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Cynthia Barnett
Barnett, photographed by John Moran in 2015
Alma mater	University of Florida
Occupation(s)	Author, journalist
Website	CynthiaBarnett.net

Cynthia Barnett is an American journalist who specializes in the environment. She is the author of the water books Mirage (2007), Blue Revolution (2011), and Rain: A Natural and Cultural History (2015), which was longlisted for the National Book Award and a finalist for the 2016 PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for Literary Science Writing from the PEN America Center.

Career

Barnett earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s in American history with a specialization in environmental history, both from the University of Florida, and has described Florida’s nature and weather as significant inspiration for her work.

Barnett spent her early career as a newspaper reporter, columnist and editor before joining Florida Trend magazine, where she was known for investigative reporting. Her investigation “Road Racket” into a change-order scheme involving some of Florida’s major highway contractors was recognized by the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information as one of the “Top Freedom of Information stories of the past 30 years.” Her exposé on inspectors general fired by the subjects of their scrutiny won a national Sigma Delta Chi Award for Investigative Magazine Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

After investigating desalination, wetlands mitigation banking, coastal water quality and other water issues, Barnett has described becoming “obsessed with water.” She spent 2004-2005 as a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan researching freshwater scarcity. Her first book, Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S., was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2007. Her second book, Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis, was published by Beacon Press in 2011. In 2012, she left her full-time job to devote her career to the environment and her books. Since then, she has written on the environment for National Geographic, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Salon, Politico, Discover, Orion, Ensia, the Tampa Bay Times, and other publications. Her third book, Rain: A Natural and Cultural History, was published in 2015.

Barnett is also Environmental Journalist in Residence at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, where she teaches Environmental Journalism and Nature & Adventure Journalism. She is a critic of environmental communication targeted exclusively to conservation audiences and encourages students to reach “the Caring Middle.” She first wrote about the Caring Middle in a commencement address to the Unity College class of 2012 in Unity, Maine.

Personal Life

Barnett, a fifth-generation Floridian, was born in Fort Myers, Florida. She is married to Aaron Hoover, a speechwriter, and they are raising their two children in Gainesville, Florida.

Bibliography

Books

• Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 2007. ISBN 978-0-47211-563-1.
• Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis. Boston: Beacon Press. 2011. ISBN 978-0-80700-317-6.
• Rain: A Natural and Cultural History. New York: Crown Publishing Group. 2015. ISBN 978-0-80413-709-6.

Articles

• Barnett, Cynthia (June 2008). "How deep is the water crisis?" Miami Herald.
• Barnett, Cynthia (June 2011). "Toward a Water Ethic." Tampa Bay Times.
• Barnett, Cynthia (June 2011). "Way Down Is The Suwannee River." St. Petersburg Times.
• Barnett, Cynthia (September 2011). "Hope for Springs Eternal." Tampa Bay Times.
• Barnett, Cynthia (May 2012). "The Last Rope Swing." Tampa Bay Times.
• Barnett, Cynthia (November 2012). "America's Illusion of Water Abundance." Los Angeles Times.
• Barnett, Cynthia (July/August 2013). "Water Works: Communities Reimagine Ways of Making Every Drop Count." Orion (magazine).
• Barnett, Cynthia (August 2013). "Groundwater Wake-Up: A new view of global groundwater reveals an urgent need to reverse depletion trends." Ensia.
• Barnett, Cynthia (October 2014). "Hey, America: It's time to talk about the price of water." Ensia.
• Barnett, Cynthia (April 2015). "Congress's Hare-Brained Scheme to Shoot Rain from the Skies." Politico.
• Barnett, Cynthia (April 2015). "Making Perfume from the Rain." The Atlantic.
• Barnett, Cynthia (April 2015). "To Fight the Drought, L.A. Needs a Rain Revolution." Wall Street Journal.  
• Barnett, Cynthia (May 2015). "It's Not Just a 'California Drought.'" Los Angeles Times.
• Barnett, Cynthia (June 2015). "A Stormy History of Weather Reporting." Mental Floss.
• Barnett, Cynthia (July 2015). "'The Weather Experiment' by Peter Moore." New York Times Sunday Book Review.
• Barnett, Cynthia (January 2016). "The Toil & Trouble of Climate Denial." Los Angeles Times.
• Barnett, Cynthia (February 2016). "The Magic of Squeezing Water Out of the Sky." Zocalo.
• Barnett, Cynthia (August 2016). "Hawaii is Now Home to an Ocean Reserve Twice the Size of Texas." National Geographic.

Interviews

• Cynthia Barnett (April 22, 2015). “Rain, Rain (Don’t) Go Away.” Interview with Tom Ashbrook, WBUR-FM.
• Cynthia Barnett (June 1, 2015). "Making ‘Rain’ for the Caring Middle." Interview in the Journal of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
• Cynthia Barnett (August 24, 2015). “Environment Writer Interviews: Cynthia Barnett.” Interview with Sarah Boon, Watershed Moments.
• Cynthia Barnett (October 2, 2015). "A history as right as 'Rain.'" Interview with Collette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times.
• Cynthia Barnett (January 28, 2016). “Rain’s Complicated Cultural History.” Interview with Michael Krasny, KQED San Francisco.