Derek Harrison
Derek Harrison focuses on how climate change reshapes ecosystems, wildlife and land management, treating environmental stories as systems pieces rather than isolated events. He writes for Inside Climate News, where he combines an art and production role with reported features on climate impacts, biodiversity loss and conservation responses. His work often starts from scientific studies or policy proposals and then follows their consequences across landscapes, species and communities over long time horizons.
Climate Systems and Extreme Weather
Harrison’s climate science coverage explains how large-scale atmospheric and ocean patterns translate into concrete weather risks. In his reporting on El Niño and its “big consequences” for global weather, he walks through how this recurring climate phenomenon alters storm tracks, drought patterns and heat extremes, grounding the story in current forecasts and historical analogs. He uses that kind of piece to connect abstract climate dynamics to everyday exposure, showing where impacts will be felt and which regions face the greatest stress.
The emphasis sits on clarity and practical implications rather than technical detail, making complex systems intelligible to non-specialist readers.
Land Conservation and Wildlife Corridors
A recurring strand of Harrison’s work looks at land conservation as a frontline climate adaptation tool. In coverage of Florida’s future under climate change, he reports on a study projecting the state 50 years ahead and explains how strategic land conservation can buffer the destructive force of rising temperatures and intensifying storms.
He treats conservation not as a static preservation effort but as a way of shaping where water flows, where people live and how habitats absorb climate shocks. In stories on proposals to protect wildlife corridors in the American West, he describes those corridors as the “veins and arteries” of the landscape and examines how federal land agencies could redesign management to keep those ecological pathways open.
Across these pieces, land policy, climate projections and habitat connectivity are held together in one frame.
Migratory Species and Global Biodiversity
Harrison reports extensively on the intersection of climate change and biodiversity, with a particular focus on migratory species. In work detailing how the world is losing migratory species at alarming rates, he uses global assessments to show how habitat fragmentation, climate shifts and human pressures combine to push species toward decline. He is attentive to the geographic breadth of these stories, tracing impacts across continents and flyways rather than focusing on a single locality. His biodiversity pieces typically highlight both the scientific warning signals and the policy levers that could slow or reverse loss, such as protecting key stopover sites or maintaining large, connected landscapes.
Nature, Climate Policy and Industrial Transitions
Another dimension of his beat tracks how nature and environmental risks are treated in high-level climate policy and in emerging clean-energy industries. In coverage of climate negotiations, he has written about nature gaining a more prominent place at the table at COP28, documenting how biodiversity and ecosystems were integrated more directly into summit agendas and agreements.
He has also reported on U.S. federal climate regulation, including the repeal of the EPA’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding and related changes to vehicle and power plant standards, explaining how those moves reshape national climate policy and constrain future regulatory action. Beyond policy, he has covered EV battery waste and China’s recycling system, detailing how informal recyclers, contamination risks and uneven enforcement undercut nominal recycling capacity and threaten environmental and safety outcomes.
Taken together, these stories show Harrison following the through-line from climate targets to regulatory design and industrial practice, with nature and environmental integrity as his constant reference point.
Role in the Inside Climate News Newsroom
Harrison works as art and production director at Inside Climate News while maintaining an active reporting portfolio on climate and environment.
The dual role gives his stories a strong visual and structural sensibility, with clear, direct headlines and layouts that underscore the systems thinking inside the reporting. His byline sits on explainer features, policy analyses and science-driven stories rather than quick news briefs, and he tends to return to themes - corridors, conservation, migratory species, long-term scenarios - as they evolve.
For a newsroom centered on climate, he occupies a niche that fuses design craft with substantive coverage of how nature and policy interact under accelerating environmental change.
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.