Michael Kodas – “Megafire: The Race to Extinguish a Deadly Epidemic of Flame”
In Megafire, Michael Kodas travels to the most dangerous and remote wildernesses and to the backyards of people faced with these environmental disasters, to look at the heart of this phenomenon and witness firsthand the heroic efforts of the firefighters and scientists racing against time to tame these deadly flames. From Colorado to California, China to Canada, Megafire describes the impact of these fires around the earth and will change the way we think about the essential precariousness of our world.
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About Michael Kodas
Michael Kodas is the Associate Director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder, an award-winning photojournalist and reporter, and the author of the bestselling book High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Newsweek, Outside.com, OnEarth.org, GEO, Der Spiegel, The Denver Post, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, and numerous other publications in the United States and abroad. He has appeared on the PBS NewsHour with Judy Woodruff, All Things Considered on National Public Radio, Dateline NBC, and many other radio and television programs. From 1987 until 2008 he was a staff photographer, picture editor and writer at The Hartford Courant, in Hartford, Connecticut. USA Book News honored High Crimes as Best Non-Fiction in the National Best Books awards of 2008, however the book's most prestigious honor was being a question on the gameshow Jeopardy!. Kodas was also part of a team of journalists at The Courant awarded the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage in 1999. Among other honors, he received a Gold Medal from the Lowell Thomas/Society of American Travel Writers for Best Self-Illustrated Travel Article in 2005, as well as awards in the Pictures of the Year International competition, and from the National Press Photographers Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. For more than two decades Michael has taken his cameras and notebooks to the most difficult to reach environments on the planet. He has worked as a forest firefighter, circumnavigated Long Island Sound in a sea kayak, trekked through the rainforests of Brazil and Costa Rica, documented veterans mapping minefields in Vietnam, sailed aboard the Amistad, ridden fishing vessels into the Atlantic Ocean, and climbed to the summit of Ama Dablam, a 22,494-foot peak in Nepal. In 2004 and 2006 he climbed on Mount Everest to investigate crime in the Himalaya. Michael's multimedia speaking engagements have drawn hundreds of visitors to universities and corporate events across the United States. His photographs and video make for uniquely inspiring and motivating events. Michael completed photojournalism and news/editorial programs at the University of Missouri, was a Davidoff Scholar at the Wesleyan Writers Workshop and a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder.