NPR Cut Its Climate Desk. These 33 Local Climate Reporters Are Still at It

Well, it’s even worse than I previously reported at NPR where newsroom leaders have reduced both climate and science staff. NPR not only fired its chief climate editor and ended the Climate Desk as a standalone team but has also laid off longtime energy correspondent Jeff Brady. By my count, NPR has reduced the climate team by 22 percent and the science desk by 50 percent.

Shutting the Climate Desk as a standalone team means moving the remaining journalists into the National Desk, where they will jockey for time, attention, and resources. The move was announced by Neela Banerjee, who led the Climate Desk for several years but was laid off with at least 10 others, including Brady, a 22-year-veteran of NPR. Brady’s reporting for NPR’s Climate Desk has focused on “decisions people and governments make that will determine whether and how the U.S. addresses the urgency and consequences of climate change.” He had a story on June 1 that helped consumers know how to decide if it makes financial sense to purchase an electric vehicle.

“This is my final story as an NPR correspondent,” Brady said today on social media. “After more than 22 years at the network, I was among those laid off in a reorganization.” He says he’s exploring a business plan to bring nonprofit journalism to the Philadelphia suburbs.

Earlier this month, a spokesperson for NPR declined to address specific layoffs but said in a statement that climate coverage was not “disproportionately” impacted any more than other areas of the newsroom. “Climate journalism remains a priority for NPR’s newsroom, and while the newsroom reorganization was driven by financial necessity, we also took care to ensure that climate coverage and all areas of coverage would be preserved and not diminished,” the statement reads in part. “Integrating the climate team into the national desk means climate journalism is able to be woven into more of our reporting.”

To be clear, great NPR reporters like Lauren Sommer, Julia Simon, Rebecca Herscher, Michael Copley, and Alejandra Berunda will continue to investigate corporate polluters, climate solutions and environmental policy. Correspondents like Kirk Siegler and Nathan Rott regularly file dispatches from around the American West that touch on climate policy, science, and disasters. But getting rid of an energy correspondent, the chief of the Climate Desk — and indeed the status of being a standalone desk within the newsroom — is a step backward for climate coverage.

One of the big reasons for having the desk in the first place was to elevate the fact that NPR is a loose network of hundreds of member stations with reporters in all 50 states who live in those communities and can contribute to the national airwaves. Banerjee and other editors grew a nationwide “Climate Collaborative” of dozens of member stations aimed at strengthening local climate journalism. “Climate might be the most important story of our time, and we need a dedicated team of journalists to cover it and work across desks in our newsroom and with our international bureaus,” NPR leaders said in September 2022 when they launched the Climate Desk.

Climate is still the most important story of our time. The only thing that’s changed is the direction of the federal government and funding for NPR.

Here’s the good news, which I very much want to get to: that nationwide Climate Collaborative that NPR has nurtured — of member stations doing local climate journalism — remains strong. There are at least 33 reporters around the country based at local public radio stations doing important work for their communities and contributing to the national conversation about climate change. Two climate-focused editors remain at NPR, now at the National Desk: Sadie Babits and Rachel Waldholz.

The public radio system has built an impressive team of local journalists that deserves support and membership dollars:

Erin Stone covers the local implications of global climate change and environmental challenges and solutions across Southern California for LAist. Erin often covers how local communities are affected by—and fight—pollution. LAist also has the distinction of devoting an entire day of the week to special coverage with their “Climate Mondays.” 

Caleigh Wells is a reporter based in Cleveland covering business and climate for Marketplace from APM, which airs on hundreds of local public radio stations. Caleigh is a board member of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Marketplace also produces a climate solutions podcast called “How We Survive.”

Ezra David Romero is a climate reporter for KQED News. He covers the absence and excess of water in the Bay Area — sea level rise, flooding and drought. He’s been connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change for a decade now.

Laura Klivans is a science reporter for KQED, where she covers climate change with an eye on both groundbreaking progress and gaps in action. She regularly reports for a national audience through NPR’s news magazine shows.

