Lauren Sommer
Lauren Sommer covers climate change for NPR's Science Desk, from the scientists on the front lines of documenting the warming climate to the way those changes are reshaping communities and ecosystems around the world.
Prior to joining NPR, Sommer spent more than a decade covering climate and environment for KQED Public Radio in San Francisco. During her time there, she delved into the impacts of California's historic drought during dry years and reported on destructive floods during wet years, and covered how communities responded to record-breaking wildfires.
Sommer has also examined California's ambitious effort to cut carbon emissions across its economy and investigated the legacy of its oil industry. On the lighter side, she ran from charging elephant seals and searched for frogs in Sierra Nevada lakes.
She was also host of KQED's macrophotography nature series Deep Look, which searched for universal truths in tiny organisms like black-widow spiders and parasites. Sommer has received a national Edward R. Murrow for use of sound, as well as awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Based at NPR's San Francisco bureau, Sommer grew up in the West, minus a stint on the East Coast to attend Cornell University.
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The world's largest trees are adapted to wildfires. But with fires getting more extreme, scientists warn that giant sequoias are running out of time. -
Burning fossil fuels must decline almost immediately, a new study finds, for the planet to avoid more extreme floods, droughts and heat waves. -
With the global pandemic still in the spotlight, more than 200 leading health journals say climate change is an even more urgent threat. -
Another destructive fire season has Western states searching for ways to prevent it. The Southeast just might have the answers: setting controlled fires before the wildfires come. -
Coastal cities need billions of dollars to build defenses against sea level rise. Tensions are rising over where that funding will come from: taxpayers or private companies with waterfront property?
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Hotter oceans are putting coral reefs in peril worldwide. Scientists are warning that to save them, heat-trapping emissions must fall, and reefs will need more protection and restoration. -
Kelp forests along Northern California have almost vanished. Divers and scientists are racing to stop purple sea urchins from taking over critical habitat.
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Climate change is hitting the oceans hard, both warming and acidifying the water. Ocean scientists are hoping the Biden Administration dives in quickly to address it. -
A century ago, the shipping industry recorded the daily ebb and flow of tides. Now, those records are becoming crucial for forecasting how fast sea levels are rising in a warming climate. -
President Biden has set his sights on more than 100 Trump administration environmental rollbacks as well as plans to rejoin the international climate accord.
