Andrew Freedman
Andrew Freedman covers the shifting edge where extreme weather meets climate change, turning fast-moving events into clear, consequence-focused stories for the network’s climate and environment desk. His reporting sits at the intersection of detailed weather science, long-term climate trends, and policy decisions, with a consistent focus on what new data and events mean in practical terms.
Climate and weather specialist at CNN
Freedman is a senior reporter with CNN Climate & Weather, concentrating on climate science and policy, extreme weather, and the energy transition. He is an award-winning climate and environmental journalist with more than a decade of experience covering climate change, extreme weather events, and their broader environmental and energy context. Across his work he combines technical understanding of storms, heat, and ocean patterns with the ability to explain complex research in straightforward language. He has held senior climate roles at digital and newspaper outlets, including leading coverage focused on climate change, extreme weather, and the environment. He describes his focus as existing at the intersection of extreme weather and climate change, and his recent CNN coverage reflects that specialization.
El Niño, heat, and compounding extremes
A central strand of Freedman’s recent work is explaining the developing Super El Niño and its cascading impacts on global weather and coastal conditions.
He has reported on how El Niño events are becoming stronger as the planet warms, drawing on new studies to show how this pattern is changing with climate change. In coverage of sudden sea-level rise tied to El Niño along the California coast, he connects ocean dynamics to specific timelines and risks, such as about a foot of sea-level increase by mid-October. He returns to the theme of Super El Niño in pieces on what previous events can tell us about the next one and on how this one could be even worse than anticipated, grounding those stories in both historical analogues and emerging forecasts.
Beyond El Niño, Freedman tracks record-setting heat and compound disasters, covering the hottest summer on record in the United States, all-time heat records in cities such as Miami, and a season defined by overlapping fires, floods, and extreme temperatures. These articles typically combine clear statements of the records being broken with explanations of how climate change is stacking hazards together, making the extremes more damaging and harder to manage.
Climate science and policy in plain terms
Freedman frequently writes analytical pieces that distill complex climate science and policy documents into direct takeaways. In his analysis of a major United Nations climate report, he characterizes much of the document as dry but highlights the sections where its findings about accelerating impacts and closing emissions windows are most consequential. He covers regulatory moves that affect the scientific infrastructure behind climate research, such as a Trump-era rule that scientists warned could undermine American science and a separate decision to cut funding for a natural hazards program monitoring landslide hotspots in Nepal. In the Nepal coverage he links funding cuts to the later disaster, showing how abstract budget choices can translate into lives and communities at risk.
Across these stories he keeps the focus on what changed, why it matters now, and how scientists and affected communities are responding, rather than on political theater.
Career-long focus on climate, weather, and energy
Before joining CNN, Freedman held senior climate reporting and editing roles at other major outlets, where he covered science research and policy with a focus on climate change, extreme weather, and the environment.
His previous work has included breaking stories on government plans for agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, underscoring his attention to the institutions that underpin forecasting and climate monitoring. He has also reported for other climate-focused publications, extending his beat across digital platforms as the conversation around climate change shifted from a distant concern to an immediate challenge. Across this career arc he has consistently covered both individual storms and long-term climate trends, as well as the energy transition that shapes emissions and resilience.
His current CNN work continues that pattern, using extreme weather events, Super El Niño, and major reports to show how climate science, policy, and energy decisions intersect.
4 more environment journalists.
Alan Halaly
Alan Halaly is a water reporter at the Las Vegas Review-Journal who treats the Colorado River as a working system, not a backdrop, making its governance, infrastructure and risks central to his beat. He covers how policy decisions and infrastructure projects shape the region’s water future, linking high-level choices on the Colorado River, dams, mining and data centers to everyday consequences under mounting heat and growth pressures. He reports deeply on new laws, lawsuits and regulatory shifts, focusing on on-the-ground impacts. His coverage spans Colorado River cuts, Hoover Dam operations, extreme weather, heat and parks, septic system rules, workplace and public health risks, lithium and gold mines, protected landscapes, data centers, AI infrastructure and public funding. Previously he reported for metropolitan dailies, digital outlets and public media, including the Miami Herald, WUFT, The Daily Beast and Miami New Times, with work recognized by Hearst, ONA and the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Alejandra Borunda
Alejandra Borunda reports on how climate change affects human health for NPR. Her work treats global warming as a direct cause of physical and mental health risks. She covers extreme heat, including undercounted deaths, lost sleep and local efforts to track heat-related fatalities. She also reports on wildfire smoke, hurricanes, disease spread such as dengue fever, trauma, stress and unequal health impacts. Her stories examine how communities protect themselves and recover, as well as practical solutions involving climate-resilient crops, agriculture and diet. Before NPR, she wrote about climate science and environmental issues for National Geographic, including glacier retreat, shade and heat inequity, and shrinking ice-fishing seasons. A former climate scientist, she combines field reporting with scientific data to connect atmospheric research to everyday risks, choices and people’s lived experiences.
Alex Lubben
Alex Lubben is an environment reporter at The Times-Picayune/The Advocate who connects climate risk to policy, industry and community change. He covers Gulf warming, flood protection, coastal restoration, wetlands litigation, industrial projects such as SpaceX’s possible expansion, invasive species and local ecosystems. His reporting tracks how law, politics and corporate decisions shape levees, drainage, marshes and long-term resilience. He also examines climate relocation, housing and labor, showing how hurricanes, floods and wildfires displace vulnerable communities and expose gaps in government systems. He works on a small environment team and brings an investigative background to document work, data analysis, legal and policy research, and field reporting. His work has appeared in VICE News, The Center for Public Integrity, The Nation, Jewish Currents and NBC News.
Alex Wigglesworth
Alex Wigglesworth reports on how climate, land use and public policy shape California communities. She covers the Inland Empire and Mojave Desert for the Los Angeles Times and is part of its environment team. Her beat includes wildfires, megadrought, extreme weather, desert development, conservation, wildlife, industrial hazards, aging infrastructure and regulatory enforcement. She has covered Western Joshua trees, desert tortoises, beaver-led restoration, toxic lead pipes, air-quality concerns after industrial fires and the effects of nuclear war on food systems. Earlier, she was a general assignment reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com. She combines breaking news with detailed reporting grounded in scientific studies, modeling and expert interviews. Her work connects fires, drought and other hazards to climate change, while examining how agencies, companies and land-use decisions affect people and ecosystems.