Carlyle Calhoun is executive producer/host of “Sea Change” from WWNO in New Orleans. Calhoun and colleagues won an award for their three-episode series looking at what the LNG boom has meant for everyday Louisianans, especially in low-income communities and communities of color.

Monica Samayoa at OPB covers how communities in Southern Oregon continue to recover from wildfires, as well as the decades of groundwater pollution in Eastern Oregon and its impacts to the communities. Monica was part of a team that won the 2026 Goldsmith Prize for Explanatory Reporting for a series titled “Power Struggle,” that showed why states in the Pacific Northwest rank near the bottom of the country for the growth of renewable power.

Ishan Thakore is a Climate and Environment Reporter for Colorado Public Radio who specializes in multimedia production and pursuing longform investigations.

Sam Brasch also covers climate and the environment for CPR News.

David Condos is KUER’s southern Utah reporter based in St. George covering the dynamics shaping life in communities across the southern part of the state with a focus on environmental issues.

Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco is an environment reporter covering the Midwest for WBEZ as well as for Grist.

Jenny Staletovich at WLRN has reported on Florida’s major environment stories, including the 2018 devastating red tide and blue-green algae blooms, impacts from climate change and Everglades restoration.

Jessica Meszaros at WUSF reports on climate change and the environment for stations in Miami, Fort Myers and now Tampa.

Miriam Wasser is a senior reporter with WBUR’s climate and environment team in Boston.

Barbara Moran is also a correspondent on WBUR’s climate and environmental team.

Peter McGuire is a climate reporter for Maine Public with more than a decade of experience in Maine journalism.

Susan Phillips is a senior reporter/editor, covering climate, energy, and environment as part of the WHYY News Climate Desk in Pennsylvania.

Avery Ellfeldt reports for the Alaska Desk from KHNS. Her coverage touches on issues ranging from mining and conservation to climate change and tourism.

Kate Grumke reports on the environment, climate and agriculture for St. Louis Public Radio and Harvest Public Media.

John Ryan focuses on climate change, energy, and the ecosystems of the Puget Sound region for KUOW. He has also investigated toxic air pollution, landslides, failed cleanups, and money in politics.

Emily Jones covers climate change, the environment, and environmental justice as part of a partnership between WABE and Grist.

Zachary Turner is a climate reporter and author of the WFAE Climate News newsletter.

Katherine Hafner is WHRO’s climate and environment reporter in Norfolk, Virginia.

Rebecca Thiele is an energy and environment reporter for IPB News based at WFIU in Bloomington.

Mara Hoplamazian is a climate reporter for NHPR who tells stories about how Granite Staters are managing ecological and social transitions that come with climate change. (leaving)

Abagael Giles is Vermont Public’s climate and environment reporter, focusing on the energy transition and how the climate crisis is impacting Vermonters — and Vermont’s landscape.

Mose Buchele is a senior energy and environment correspondent for KUT in Austin, Texas.

Reid Frazier covers energy for The Allegheny Front. His work has taken him as far away as Texas and Louisiana to report on the petrochemical industry and as close to home as Greene County, Pennsylvania to cover the shale gas boom.

Zaria Johnson is a reporter/producer at Ideastream Public Media covering the environment.

There are plenty of other reporters in the public radio system who touch environmental and energy reporting even if they are not formally part of the Climate Collaborative.

Pablo Arauz Peña is the Growth and Infrastructure Reporter for KERA News, which covers North Texas. Janek Schaller is the new Julia Child Foundation fellow for KCRW’s ‘s Good Food covering the intersection of the environment and food. Lester Graham reports for The Environment Report at Michigan Public. Natalie Weber reports on energy & environment for Houston Public Media. She covers everything from the city’s oil and gas industry to the Texas power grid, along with community advocacy. And Chloe Bennett-Steele is StateImpact Oklahoma’s environment & science reporter on KOSU. There are many more that I probably failed to mention. (Grist surveyed where climate reporters are located in the U.S.)

Bottom line: if you’re compelled to complain to NPR about their priorities in these lean times, I hope you’ll also show some love for these hard-working climate journalists.