Sarah Kaplan

Washington, D.C.

Climate and science reporter

Education: Georgetown University, B.S. in International Culture and Politics

Sarah Kaplan is a climate reporter covering humanity's response to a warming world. She previously reported on Earth science and the universe.
Latest from Sarah Kaplan

Earth just sweltered through the hottest summer in recorded history

Amid an onslaught of lethal heat, surging disease and record-breaking storms, global temperatures this summer climbed to the highest levels on record, according to Europe’s top climate agency.

September 5, 2024
Spectators try to cool off with water misters moments after the women's BMX freestyle park final at the Paris Olympics on July 31.

The hidden life of seeds

There is a secret landscape beneath every field of wildflowers. A place inhabited by beings just as varied and beautiful as the blossoms above. This is the world of seeds.

August 27, 2024

More Americans are moving into flood and fire hot spots

Americans disproportionately move to fire- and flood-prone counties, but high insurance costs and climate change awareness may be shifting migration trends, per new data.

August 5, 2024
A downed tree in Taylor County, Fla., after Hurricane Idalia passed through in 2023. (Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post)

4 hottest days ever observed raise fears of a planet nearing ‘tipping points’

This week marked the apex of an unprecedented hot streak that toppled records and left communities and ecosystems reeling.

July 27, 2024
A woman tries to shade herself and her children with an umbrella as they walk Spanish Steps in Rome on Saturday.

Earth broke all-time heat record two days in a row, scientists say

The historic stretch comes on the heels of 13 straight months of unprecedented temperatures and the hottest year scientists have ever seen.

July 24, 2024
A man tries to sell flowers to people enjoying the views of the full moon rising near the Acropolis amid a heat wave in Athens on Sunday.

Dengue fever is surging worldwide. A hotter planet will make it worse.

Climate change helped fuel an explosion of dengue cases in the Americas, including Puerto Rico, as mosquitoes multiply in warmer, wetter weather.

June 30, 2024

Climate change is already making your bills more expensive

Researchers warn the hazards of climate change will only get worse, for the planet and the economy. Items as varied as groceries and insurance will get more expensive.

June 23, 2024

Billions of people just felt the deadly intensity of climate-fueled heat waves

Scorching heat across five continents set 1,400 records this week and showed how human-caused global warming has made catastrophic temperatures commonplace.

June 22, 2024
Rescuers carry away a man affected by the scorching heat as Muslim pilgrims perform the symbolic 'stoning of the devil' ritual as part of the Hajj pilgrimage in Mina, near Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca, on Sunday.

The world agreed to ban this dangerous pollutant — and it’s working

For the first time ever, researchers have detected a significant dip in atmospheric levels of hydrochlorofluorocarbons -- harmful gases that deplete the ozone layer and warm the planet.

June 11, 2024
Air conditioners in windows during a heat wave in New York on July 27, 2023.

Earth’s record hot streak might be a sign of a new climate era

Each of the past ten months has been the hottest on record – an unprecedented streak of unprecedented temperatures that has fueled alarm among climate scientists.

April 19, 2024
An elderly woman hospitalized for dehydration receives an IV drip at an hospital in Niamey, Niger, on April 13.