Sven Batke
Sven Batke is a plant-focused environmental writer whose work for The Conversation examines how drought and climate pressures are putting UK crop harvests and the food supply at risk.
He writes from an academic perspective, with a research background in crop science, ecology, taxonomy, climate change and other plant-related fields, alongside a senior role in research and knowledge exchange.
UK drought and collapsing harvests
In his coverage of UK drought, Batke focuses on how extended dry conditions and limited water availability threaten the stability of cereal and other crop harvests, framing the situation as a “severe risk of collapse.”
He treats harvest failure as a systemic environmental issue rather than a passing weather event, connecting plant stress and agronomic pressures to the viability of national harvests.
His drought writing emphasises underlying mechanisms and sustained pressure on crops, showing how repeated dry seasons can push harvests beyond normal variability into outright failure.
Food supply fragility and national risk
Batke also writes about the fragility of the UK’s food supply, arguing that mounting strains on domestic production make food security a national priority.
In this work he links environmental shocks such as drought with vulnerabilities in food systems and policy, explaining how stress in the fields can translate into wider risks for consumers and institutions.
This focus on food systems and national resilience distinguishes his coverage from environment reporting that stops at describing weather impacts or farm-level losses, positioning food security as a core outcome of climate and crop dynamics.
Plant science, ecology and climate change
Batke’s writing is shaped by research interests that span crop science, ecology, taxonomy, climate change and plant biology, giving his pieces a specialist plant-science lens.
He frames environmental stories around how plants respond to stress, using ecological and taxonomic perspectives to clarify why some species and cropping systems are more vulnerable than others.
Because he writes from a plant-focused research standpoint, his articles tend to explain the biological and systems-level reasons behind environmental news, rather than presenting events in isolation.
Academic analysis for The Conversation
Batke uses The Conversation’s explanatory format to translate academic insight into accessible analysis of current environmental risks, connecting research findings with developments in climate and agriculture.
His pieces are structured around clear causal explanations and practical implications, providing context that situates immediate drought and harvest issues within ongoing scientific and policy debates.
4 more environment journalists.
Adelaide Lang
Adelaide Lang combines climate reporting with courtroom and Indigenous-focused journalism. She reports for The Daily Telegraph, with work also appearing in The Canberra Times, and contributes guest pieces to National Indigenous Times. Her environment coverage focuses on climate-threatened islands, community resilience and how policy decisions affect people facing direct environmental risks. She follows local campaigns, adaptation efforts and political pressure while keeping the human effects clear. Lang also covers court proceedings involving public officials, including the trial of State MP Gareth Ward over historical sexual and indecent assault charges. Her reporting examines how allegations are tested in court and how the justice system handles accusations against people in power. With more than five years in digital media and courtroom reporting, she writes clear, factual accounts of events, legal processes and their consequences.
Ashleigh McMillan
Ashleigh McMillan is a breaking news reporter at The Age. She stands out for covering the environment through public events, infrastructure and everyday city life. Her reporting tracks how protests, policy decisions and sudden incidents change routines, public safety and the spaces people move through. She covers fast-moving stories across Victoria, with a focus on community tension, access and the lived effects of official decisions. Her work includes protests and public demonstrations, crime and courts, transport and ticketing changes, traffic experiments, weather, and environmental conditions in the city. She reports on what people see and feel on the ground, with attention to victims, commuters, residents and the practical consequences of legal and infrastructure decisions.
Bareket Falk
Bareket Falk uses environmental stories to show how growing bodies handle physical stress, especially heat, during exercise. She is a pediatric exercise physiologist and kinesiology professor whose work focuses on how children, adolescents and adults respond to activity across growth and development. She writes evidence-led explainers for The Conversation that test assumptions about children’s vulnerability and turn decades of exercise science into clear, practical guidance. Her core piece looks at how children and adults cope with extreme heat, walking through basic thermoregulation and challenging the idea that children are automatically more fragile. Her journalism draws directly on research into blood flow, sweating, body size and growth, keeping technical detail tight and translating findings into concrete behaviours such as pacing activity, seeking shade and hydration. She is interested in how physical activity interacts with maturation, body composition and recovery, and uses data to check myths about kids’ risk.
Bec Lorrimer
Bec Lorrimer is a visual journalist and picture editor who tells environment stories through photography and careful image selection at the Guardian. She works at the intersection of climate coverage and visual editing, using picture-led formats to show how global heating and other environmental pressures play out in everyday life. Her environment beat centres on picture galleries that track the lived experience of climate extremes, including record high temperatures in South Korea, with in pictures sequences that foreground the scale of global heating over text-led analysis. She also contributes to monthly roundups of the strongest photos and human-centred features such as a nursing home story, focusing on people and places under pressure. As a global visual editor and assistant picture editor on international fronts, she selects images across environment, politics, culture and general news, drawing on her background as a photographer, video director and photo producer.