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Our Reporter on the Shape-Shifting Maldives
Low-lying tropical island nations were expected to be early victims of rising seas. But research tells a surprising story.
By Raymond Zhong, Jason Gulley, Karen Hanley and Alexandra Ostasiewicz
I cover a swath of topics relating to the natural world and humanity’s relationship with it — extreme weather, water, heat, ice, rocks, fire — usually from the perspective of the scientists who study these things. I often write about new research in earth and environmental sciences and the people who conduct it. If you’re one of these people, I’d love to hear from you. What are you working on? What excites you? And can I tag along?
I started at The Times in 2017 as a reporter covering business and technology in China. I was based in Beijing until the Chinese government expelled me and several other American journalists in 2020, at which point I moved to Taipei, Taiwan.
I was part of the Times team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in public service for an article that revealed how the Chinese authorities censored and controlled online information about Covid-19 during the early stages of the pandemic.
Before joining The Times, I was a reporter based in New Delhi for The Wall Street Journal. I grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and studied economics and applied math at Princeton.
Like all Times journalists, I’m committed to upholding the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. This means, among other things, that I don’t accept gifts or money from the people I write about, nor do I participate in politics or make political donations. I protect sources who need to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, and give everyone a chance to comment.
Email: [email protected]
X: @zhonggg
LinkedIn: Raymond Zhong
Anonymous tips: nytimes.com/tips
Low-lying tropical island nations were expected to be early victims of rising seas. But research tells a surprising story.
By Raymond Zhong, Jason Gulley, Karen Hanley and Alexandra Ostasiewicz
As the planet warms, atoll nations like the Maldives seemed doomed to shrink. Scientists have begun to tell a surprising new story.
By Raymond Zhong
Low-lying tropical island nations were expected to be early victims of rising seas. But research tells a surprising story: Many islands are stable. Some have even grown.
By Raymond Zhong and Jason Gulley
Researchers have found that longer-lasting heat waves can be deadlier and can pose unique health risks.
By Raymond Zhong
His comments came as the world body’s weather agency said it expected Earth to soon surpass the record high temperatures experienced in 2023.
By Raymond Zhong
The country’s south received three months’ rain in two weeks. Global warming has made such deluges twice as likely as before, scientists said.
By Raymond Zhong and Manuela Andreoni
Since last May, the average person experienced 26 more days of abnormal warmth than they would have without global warming, a new analysis found.
By Raymond Zhong
Scientists say storms like those that battered Houston could become more intense as the planet warms, though pinning down trends is still challenging.
By Raymond Zhong
Scientists in the United States are reporting “unprecedented patterns” of surface warming, an ominous sign for coral.
By Catrin Einhorn
Is the world’s climate close to a tipping point?
By Katrin Bennhold, David Gelles, Raymond Zhong, Carlos Prieto, Michael Simon Johnson, Alex Stern, Diana Nguyen, Devon Taylor, Rowan Niemisto, Marion Lozano, Dan Powell and Alyssa Moxley
Three long-running satellites will soon be switched off, forcing scientists to figure out how to adjust their views of our changing planet.
By Raymond Zhong
The low water levels that choked cargo traffic were more closely tied to the natural climate cycle than to human-caused warming, a team of scientists has concluded.
By Raymond Zhong
Heavy rains have been pounding parts of East Africa for weeks, and the flooding has killed hundreds of people in recent days.
By Mohamed Ahmed and Emma Bubola
An international team of researchers found that heavy rains had intensified in the region, though they couldn’t say for sure how much climate change was responsible.
By Raymond Zhong
The field’s governing body ratified a vote by scientists on the contentious issue, ending a long effort to update the timeline of Earth’s history.
By Raymond Zhong
Many of our imprints on nature will be preserved in the rocks, scientists say, even if this time isn’t yet recognized as a new geologic epoch.
By Raymond Zhong
A panel of experts voted down a proposal to officially declare the start of a new interval of geologic time, one defined by humanity’s changes to the planet.
By Raymond Zhong
The crop-devouring pests love arid conditions and the occasional downpour. Global warming is offering more of both.
