Jonathan Watts
Jonathan Watts connects global environmental breakdown to the human and political forces driving it, reporting on climate, ecosystems and power from multiple continents for the Guardian. He is global environment editor at the Guardian and balances frontline coverage with investigations into the systems of consumption and energy that shape the crisis. His work is distinguished by its combination of ground reporting with a sustained focus on planetary-scale science and long-term environmental change.
Global energy, consumption and emissions
Watts consistently traces how energy systems and consumption patterns translate into environmental risk and opportunity. In a recent Guardian article on “mega-consumers” of food and energy, he reports on research that quantifies the environmental cost of a small group of high-consumption households at $5.7tn a year, tying abstract economic numbers to concrete ecological damage. Earlier in his career he examined shifts in global energy demand, including reporting on China overtaking the United States as the world’s largest energy consumer, linking that milestone to questions of climate responsibility and geopolitical change.
His coverage of China’s falling emissions during an international conflict highlights how energy trends intersect with war, diplomacy and hopes for a decarbonisation watershed rather than treating emissions as a purely technical metric. Across these pieces, he uses data-driven reporting and expert interviews to show how energy policy, industrial growth and affluent lifestyles drive climate outcomes far beyond national borders.
Frontline reporting on the Amazon and environmental defenders
A defining strand in Watts’s work is his sustained attention to the Amazon and the people who protect land and forests under threat. He is a founder of the Rainforest Journalism Fund and of Sumaúma, an outlet built around Amazon-centred reporting, which underlines his commitment to long-term coverage of rainforest politics and ecology rather than occasional visits. For the Guardian’s “Missing in the Amazon” podcast, he investigates the question that Dom Phillips was pursuing before he was murdered: how the Amazon can be saved, combining narrative reporting with analysis of crime, state power and environmental policy.
Recent Guardian pieces include coverage of people protecting nature and land who establish self-defence units in response to the risk of murder, foregrounding the dangers faced by environmental defenders and the forces arrayed against them. His stories in this area typically braid testimony from Indigenous communities, local activists and officials with examination of logging, agribusiness and criminal economies, showing how decisions far from the forest edge intensify violence and deforestation.
This focus on defenders and their adversaries marks his Amazon reporting out from more generic ecosystem coverage that centres only on trees, carbon and wildlife.
Planetary science, climate politics and long-form storytelling
Watts also writes extensively about planetary science and the intellectual history of environmentalism, giving his reporting a long view that complements his daily coverage. He is the author of books on China’s environmental trajectory and on James Lovelock, and his Hay Festival events and public talks centre on Lovelock’s multiple roles as environmentalist, engineer and inventor.
In Guardian features and interviews, such as his conversation with the scientist Vaclav Smil about growth and its planetary limits, he uses long-form formats to explore the intersection of economics, technology and ecological boundaries rather than focusing only on policy soundbites. His career includes extensive foreign correspondence, covering tsunamis, earthquakes, cyclones, bombings, global summits, world cups and Olympics, as well as interviews with state leaders, which informs his understanding of how environmental crises play out across different societies and political systems.
Biographical and professional profiles describe him as a global environment writer and editor, an author and a founder of environmental journalism initiatives, reinforcing his positioning at the junction of reporting, advocacy for stronger environmental coverage, and public engagement with climate science.
Scope of beat and formats
Watts’s beat spans climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental justice, energy and resource use, with particular depth on East Asia and the Amazon. His Guardian archive shows a mix of news reports, analytical features, Q&A interviews and audio work, indicating that he regularly shifts format to match the complexity of the subject, from breaking developments in emissions data to slower investigations into land conflict. Outside the Guardian his bylines and contributions appear with organisations such as openDemocracy and YaleGlobal, often on themes of environmental politics, energy and globalisation, which broaden his reach beyond daily news into policy and academic-adjacent debates. Across outlets and formats, the distinguishing feature of his journalism is the way he connects scientific concepts and global systems to specific places and people, using clear reporting to show how planetary-scale change is experienced on the ground.
4 more environment journalists.
Abby Wallace
Abby Wallace covers where energy, climate and politics meet, with a focus on how net zero, power markets and extreme weather affect people and institutions. She is an energy and climate reporter at POLITICO, covering U.K. energy policy, climate targets and the transition from fossil fuels. Her subjects include government and opposition debates over net zero, decarbonization, support schemes, infrastructure, public spending and climate adaptation. She also reports on energy companies, household bills, labor standards, supply chains and corporate accountability. Her work connects technical policy choices to jobs, competitiveness, public services and voter sentiment. She uses polling, expert voices and political analysis to examine public attitudes and government response to extreme weather. Before POLITICO, she worked on the companies desk at the Financial Times and the business news desk at Insider. She has also freelanced on politics, business and climate.
Adam Fulton
Adam Fulton is a digital news producer focused on fast-moving global stories where environment, conflict and politics meet. He works on the Guardian’s Australian operation, using rolling live blogs to cover geopolitical crises, climate-linked disasters and wars with clear structure and context. His Middle East coverage, including the Gaza peace plan, tracks tension between political messaging and on-the-ground realities, tying leaders’ statements to military movements, diplomatic reactions and humanitarian reports. His disaster reporting, such as on Nepal–Tibet floods, links rising tolls and missing people to infrastructure damage, rescue strain and cascading environmental threats. His Ukraine war blogs treat resource scarcity, especially water and energy, as strategic factors and track how infrastructure damage shapes the conflict. A former entertainment and arts reporter and senior editor at major Australian newspapers, he applies careful pacing and narrative arcs to collaborative, time-stamped live coverage.
Alec Luhn
Alec Luhn is an environment reporter whose work follows climate change at its extremes, frontiers and human consequences, often reporting directly from places where warming, instability and displacement intersect. He covers climate, conflict and migration, showing how abstract climate trends turn into risks for communities, infrastructure, health and preparedness. He reports for New Scientist on climate breakdown, extreme events, El Niño, limits of models, melting glaciers, warming seas and adaptation to heat, mixing scientific explanation with lived experience. A defining strand of his work is reporting from remote icy and mountainous regions on Arctic sea ice loss, permafrost, polar bears, pollution and fragile ecosystems. He has a long record on conflict and security, including the Skripal poisoning case. His reporting appears in New Scientist and major international outlets, with work across print, digital, audio and television and recognition from climate and journalism awards.
Amy Lyall
Amy Lyall is a regular contributor to The Connexion, and her work stands out for turning French rules, services and the built environment into clear, usable advice for everyday readers. She covers housing, energy use, resident obligations and the practical steps behind things like getting air-conditioning approved for flats. Her beat also includes national and local schemes, insurance and legal conditions for lending a car, mobile network coverage, mosquito-borne diseases, water filters, fruit harvests and emergency drones with defibrillators. She writes news, practical guides and magazine-style features, using plain language to explain technical topics and official systems. She also writes explainers on French words and phrases and occasional culture pieces on unusual sites such as Maison Picassiette.