Books, Multimedia, Bylines


ABOUT EMILY GERTZ

I'm a freelance journalist and editor covering the environment, technology, and science.  My work has appeared both online and in print, in Popular Mechanics, Scientific American, Whole Living, Dwell, Talking Point Memo, OnEarth Magazine, Grist, and more. I'm also co-author of the forthcoming O'Reilly title, Environmental Monitoring With Arduino. I was among the founding contributors to Worldchanging.com, the award-winning blog covering solutions to global environmental, social, political, and economic challenges, and wrote several sections of the Abrams book Worldchanging: A Users Guide for the 21st Century. I've been online since 1989, and in addition to online journalism and blogging, have worked extensively as a digital content strategist, social media manager, online community host, and web producer. I'm based in my hometown of New York City.


BOOKS

Environmental Monitoring With Arduino, O'Reilly Media, forthcoming, 2011.  Co-authored with Patrick Di Justo, Contributing Editor, Wired Magazine.


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<< Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day, Mountaineers Books, 2007. Uncredited contributions based on my articles for Grist, including a big chunk of "Naughty by Nature: Ever thought about the toxins in your sex toys?"

>> Worldchanging : A User's Guide for the 21st Century, Harry N. Abrams, 2006; second edition 2010. Contributions on sustainable fishing, sustainable agriculture, organic food, mobile phone activism, and more.


SELECTED MULTIMEDIA

Video: Talking Big Oil Politics on GriTV with Laura Flanders: I was one of two talking head experts on whether any oil drilling policy reform might come of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.

As an independent special correspondent for Oxfam International to the 2009 climate treaty talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, I reported and produced these photo-audio slideshows:





Treehugger TV: How to Buy a Green Sex Toy: I helped produce this video segment--in that I was off camera interviewing the featured expert, Carolyn Riccardi of Babeland--which was based on my article for Grist, "Naughty by Nature: Ever thought about the toxins in your sex toys?"

SELECTED ARTICLES AND BLOGGING


"This Guy's Toast: Q&A With Thomas Thwaites, Author of 'The Toaster Project,'" OnEarth, Nov. 14, 2011

"Nanocrystal Device Could Be the Next Big Battery," TPM Idea Lab, Oct. 27, 2011

"Pulling Back the Curtain on Supply Chains," Ecomagination, Oct. 20, 2011

"Maker Faire: A Science Fair for the DIY Movement," TPM Idea Lab, Sept. 19, 2011

"MakerBot Wants to Make Personal Manufacturing Ubiquitous," TPM Idea Lab, Sept. 16, 2011

"Game On: Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid," Ecomagination, Aug. 29, 2011

"Support for Geothermal Power Heats Up," TPM Idea Lab, Aug. 23, 2011

"Cultured Meat Could Save the Environment," TPM Idea Lab, July 11, 2011

"Safety Rules for Sewage Sludge May Be Outdated," Environmental Scene-Chemical & Engineering News, June 15, 2011

"Dolphins Bear Heavy Loads of Pollutants," Environmental Scene-Chemical & Engineering News, May 6, 2011

"Planet Keepers: The Style Setters," interview with Summer Rayne Oakes and Benita Singh of Source4Style.com, which helps fashion and interior designers source sustainable raw materials. Part of cover article on people who are making a difference for the environment. Whole Living, April 2011 

"Cut Your Child's Exposure to These 5 Toxic Substances," USA Today, "Your Life Guide to Green Living," April 2011

"Don't Panic, Yet: Fukushima Radiation Not Affecting U.S. Fisheries, but Many Open Questions Remain," OnEarth, April 22, 2011

"Got iGeigie? Radiation Monitoring Meets Grassroots Mapping with RDTN.org," OnEarth, April 20, 2011

"Why a Georgia Town Should Love Its 20,000 Bats," OnEarth, March 31, 2011

"Photographing What Americans Throw Away and Where It Gets Resold," OnEarth, March 8, 2011

"The Rise of the Engineer-Activist: Build-it-yourself environmental monitoring," OnEarth, February 11, 2011

"Polar Bear's Epic Nine-Day Swim: Anomaly or Omen," OnEarth, February 3, 2011

"In North Atlantic, Right Whales Try to Yell Over the Growing Subsea Din," OnEarth, November 15, 2010

"Are Sea Turtles Being Burned in Oil on the Gulf of Mexico?", OnEarth, June 26, 2010

"Marine Toxicologist Susan Shaw Dives Into Gulf Spill, Talks Dispersants and Food Web Damage",  OnEarth, June 24, 2010