By Raymond Zhong
A new study weighed a range of threats and variables in an effort to map out where the rainforest is most vulnerable.
By Manuela Andreoni
Recent temperature rises have come uncomfortably close to a key benchmark: 1.5 degrees Celsius. It’s a bad sign for the world’s climate goals, but it’s not game over. Not yet.
By Raymond Zhong
On the heels of Earth’s warmest year, January was the eighth month in a row in which global temperatures blew past previous records.
By Raymond Zhong and Elena Shao
Two disasters, far apart, show how a dangerous climate cocktail can devastate places known for mild weather.
By Somini Sengupta
Research on a long-lived but rarely seen species in the Caribbean is helping scientists piece together a revised history of climate change.
By Raymond Zhong
The likelihood is high of a storm system bringing record rainfall, significant flooding and several feet of snow to portions of California.
By Judson Jones
The health effects of the two climate threats are compounded when they occur in tandem, according to research focused on California.
By Raymond Zhong
A video circulating on social media showed water rushing into a room at U.S. Army Garrison Kwajalein Atoll as a series of unexpected waves surged across the low-lying island of Roi-Namur.
By Amanda Holpuch
The extreme cold has been particularly rough for regions not used to prolonged periods of ice and wind chills, including Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas.
By Anna Betts and Jamie McGee
Farms drained part of the Merced for months. Officials didn’t find out until after the fact, raising questions about the state’s ability to manage supplies during droughts.
By Raymond Zhong
This was featured in live coverage.
By Raymond Zhong
Month after month global temperatures didn’t just break records, they surpassed them by far. This year could be even warmer.
By Raymond Zhong and Keith Collins
Scientists are already busy trying to understand whether 2023’s off-the-charts heat is a sign that global warming is accelerating.
By Raymond Zhong
TV shows, movies, books, art exhibits and pop music about our rapidly warming planet.
By David Gelles and Manuela Andreoni
This was featured in live coverage.
By Raymond Zhong
As the world warms, the state is re-examining claims to its water that have gone unchallenged for generations.
By Raymond Zhong and Mira Rojanasakul
A major government assessment lays out both the far-reaching perils of global warming and the cost-effective fixes that are available today.
By Raymond Zhong
Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius would be harder than ever, new calculations show, but less ambitious targets are still in reach.
By Raymond Zhong
It may be too late to halt the decline of the West Antarctic ice shelves, a study found, but climate action could still forestall the gravest sea level rise.
By Raymond Zhong
Officials will weigh whether to directly intervene, for the first time in state history, to stop aquifers from being wrung dry in the Central Valley.
By Raymond Zhong
Naming and shaming the countries and industries he sees as bad actors.
By David Gelles
Rapid development along coasts and rivers has increased flood exposure worldwide, particularly in South and East Asia, a study found.
By Raymond Zhong
In a catastrophe recalling Hurricane Katrina, a heavy storm burst through dams to unleash their waters on the city of Derna, sweeping away entire neighborhoods.
By Mohammed Abdusamee, Vivian Nereim and Isabella Kwai
Officials say the future of wildfire detection is cameras. But in northwest Montana, solitary humans on mountaintops still do more than machines alone can offer.
By Raymond Zhong and Mark Felix
Rising temperatures will increase irrigation needs, causing the country’s farmers to drain aquifers at triple the present rate, a new study estimated.
By Raymond Zhong
Warm water can fuel tropical storms and hurricanes. This year has been record-breaking for ocean heat.
By Raymond Zhong
Climate change has made hot, dry and windy conditions like those that fueled this year’s blazes at least twice as common as they would otherwise be.
By Raymond Zhong
This was featured in live coverage.
By Raymond Zhong
After winter storms broke rain and snow records, flash floods in Southern California would mark another milestone for the drought-weary state.
By Raymond Zhong
This was featured in live coverage.
By Raymond Zhong
July is on track to break all records for any month, scientists say, as the planet enters an extended period of exceptional warmth.
By Raymond Zhong
The system of ocean currents that regulates the climate for a swath of the planet could collapse sooner than expected, a new analysis found.
