John Vidal, former Guardian environment editor, dies aged 74

John Vidal in Cabo Orange national park, Amapá state, Brazil. He said reporting on the environment was ‘the greatest job on Earth’. Photograph: Daniel Beltrá/Greenpeace

John Vidal, the Guardian’s former environment editor, has died aged 74. He died peacefully on Thursday in hospital, where he was being treated for cancer.

Vidal reported on the environment for the Guardian for almost three decades until retiring in 2017, calling it “the greatest job on Earth”. Afterwards, he continued to report from around the world with his trademark energy and enthusiasm and published a book, Fevered Planet: How Diseases Emerge When We Harm Nature, in June this year.