People
John Sutter
John D. Sutter is a National Geographic explorer and director of the forthcoming “Baseline” documentary series, which tells the story of the climate crisis beyond a human lifetime. A former Knight Visiting Nieman fellow at Harvard University, Sutter spent 10 years as a reporter, producer and columnist at CNN, most recently as a senior investigative reporter covering the climate crisis and related disasters. At CNN, Sutter created several award-winning initiatives, including “Two Degrees,” on the climate emergency; “Change the List,” which asked readers to vote on the issues the network would investigate; and “Vanishing,” a global documentary series on the extinction crisis. His digital documentary on modern slavery in Mauritania, “Slavery’s Last Stronghold,” won the Livingston Award for Young Journalists as well as the IRE Award, the EPPY award and other honors. His work in Puerto Rico contributed to the government’s admission that 2,975 died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, 46 times the previous official count. Sutter’s journalism has been nominated twice for national EMMY awards. He has been given the Peabody Award and the Batten Medal for public service journalism.
