changing climate (Honorary 2007 Sunday Times Alan Paton Non-Fiction Award) and Boiling Point: people in a changing climate, travel through South Africa’s remarkable countryside and tell the stories of places and people that are vulnerable to climate change.

Her latest book, Invaded: the Biological Invasion of South Africa, is a story about pollution, but not oil spills, litter or filthy smoke-stacks.  Invaded is about biological pollution – the plants and animals that have spread around the globe on the back of human movement, those that have traversed the boundaries of natural habitats and have begun to erode their new adopted environment. The book explores the consequences of humankind’s intended and unintended introduction of alien species into South Africa.

She was the 2007 Ruth First Fellow, and was listed in the Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans You Must Take To Lunch (2008).

As a freelance journalist, Leonie has been published widely, including in the Sunday Independent, Sunday Argus, Sunday Tribune, African Decisions, Africa Geographic, Getaway, Progress, EarthYear, Farmers Weekly, Engineering News, Cape Times, SA4×4, Xplore and the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, amongst others. She was a regular columnist for the Mail & Guardian.

She contributed to the 2007 John Platter Wine Guide and in 2005 co-authored the new Environmental Management Plan (EMP) for the Prince Edward Islands Special Nature Reserve.

Leonie has a Bachelor of Journalism & Media Studies from Rhodes University and a Masters in Journalism from Stellenbosch University.

Memberships: Skeptic SA; Southern African Science Journalists’ Association (SASJA); Academic & Non-Fiction Writers Association (ANFASA); Southern African Freelancers Association (SAFREA).

Adviser: Project 90×2030, a climate change-related initiative of the Goedgedacht Forum for Social Reflection. Leonie was on the founding steering committee, before becoming a board member for the project. Now she serves as an adviser to the project.