"Keep On Trucking: Nouvelle food trucks make fast food with slow values," Grist, August 11, 2010

"Climate Witnesses Say: 'We want justice'," Oxfam International "First Person" blog, December 12, 2009

"On the Edge of the Future: What are some of the world's poorest cities getting right, and what can they teach us?" Momentum magazine, Spring/Summer 2009

"The Heat Is On When It Comes to Building Coal-Fired Power Plants: The future of coal-fired electricity in the U.S. may be on the line right now in Kansas." Accompanied by gallery of original photos. Scientific American, June 1, 2009

"Can Offshore Drilling Really Make the U.S. Oil Independent?" Scientific American, September 12, 2008

"Scientists Observe Saharan Dust to Predict Next Big Hurricane Season," Popular Mechanics, August 21, 2008

"As Flood Waters Rise, Geeks Aim to Save Midwest With 3D Rig," Popular Mechanics, June 19, 2008

"Off the Grid: Strohhaus: Compressed straw panels integral to this supersustainable, modern Swiss home," Dwell, April 2008

"Tempting Fate: Fifteen years after the Great Flood of 1993, floodplain development is booming," Grist, March 19, 2008

"Biloxi Clues: Post-Katrina homebuilding project gives hope for weathering severe storms," Grist, March 20, 2008

"Creating Urban Wildlife Corridors," Worldchanging, October 29, 2007

"Will Saving the Polar Bear Save the Arctic Ice?" Worldchanging, October 9, 2007

"How Mobiles and Blogs Don't -- and Do -- Help Human Rights," Worldchanging, September 28, 2007

"Making Garbage Visible in All Its Stinky Glory," Worldchanging, September 20 2007

"Sex Education: A primer on chemicals, fertility, and reproduction," Grist, September 18, 2007

"Sustainability and Empathy," Worldchanging, August 20, 2007

"On the Shoulders of Giants: A Grist correspondent sweats her way through Live Earth," Grist, July 9, 2007

"Worldchanging Interview: Bill McKibben on Creating the Durable Future," Worldchanging, April 11, 2007

"Plastic Oh-No: A chemical found in everything from nail polish to shower curtains may be linked to health problems," Plenty, April/May 2007

"Small Potatoes: Using grease and other goodies, small producers are making a big difference," Grist, December 7, 2006

"Trouble at Muscle Beach? Grassroots biodiesel operations contend with industrial sand-kickers," Grist, December 7, 2006

"From Cow Poop To Cow Power: See post-bovine methane generate clean electricity!" Grist, October 29, 2006

"Pigeons Write A Smog Blog. You May Be Next," Plenty, Aug/Sept 2006

"We're So Vain, We This Party's About Us: A dispatch from the launch party for Vanity Fair's green issue," Grist, April 19, 2006

"Ebb and Fla. Reporter Michael Grunwald gabs about his new book on the Everglades," Grist, March 27, 2006

"The $1 Million A Square Kilometer Solution," Worldchanging, January 25 2006

"Naughty by Nature: Ever thought about the toxins in your sex toys?" Grist, December 62005 (Syndicated on Alternet as "Getting (Too) Dirty in Bed")

"Fahamu: Pan-African Text Messaging for Social Justice," Worldchanging, October 31, 2005

"Speakeasy: Leveraging Mobile Phones and Open Source Software to Connect Neighbors," Worldchanging, October 6, 2005

"The Snow Must Go On: Inuit fight climate change with human-rights claim against U.S.," Grist, July 26, 2005

"Media, Digital Tech Empowering Indigenous Survival", Worldchanging, August 5, 2005

"Toadus Operandi: John G. Roberts' enviro record not so green, but also not provoking a lot of protest," Grist, July 22, 2005

"The Seven Thousand Dollar Science Fiction Movie," Worldchanging, April 23, 2005

"Sexy, healthy, clean and green," Worldchanging, February 21, 2005

"Chillin' Verde: Dispatches from Verdopolis, a confab on future green cities," Grist, February 2005

"Restoring Mangroves: Coastal forests are key to preventing future disasters and restoring life and livelihood around the Indian Ocean," Worldchanging, December 29, 2004

"Natalie Jeremijenko: The WorldChanging Interview," Worldchanging, October 22, 2004

"What Do Post-Bovines Portend?" Worldchanging, August 25, 2004

"Fresh Kills: An Unnatural Context," Worldchanging, April 2, 2004