Breaking News

Featured Stories 

    BIKINI ATOLL, MARSHALL ISLANDS - JANUARY 27: (CHINA OUT, SOUTH KOREA OUT) In this aerial image, 80-meter-deep Bravo Crater is seen on January 27, 2014 in Bikini Atoll, Marchall Islands. The crater was created on March 1, 1954, when a 15-megaton bomb was detonated as part of the U.S. Castle Bravo project. The bomb was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The United States conducted 67 tests of nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, the site of the U.S. Pacific Proving Grounds, between 1946 and 1958. In 1977, radioactive strontium-90 exceeding U.S. environmental standards was detected in well water. The following year, the U.S. Interior Department said cesium-137 levels on the atoll were so high that residents could not permanently live there. That forced the islanders to once again leave the atoll. With the 60th anniversary of the hydrogen bomb test approaching, there is still no indication of when the former residents can return. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)

    You're making this island disappear

    It's one of the clearest injustices of climate change: The Marshall Islands likely won't exist if we warm the planet 2 degrees. I traveled to the remote Pacific to learn what it's like to try to process that doomsday forecast. And why some people already are making the painful decision to leave. You voted for this coverage as part of CNN's two° series.
    natpkg.orig.ancil.change.the.list.alaska.rape.lawless.end.of.the.land.nunam.iqua_00020601.jpg

    The rapist next door

    John D. Sutter, CNN
    Alaska's rape rate is the highest in the country -- three times the national average. To find out why, I went to Alaska to talk with victims, politicians -- and the rapists.

    Slavery's last stronghold

    John D. Sutter, CNN
    Mauritania's endless sea of sand dunes hides an open secret: An estimated 10% to 20% of the population lives in slavery. But as one woman's journey shows, the first step toward freedom is realizing you're enslaved.

    The poor kids of Silicon Valley

    Columnist John D. Sutter is tackling five topics that readers selected in an online vote. This story, on child poverty in Silicon Valley, is fifth in the series. To navigate the interactive story, click the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen, press the arrow keys on your keyboard, or swipe left and right.
    natpkg.orig.ctl.san.joaquin.endangered.river.sutter.bpa.two_00005127.jpg

    My 417-mile trip down 'Apocalypse River'

    John D. Sutter, CNN
    I spent three weeks trying to kayak (and walk) down the "most endangered" river in America, California's San Joaquin; I quickly learned why no one does that.
    For CNN.com story only

    Most trafficked mammal you've never heard of

    I went undercover in Southeast Asia to learn why a bizarre, scale-covered mammal -- which has been called a walking pinecone and a modern-day dinosaur -- is trafficked by the ton. It could go extinct before most people realize it exists.
    For two degrees, Woodward, Oklahoma story

    The county of climate skeptics

    By John D. Sutter, CNN
    I was wandering around the rolling plains of northwest Oklahoma looking for one person -- one person -- who believes in climate change science when I met the woman dressed all in yellow.
    Howard Rogers walks through a flooded street in Miami Beach in September 2015.

    Packing up because of climate change

    By John D. Sutter, CNN
    Dan Kipnis -- a retired fishing captain on Miami Beach -- has a home office so cluttered with sea creatures that it feels like a drained aquarium.
    natpkg.orig.lgbt.mississippi.county.no.gays_00012417.jpg

    The county where no one's gay

    John D. Sutter, CNN
    Statistically speaking, Franklin County should be straighter than John Wayne eating Chick-fil-A. The middle-of-nowhere rectangle in southwest Mississippi -- known for its pine forests, hog hunting and an infamous hate crime -- is home to exactly zero same-sex couples, according to an analysis of census data.

About 

    John D. Sutter is an award-winning columnist for CNN and creator of the network's "2 degrees" project, which aims to involve readers in climate change coverage. Based at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, Sutter reports to Richard Galant, senior editor for CNN Opinion.

    Since joining CNN in 2009, Sutter has reported on a wide range of topics for the network, from income inequality to environmental justice and global human rights. His online story and documentary on Mauritania, the last country to abolish slavery, won the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists, as well as numerous other honors, including those from the Foreign Press Association, the Online News Association and Investigative Reporters and Editors. It received an EMMY nomination for new approaches to documentary film. Sutter's work on the Change the List series -- in which readers voted on social justice issues for him to cover -- won the Batten Medal for public service journalism from the American Society of News Editors. His series on LGBT rights in Mississippi won the 2014 Al Neuharth Award for investigative reporting.

    Sutter is a firm believer in involving readers and viewers in the storytelling process. He co-produced CNN iReport's "Walk in our shoes" project, which was a collective walk around the world, filmed by CNN's audience. It won a Webby Award in 2011. And, with help from readers, he live-tweeted a walk down the 17-mile path of a deadly tornado in 2013.

    Previously, Sutter was a staff writer at The Oklahoman, where he covered Oklahoma City government and environmental issues. He also worked as a documentary film intern and freelancer in Madagascar and as a news intern at a daily newspaper in Cape Town, South Africa. He was a post-graduate fellow at the Poynter Institute. Sutter earned a bachelor's degree in international studies and journalism from Emory University in 2005.