Craig Welch
Writer tracking climate and more. Mediocre trail runner. Soccer nut. Priors: senior staff writer at National Geographic. Also: Seattle Times, Jackson Hole News. linkedin.com/in/craig-welch/
- Trump has rejected half of all requests from governors for disaster relief. WA Gov. Bob Ferguson: “This is exactly the kind of situation that FEMA would historically support, and they're not doing it, and they're not providing any reason.” By @heyjohnryan.bsky.social www.kuow.org/stories/stat...
- Well this seems potentially consequential. Perhaps. apnews.com/article/braz...
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- Our story following Martha Shaw, 84, as she attempts to piece her life back together after devastating floods destroyed almost everything she owned. www.aarp.org/home-family/...
- Delighted by this @healthjournalism.org acknowledgment for “Washed Away,” my special project about climate impacts of rising seas on seniors and retirees. Receiving an award in a category with @nytimes.com and @vanityfair.com and @calmatters.org is a real honor. 🙏 healthjournalism.org/contest-entry/
- Delighted by this @healthjournalism.org acknowledgment for “Washed Away,” my special project about climate impacts of rising seas on seniors and retirees. Receiving an award in a category with @nytimes.com and @vanityfair.com and @calmatters.org is a real honor. 🙏 healthjournalism.org/contest-entry/
- When my daughter was younger I did a pretty solid job keeping track of all the funny stuff she said. This, from preschool, was among my favorites.
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- Sometimes the desert provides.
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- My friend Chris wrote a beautiful thing about death and chickens that you really should read. From dogs being dogs to the flinging of foul fowl carcasses upon roofs to avoid coyotes and feed “the rapture,” take the few minutes. You won’t regret it. orionmagazine.org/article/the-...
- “Unexpected Meeting,” — Wislawa Szymborska, 1962 (h/t @bronwendickey.bsky.social)
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- Details in this story include a handwritten request for a restraining order from 16 years ago: “He has threatened if I don’t perform sexual activities he will perform sexual activities on minors and he mentions them by name.” Nigel Jaquiss proving once again that he is one hell of a reporter.
- OR GOP chair Jerry Cummings’ ex-wife said the couple met in the Portland area when she was 16 and he was 26, and serving as an associate pastor. “On occasion, he would visit [her] when her parents were out of town and take her to hotels." www.wweek.com/news/2025/04...
- Huh. As a professional writer who *never* uses ChatGPT or AI, but who is a longstanding and committed over-user—some might say abuser—of the em dash … WTF? wapo.st/4co1WvY
- It appears my constant Googling to figure out how best to stay fit enough to keep trail running as my aging body breaks down has finally led me to the inevitable:
- Reposted by Craig WelchThe disparity has grown even further. New federal data shows that the United States now has: • 41,550 journalists • 280,590 public relations specialists For every reporter, there are now about seven PR people. (data via U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
- Everybody is in pain but “it’s worse because it’s so unnecessary,” said mayor of the border town, Blaine, WA. Wounds for Canadians are even deeper, she said. “If or when we ever get to the other side of this, we Americans are going to have a *lot* of hard work to do to rebuild this relationship.”
- Traffic from 🇨🇦 to Washington is down by almost half. Sales at businesses on the town at Washington’s border are down as much as 50%. Unlike during COVID, no assistance is coming; “no one in the U.S. government seems to care.” www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
- Traffic from 🇨🇦 to Washington is down by almost half. Sales at businesses on the town at Washington’s border are down as much as 50%. Unlike during COVID, no assistance is coming; “no one in the U.S. government seems to care.” www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
- My first book was published 15 years ago this week. Unbelievable. Time just keeps spinning, doesn’t it? www.harpercollins.com/products/she...
- Was just texting my wife about how I’m waiting for the phone to ring and that’s why I can’t walk the dog just yet. But my text included a typo that truly sums up the entire world this week: “I can’t right now. I’m waiting on a calm I thought would be coming sooner.”
- Wow. California State University, UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis, UC-San Diego and U of SF are ALL urging foreign-born students, faculty and staff to reconsider international travel because there's no telling whether the Trump administration will allow them to re-enter. www.desertsun.com/story/news/n...
- This is a terrific thread about journalism. The only thing I would add is that for the hundreds, if not thousands, of reporters and editors I've worked with at mainstream print publications over decades this type of care and sensitivity has absolutely been the norm.
- There are now 178,549 EV chargers in California—double the number from just three years ago. That means there are now 48 percent MORE electric vehicle chargers than there are gas pump nozzles statewide, of which there are 120,000. www.energy.ca.gov/news/2025-03... h/t @mitchfriedman.bsky.social
- This 🧵 is super fascinating. How the biggest state in the lower 48 was almost (though not really, maybe) the State of Deseret, in part because the U.S. government feared Brigham Young and the Mormons might form a breakaway country.
- Some of the best and brightest in magazine journalism demand the new leaders of Outside magazine take their names off its masthead. Their letter, and one more—an especially visceral bolt of fury from longtime contributor Hampton Sides. Another amazing publication torn asunder by non-journalists.
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- Just as an aside: If you really want to connect with your teenager, be the parent who constantly reminds them that, yes, they do indeed have to do their physical therapy yet again today, ideally several times. They love that.
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- Gutting foreign aid has: Frozen emergency response in 30 nations; left dangerous pathogens unsecured; halted airport inspections for mpox/Ebola/others as nasty viruses smolder in Uganda and DRC sees worst mpox outbreak; fired *100,000+* Africans who warn of outbreaks www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/h...
- Story by @samahill.bsky.social
- The Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park, 3 hrs from my house, has been closed since late December. Why? The road to it washed out and the county can't fix it without federal $, and no money has come. (In the past, the funding, and repairs, took mere few weeks.) www.sfgate.com/national-par...
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- French university is recruiting laid off climate scientists.
- The Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park, 3 hrs from my house, has been closed since late December. Why? The road to it washed out and the county can't fix it without federal $, and no money has come. (In the past, the funding, and repairs, took mere few weeks.) www.sfgate.com/national-par...
- To be clear: Nothing about this is unusual for people at most large newspapers and magazines.
- Saw someone do this today and realized it might be useful. (I keep this on my desktop for talks with students.) For those who don't trust legacy media: Here are the reporting steps I took to write just the opening paragraph of a single National Geographic story. (Typical for big stories.) 1/2
- Reposted by Craig WelchNEW: The Minerva Research Initiative, established by the Pentagon to fund social science relevant to national security, is being gutted. Dozens of researchers studying threats from extremist groups, misinformation or climate change have received notices that their grants are being terminated. 🧪
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- FROM TODAY. Worth the 3 minutes. www.nytimes.com/video/us/pol...
- A NOAA worker who helped save a critically endangered pod of killer whales from an oil spill in Washington State’s Puget Sound—earning “employee of the year” honors for her efforts—opened her work email while on vacation and learned she’d been fired by DOGE. www.kuow.org/stories/noaa...
- Reposted by Craig WelchOne of the people fired from NOAA today is the director of the Ocean Acidification Program. That program also leads the U.S. government's effort on marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR). The destruction of American science is incomprehensible.
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- “People will die, but we will never know because even the programs to count the dead are cut.” Marco Rubio said last month that programs involving “life-saving humanitarian assistance” would be spared from Trump’s across-the-board foreign aid layoffs. No more. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/h...
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- Second time in a week that Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski—a longtime Republican, the daughter of a GOP governor—had gently warned her GOP senate colleagues that it’s time they stand up to Trump. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
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- I share this story a few times a year because I love it, and because sometimes we need the reminder that there is beauty and good in the world.
