Chico Harlan Joins Climate

The best global climate reporting doesn't always focus on diplomats and international treaties. Chico Harlan knows this well.

He has detailed how camels were replacing cows and changing culture after drought in the Horn of Africa. He has revealed how Iceland was preparing for the collapse of an ocean current that could trigger a new ice age in Northern Europe. And he has documented how cookstoves for villagers living in poverty that were touted as beneficial for emissions and health were actually doing more harm than good.

Chico, an experienced and versatile journalist who has reported from 50 countries, is bringing his considerable talents to the Climate desk at The New York Times, becoming our next global climate reporter.

Chico comes to us from The Washington Post, where he spent 18 years, much of it on the foreign staff, but also with stints as a sportswriter, economics reporter and national enterprise writer .

He spent four years as the East Asia bureau chief, focusing on Japan and the Korean Peninsula. He was awarded the Madeline Dane Ross Award from the Overseas Press Club for his coverage of the 2011 triple disaster of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan.

Chico moved to Europe in 2018 as the Rome bureau chief for The Post, where he covered migration, the Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis and the early days of the Covid pandemic as it raged through Italy.

He became The Post's first global climate reporter in 2023 and in that role he has traveled the world to deliver beautifully rendered tales of life on a planet where a changing climate is affecting people, communities and governments.

An elegant writer, Chico has twice been a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award, once for feature writing and again for beat reporting.

Our colleague Jason Horowitz got to know Chico's work when Jason was in Rome for The Times. Jason quickly became an admirer and said he "more than once begrudged him for a story I wish I had written."

A Pittsburgh native, Chico worked at The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Daily Telegraph in Sydney. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. He will continue to be based in Rome and will start in late April.

Please join us in welcoming him.

- Lyndsey and Jesse