My Favorite Climate Stories of 2025
This edition is available to all. Happy Holidays! Subscribe for just $35 a year — a discount of the usual $50 ahead of the new year.
I enjoy the way, as a reader, I am informed of the writer’s surroundings, and a tone is set as an opening. The words always leave a sense of empathy for many communities affected by injustice. The work tells the story of the ongoing journey of a passionate journalist.
LISTENING: to my 2025 Possibilities playlist coming to you soon!
FEELING: excited to decorate my christmas tree tonight
SEEING: way too many tabs in my browser
I write for a living — but I also read. My job requires that I stay informed, not only about the news but about groundbreaking ways of doing journalism. I seek inspiration from my peers. The best artists and creators do.
I share those stories I admire every week in my Currently Reading section below. Only paid subscribers get to see those. (Now's a great time to become one: I'm offering annual subscriptions for a reduced price of $35.)
I looked through every single newsletter I published this year to pull the articles I loved most. Some have stuck with me — because of the prose, the analysis, or the urgency in the reporting.
I could write about the news this week, but my brain isn't following the news much this time of year. I can barely do the basic things I need to do during my work days. Sorry! Bloomberg's annual Jealousy List inspired this edition, so check out their list, too!
If you're interested in my favorite newsletter editions, I've bookmarked the ones I liked best here: 04.17.25, 06.12.25, 07.17.25, 09.18.25, and 10.02.25.
Anyway, back to other people's work I enjoyed reading this year. This list is in order of when these 11 stories were published. And please use this tool if you get hit with a paywall and can't afford a subscription. 🌀
Lessons for the End of the World
| The New Yorker |
by Hanif Abdurraqib
Fans of Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" will appreciate the parallels Abdurraqib makes between the series and the realities on the ground in Los Angeles after wildfires scorched parts of the city nearly a year ago.
The women who made America’s microchips and the children who paid for it
| The Verge |
by Justine Calma
Calma always has her pulse on the environmental injustices and harms of the tech industry. Everyone needs to understand the human cost of our tech obsessions. These women and their children deserved better.
Tattoo | Longreads
by Aaron Rabinowitz
As much as the right weaponizes Palestinian support as antisemitism, actual harm to Jewish people is on the rise. Palestinians and their allies aren't the cause. Rabinowitz writes hauntingly about the generations of Jewish trauma and the legacy his ancestors left behind.
Utah Farmers Signed Up for Federally Funded Therapy. Then the Money Stopped.
| ProPublica/The Salt Lake Tribune |
by Jessica Schreifels
If you know me, you know I'm passionate about mental health issues. This deep dive exposed the positive impacts that occur when a government invests in the well-being of essential workers — and the cascading effects when that support ends.
An Indigenous Theory of Water: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson on Rivers as Teachers
| Literary Hub |
by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
I absolutely adore a poetic piece of prose. I become giddy when I read nonfiction that has the melody and flow of a poem. Simpson manages to break down something uber scientific — a river — and make it feel alive. Indeed, water is just that, per her people's worldview. More science stories told through Indigenous lenses, please!
The First Planned Migration of an Entire Country Is Underway
| WIRED |
by Fernanda González
We can't stop talking about climate change as some future event. It's here, now. This story highlights just how urgently the crisis has arrived. An entire country is moving as a result. Don't skip this one.
A Message to Alligator Alcatraz Detainees from A Guantánamo Survivor
| Forever Wars |
by Mansoor Adayfi
Some of the best essays are written by people on the frontlines. As we interrogate the growing connections between detention and environment, we must listen to the people who know these hellscapes best. Adayfi survived Guantanamo. He knows what's at stake for the people who remain at Alligator Alcatraz.
AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring
| Bloomberg Technology |
by Josh Saul, Leonardo Nicoletti, Demetrios Pogkas, Dina Bass, and Naureen Malik
We can't stop talking about climate change as some future event. It's here, now. This story highlights just how urgently the crisis has arrived. An entire country is moving as a result. Don't skip this one.
ICE detainees face greater risk from extreme heat than most prisoners
| Washington Post |
by Amudalat Ajasa and Daniel Wolfe
I was glad to see journalists out there looking at the violent ways extreme weather is disproportionately harming those in detention. This story has everything that makes the Post a powerful publisher despite its issues. There are graphics, original data analysis, interactive maps, and experts who raise the stakes.
A Storm Hit Alaska. Now, a Native Community Is Racing to Save Its History.
| New York Times |
by Sachi Kitajima Mulkey
Climate change risks erasing entire cultural histories of people. In Alaska, a community's story highlights the urgency of safely storing artifacts and treasures. This isn't the first region of the world to feel these impacts, and it won't be the last.
US firefighter detained on the job speaks out after deportation: ‘I feel betrayed’
| The Guardian |
by Sam Levin
Every day, people are getting snatched up from their homes and worksites. The federal government is behind these attacks. Levin's reporting sheds light on how even the folks on the frontlines of keeping people safe from climate calamity are feeling the claws of ICE under President Donald Trump. We should be ashamed.
Rest in Power
While we can't say for certain that climate change led to these specific weather events (we need attribution studies for that), we do know that the Earth's rising temperatures are already creating more frequent and/or stronger disasters like these.
I'm not finding anything new this week. Drop a link in the comments if I missed something.
Currently Reading
For my readers following Israel's genocide in Gaza, Kate McMahon has an interesting story for The New Arab about how the country's settler movement is spiraling out of control.
Across the globe, Indigenous nations are facing tensions over encroaching industries. The Washington Post has a team that used photos and narrative to highlight how one sacred Apache tradition may be lost with an upcoming copper mine in Arizona.
In Mother Jones, Molly Taft has a big story on the people monitoring Texas's abandoned oil and gas wells.
Data centers are exacerbating a water pollution problem in Oregon. Sean Patrick Cooper has the story for Rolling Stone: "One man about 60 years old had his voice box taken out because of a cancer that only smokers get, but that guy hadn’t smoked a day of his life."
Collage
I'll be sharing the year's climate justice wins next week. Please drop any you've seen if you can! I always miss some. xx
- Yessenia
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