
Abrahm Lustgarten
I report on climate change and how people, companies and governments are adapting to it.
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I’m discreet and handle confidential communications and sources with extreme care.
What I Cover
I investigate the social and political consequences of our rapidly warming environment, focusing on how money and power influence policy. My reporting is science driven, and I embrace nuance and complexity, telling the stories that are most difficult to tell.
My Background
I have been reporting on environmental harm and the warming planet for ProPublica since its inception in 2008 and before that as a writer covering the global oil industry at Fortune. I’ve reported from around the world, including Iran, Russia, Indonesia and China. Throughout, my work has focused on the social and economic consequences of warming and the conflicting business interests that often drive them.
My most recent reporting has focused on global migration, finance and conflict associated with climate change. In 2024, I wrote about how climate pressures are driving far-right extremism and violence in the United States, especially around fears of immigration. In 2022, I investigated how the International Monetary Fund and global banks have paralyzed small climate-vulnerable nations with debt that makes it impossible for them to address their own climate risks. That work followed a three-part 2020 investigation into the potential displacement of billions of people and global climate-driven migration, both outside and inside the United States, which is also the subject of my third book, called “On The Move.”
This work — beginning with my early investigation into fracking in 2008 — has been recognized with honors, including a George Polk Award; a Scripps Howard Award; the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s communications award; and consecutive Whitman Bassow prizes from the Overseas Press Club. My 2015 series about water scarcity in the American West, “Killing the Colorado,” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
New York City Calls for Drilling Ban in Watershed, Rejects State Study
ew York City officials have called for a ban on natural gas drilling within the city’s 2,000-square-mile upstate watershed and urged Albany to withdraw its controversial draft environmental review for drilling across the state.
by Joaquin Sapien, Abrahm Lustgarten and Christopher Flavelle,
Underused Drilling Practices Could Avoid Pollution
Innovative industry "best practices" that may make it easier to exploit U.S. gas reserves with less water and air pollution are used inconsistently across the 31 states where natural gas is drilled. Rarely required by state or federal regulations, they are usually put in place only when drilling companies are forced to by cost or regulatory concerns.
Pa. Residents Sue Gas Driller for Contamination, Health Concerns
A federal suit by residents of Dimock, Pa., say Cabot Oil and Gas contaminated their water wells and sickened many of them. They seek a trust fund for medical costs and the end of drilling in the Marcellus Shale near their town.