David Helvarg

Award-winning investigative journalist and environmental author

David Helvarg is the author of “Blue Frontier - Saving America's Living Seas”, “Blue Frontier - Dispatches from America’s Ocean Wilderness”, “50 Ways to Save the Ocean” and “The War Against the Greens,” as well as an award winning investigative journalist, TV documentary producer and public radio commentator.

His latest book is “Rescue Warriors: The U.S. Coast Guard, America’s Forgotten Heroes.” Robert Kennedy Jr. said “David Helvarg’s terrific new book takes you to the cutting edge of adventure as he rides along with the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard.  This in-depth and lively look at the history and changing missions of America’s “Rescue Warriors,” should be considered a must-read for anyone who loves the water or cares about the safety, security and stewardship of our nation from sea to shining sea.”

Combining ocean politics, history and adventure, Helvarg visits with the major players on America's blue frontier including the Navy, offshore oil & gas industry, fisheries, and coastal developers.  He also profiles the growth of what he calls "The Seaweed Rebellion," among select scientists, environmentalists, fishermen, coastal citizens and communities fighting to restore and sustain our living seas.  In 2004 an updated edition of “War Against the Greens” was released, with a new chapter devoted to George W. Bush’s allegiance to the “wise use” movement. He helped to write two other books in 2004: “Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Climate Change” and “Trouble in Paradise: Globalization and Environmental Crises in Latin America.”

As a private investigator and former war correspondent in Northern Ireland and Central America, Helvarg has 25 years experience covering a range of issues from armed insurgencies to environmental politics.  As a private detective he has been involved in investigations of the car bombing of an Earth First! Activist and a chemical plant's poisoning of a Latino community in Texas.

His talks in recent years have focused on environmental conflicts ranging from organized vigilante attacks on women activists fighting toxic waste and clear-cut logging, to a multi-million dollar campaign by the oil industry to discredit climate change science.  Helvarg's presentation on the anti-green industry backlash attacks, and the media's failure to do good investigative reporting on the issue, has won widespread praise from college and community audiences around the country.

He's editor of the Ocean and Coastal Conservation Guide and the recipient of the prestigious 2005 Coastal Living Award for Leadership for his work helping to mobilize an emerging blue movement through his company Blue Frontier, which works for the protection, exploration and restoration of America’s living seas.