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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Climate change is causing ice caps and glaciers to disappear. Reporters from NPR's Climate Desk talk about their stories connecting the dots between melting ice and our everyday lives.
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As Western wildfires get more destructive, scientists are finding a far-off connection to shrinking ice on the Arctic Ocean.
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Melting glaciers and ice sheets are far from where most people live. But the impacts stretch across the planet. See if you can guess how. -
Climate change is pushing already endangered right whales to the brink. Scientists say the oceans will fundamentally shift as the world's ice melts. -
The ice that covers the Arctic Ocean is shrinking as the climate gets hotter. Scientists are finding it could be linked to weather that's helping fuel disasters. -
The massive ice sheet on Greenland is shrinking as the climate gets hotter, pouring fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean. That could be setting off a chain reaction that's altering ocean ecosystems. -
The world's massive ice sheets and glaciers are melting as climate change raises temperatures. Scientists warn that disappearing ice is having surprising and far-reaching effects.
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A new study finds deforestation reduces rainfall in tropical rainforests, which has grave consequences for agriculture, drought and climate resilience. -
The world's tropical rainforests are still getting hit hard by deforestation. Now, scientists are finding that's having an expected impact: causing droughts.
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California has been deluged by storms this winter, but fixing the state's severe drought will take more than rain. The state had deeper problems in how it uses water.
