Something unexpected lies deep beneath California’s Mojave Desert: an enormous amount of water. But whether the state should draw from this untapped ancient resource is a matter of intense debate, Brett Simpson wrote last year: theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

Covering the Arctic as a climate writer has (perhaps inevitably) led me to write about security.
The high North is Russia's most militarized zone. Soon, Arctic NATO states will outnumber Russia 7:1. In the world's fastest changing region, tensions are rising with temperatures.

The war in Ukraine pushed Germany, which was falling behind on renewable energy goals, to enact some ambitious new policies. Some of those changes are going well, but they face headwinds elsewhere.

By Brett Simpson

theworld.org/stories/2023-0…

Russia’s exclusion from the Arctic Council seemed an appropriate response to its war of aggression but the group has fractured along territorial lines, awaiting a return to a status quo that seems increasingly impossible.

By #IWMFgrantee Brett Simpson: foreignpolicy.com/2023/05/31/arc…

Russia’s exclusion from the Arctic Council seemed an appropriate response to its invasion of Ukraine, but it may have made the group obsolete, writes Brett Simpson.

buff.ly/3N2amya

In my latest analysis for Foreign Policy: what does Russia's war of aggression mean for the future circumpolar cooperation?

Abundant thanks to International Women's Media Foundation and Heinrich Böll Foundation Washington, DC for the support!

foreignpolicy.com/2023/05/31/arc…

Norway is laying the groundwork to become a renewable energy superpower. But one major obstacle still stands in its way: ordinary Norwegians, writes Brett Simpson. buff.ly/3DtVhQy

Last year, Norway won big off of the European energy crisis. Now this oil-rich nation is laying the groundwork to become a renewable energy superpower.

In my latest for Foreign Policy: Nordic energy opportunism and a few contradictions.

Terrific piece by former Berkeley student Brett Simpson

Something unexpected lies deep beneath California’s Mojave Desert: an enormous amount of water. But whether the state should draw from this untapped ancient resource is a matter of intense debate, writes Brett Simpson: on.theatln.tc/xF01MDs

Fossil water, or paleowater, is the largest freshwater resource on the planet. But it's buried deep—for most of human history, most didn't know it was there.

CA's Mojave hides a massive supply from the last Ice Age. So should we tap it?

My latest (& biggest) for The Atlantic:

An area of sea ice bigger than Texas is 'missing' around Antarctica, and that has consequences. The steady global decline of sea is a clear signal of the #ClimateEmergency
insideclimatenews.org/news/06012023/…

As the year comes to a close, I am feeling especially grateful to Pulitzer Center. In 2021, they helped get me to the Norwegian Arctic. In 2022, they were the first to support reporting on the herring harvest in Sitka, AK, long before the story had a home: thenation.com/article/enviro…

The soldiers we lost in the 18 years after 9/11: 7,014.

The people not in cars killed by people driving cars in the US in the same timeframe: 112,519.

Here is a story about a boy on a bike. It shouldn't have been a sad story but it is. (Bicycling Magazine)

bicycling.com/culture/a41119…

“This isn’t just food. It’s our culture; it’s our spirit.'

2021 HRC fellow and Berkeley Journalism graduate Brett Simpson reports how Alaska's indigenous Tlingit people are fighting to protect the Pacific herring:

Can a commercial fishery be managed sustainably in a capitalist economy? The state of Alaska says it’s doing just that with a Pacific herring fishery. But the Sitka Tribe of Alaska begs to differ. Brett Simpson goes deep. (In partnership with The Food & Environment Reporting Network) thenation.com/article/enviro…

Alaska’s herring row is central to Tlingit culture and to sustainable ecosystems. Overfishing threatens both. The Food & Environment Reporting Network latest with The Nation, by Brett Simpson photos by Nathaniel WIlder thefern.org/2022/08/alaska…

“This isn’t just food. It’s our culture; it’s our spirit,” says K’asheechtlaa “Louise” Brady. “This is the taste of what it means to be Tlingit.”

I feel lucky that I got to taste herring eggs for myself—and witness their 10,000 year old harvest— for The Nation and The Food & Environment Reporting Network.

Once the waters off the West Coast came alive each spring with vast schools of herring. But those days are now gone. In this gorgeous piece, Brett Simpson describes how the Sitka tribe of Alaska is trying to save what remains. via The Nation & The Food & Environment Reporting Network thenation.com/article/enviro…

The Tlingit say that their ancient herring culture is under threat. Today, their subsistence harvest accounts for less than 1 percent of the herring roe taken in Sitka. Story by Brett Simpson for FERN & The Nation.

Read more here: thefern.org/2022/08/alaska…