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Emma Merchant

Emma Foehringer Merchant

Contributor

Emma Foehringer Merchant is a journalist who has covered environmental issues ranging from disasters to wonky energy regulations to air pollution. She’s reported on the environment and energy for publications including The Boston Globe Magazine, The New Republic, Vice News, and Grist. Most recently, Emma covered clean energy as a staff writer for Greentech Media and helped alums of that organization form a new publication called Canary Media. She’s attending MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing and holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental analysis from Pomona College, where she lived through a California drought while studying how climate change is impacting the state’s environment and people.

This aerial picture taken from an airplane on July 27, 2021, shows the smoke rising from a forest fire outside the village of Berdigestyakh, in the republic of Sakha, Siberia. Credit: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images

Wildfires in Northern Forests Broke Carbon Emissions Records in 2021

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

A road washed away on North Main Street of Santa Cruz during atmospheric river in California, United States on March 10, 2023. Credit: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

In the Deluged Mountains of Santa Cruz, Residents Cope With Compounding Disasters

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

Smoke from Southern California wildfires moves towards the Pacific Ocean, creating spectacular dark skies as a local on Oxnard Shores Beach California captures the moment on Nov. 9, 2018. Credit: Paul Harris/Getty Images

Wildfire Smoke May Worsen Extreme Blazes Near Some Coasts, According to New Research

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

A boat dock sits on dry ground far from the water at Lake Mendocino on April 22, 2021 in Ukiah, California. Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

When the State Cut Their Water, These California Users Created a Collaborative Solution

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

Tim McKibben, left, a senior installer for the solar company, Sunrun, and installer Aaron Newsom install solar panels on the roof of a home in Granada Hills. Credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

California Regulators Approve Reduced Solar Compensation for Homeowners

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

A firefighter works on putting out a hotspot from a wildfire on Friday May 13, 2022 in Mora, New Mexico as the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires burn in the region. Credit: Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The US Forest Service Planned to Increase Burning to Prevent Wildfires. Will a Pause on Prescribed Fire Instead Bring More Delays?

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

A sign advocating water conservation in San Anselmo, California, is posted in a field of dry grass in April 2021. That summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the state's residents to voluntarily cut water use by 15 percent. Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Amid Punishing Drought, California Is Set to Adopt Rules to Reduce Water Leaks. The Process has Lagged

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

Dairy cows at Bar 20 line up in the feedlot. Credit: Grace van Deelen

Expansion of a Lucrative Dairy Digester Market is Sowing Environmental Worries in the U.S.

By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Grace van Deelen

Steve Shehadey, owner of Bar 20 Dairy Farm, walks through the feedlot on his farm. Credit: Grace van Deelen

Just Two Development Companies Drive One of California’s Most Controversial Climate Programs: Manure Digesters

By Grace van Deelen, Emma Foehringer Merchant

Dairy cows have just been milked in Bar 20's milking barn. Credit: Grace van Deelen

California Has Provided Incentives for Methane Capture at Dairies, but the Program May Have ‘Unintended Consequences’

By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Grace van Deelen

Construction worker Joe Fitzpatrick keeps a towel around his neck to help him with the heat while working on the MBTA Green Line in Boston. Credit: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Too Hot to Work, Too Hot to Play

By James Pothen, Emma Foehringer Merchant, Grace van Deelen, Hannah Loss, Myriam Vidal, Rachel Rodriguez, Samantha Hurley

Christine Gemperle shells an almond freshly picked from a tree in her grove in Ceres. Credit: Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters

Out in the Fields, Contemplating Humanity and a Parched Almond Farm

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

A firefighter from Windsor, California, walks next to a wall of flames as he starts a back fire in tall dry grass while battling the Rocky Fire on July 30, 2015 in Lower Lake, California. Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In the US West, Researchers Consider a Four-Legged Tool to Fight Two Foes: Wildfire and Cheatgrass

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

A farmer digs to check soil moisture on his farmland in Firebaugh, California in the state's San Joaquin Valley, on March 11, 2009. Credit: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

California Considers ‘Carbon Farming’ As a Potential Climate Solution. Ardent Proponents, and Skeptics, Abound

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

Offshore turbines are construction off Block Island, Rhode Island, on Aug. 11, 2016. Credit: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

As the Biden Administration Eyes Wind Leases Off California’s Coast, the Port of Humboldt Sees Opportunity

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

Smoke from California wildfires hangs over the San Francisco skyline in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. Credit: Michael Short/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Fight to Change US Building Codes

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

The GE-Alstom Block Island Wind Farm stands in the water off Block Island, Rhode Island, on Wednesday, Sept, 14, 2016. Credit: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Can Biden’s Plan to Boost Offshore Wind Spread West?

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

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