Julian Cribb AM FTSE
Julian Cribb AM is an Australian author and science communicator. He is a Fellow of the
Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) and the Australian
National University Emeritus Faculty.
His career includes appointments as scientific editor for The Australian newspaper, director
of public awareness for the national science agency CSIRO, editor of several newspapers,
member of numerous scientific boards and advisory panels, and president of national
professional bodies for agricultural journalism and science communication.
His published work includes over 9000 articles, 3000 science media releases and 12 books.
He has received 32 awards for journalism. He is a co-founder of the Council for the Human
Future. In 2021 he received the Order of Australia (AM) for his work in science
communication.
Julian is principal of Julian Cribb & Associates who for over twenty years have provided
international consultancy in the communication of science, agriculture, food, mining, energy
and the environment for over a hundred scientific, government and private organisations.
For the past two decades his main literary focus has been the self-inflicted existential
emergency faced by humanity. This is dealt with in six books: The Coming Famine (UCP
2010) explored the question of how we can feed 10 billion humans this century; Surviving
the 21st Century (Springer 2017) tackles the existential crisis now facing humanity from a
combination of ten megathreats – and what we can do about it. His book Food or War
(Cambridge University Press 2019) explores how food can help prevent human conflict in
the C21st. Earth Detox describes the vast question of human chemical emissions, their
impact on us and how we can overcome it. His latest book ‘How to Fix a Broken Planet’
(Cambridge 2023) offers a plan to rescue humanity from the self-created threats that beset
it.
As a grandfather, Julian is deeply concerned about the future our descendants will face
unless humanity as a whole acts with urgency to overcome all the megarisks we have
created.