By Raymond Zhong
Across North America, Europe and Asia, hundreds of millions of people endured blistering conditions. The U.S. special envoy for climate change called it “a threat to all of humankind.”
By Alan Yuhas
This was featured in live coverage.
By Shawn Hubler and Raymond Zhong
A scientific panel has picked Crawford Lake, Ontario, to represent the Anthropocene, a proposed, and hotly contested, new chapter in geologic time.
By Raymond Zhong
Basements and train tunnels constantly leak heat, causing the land to sink and straining building foundations. Scientists call it “underground climate change.”
By Raymond Zhong and Jamie Kelter Davis
Around the United States, dangerous floods, heat and storms are happening more frequently.
By David Gelles
This was featured in live coverage.
By Raymond Zhong
This was featured in live coverage.
By Elena Shao and Raymond Zhong
Across the nation’s middle, unhealthy air from Canadian wildfires sent summer campers home and left residents coughing, and asking when this would end.
By Julie Bosman
Human-caused climate change is making high temperatures more common and intensifying the dryness that fuels catastrophic wildfires.
By Raymond Zhong and Delger Erdenesanaa
Scientists knew the planet’s centerline could move. But it took a sharp turn sometime around the start of the 2000s.
By Raymond Zhong
In some of the nation’s most populous areas, hazardous storms can dump significantly more water than previously believed, new calculations show.
By Raymond Zhong
Record global warmth this month could portend a summer of extreme weather.
By Elena Shao and Raymond Zhong
This was featured in live coverage.
By Raymond Zhong
A rafting trip yields insights about a national treasure that seems permanent but is always being changed, lately by humans.
By Raymond Zhong
In a new study, scientists found that the climate milestone could come about a decade sooner than anticipated, even if planet-warming emissions are gradually reduced.
By Raymond Zhong
Last week, it felt more like July or August in Spain, Portugal and North Africa, and global warming was most likely to blame, scientists say.
By Raymond Zhong
The findings starkly show the misery that the burning of fossil fuels, mostly by rich countries, inflicts on societies that emit almost nothing by comparison.
By Raymond Zhong
It’s the regions of the world that haven’t yet experienced an off-the-charts heat wave that we should worry about, a new scientific study argues.
By Raymond Zhong
Less extreme spring temperatures could mean gradual snowmelt and lower flood risks, according to experts. “The picture is relatively optimistic,” one said.
By Raymond Zhong
When rains fail unexpectedly, higher temperatures can more rapidly parch the ground, to devastating effect.
By Raymond Zhong
Sensors on low-flying planes can measure mountaintop snow with great precision, helping forecasters predict what will happen as it melts.
By Raymond Zhong and Erin Schaff
The severe weather system spawned numerous tornadoes that killed dozens of people, injuring scores. It also created heavy snow in the North and fueled wildfires in Oklahoma.
By Luke Vander Ploeg, Cindy Wolff, Jesus Jiménez and Dan Simmons
This was featured in live coverage.
By Winston Choi-Schagrin and Raymond Zhong
Atmospheric rivers, named for their long, narrow shape and the prodigious amount of water they carry, are a type of storm that has a huge influence on California’s weather.
By Raymond Zhong
A breakdown of what’s known, and what’s not, about the incident and its aftermath.
By Jacey Fortin
Torrential rains could have helped to replenish depleted aquifers, but some say state bureaucracy, designed to distribute water fairly, has stood in the way.
By Raymond Zhong
The train was carrying industrial materials used in plastics, paint thinners and other products, according to information provided to the federal government.
By Raymond Zhong
Experts say more work could be needed to determine the consequences after a release of toxic chemicals from a Feb. 3 train crash.
By Raymond Zhong and Catrin Einhorn
Ever since an eruption in Hawaii halted a long-running record of carbon dioxide, scientists have found ways to carry on — atop a neighboring volcano.
By Raymond Zhong and Erin Schaff
Rain and snowfall this season are above average, but the state has seen some wild weather in past years.
By Raymond Zhong and Mira Rojanasakul