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Katie Surma

Reporter, Pittsburgh

Katie Surma is a reporter at Inside Climate News focusing on international environmental law and justice. Before joining ICN, she practiced law, specializing in commercial litigation. She also wrote for a number of publications and her stories have appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times and The Associated Press, among others. Katie has a master’s degree in investigative journalism from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, an LLM in international rule of law and security from ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, a J.D. from Duquesne University, and was a History of Art and Architecture major at the University of Pittsburgh. Katie lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Jim Crowell.
Satere-Mawe indigenous leader Valdiney Satere collects caferana, a native plant of the Amazon rainforest, used as medicinal herb, in the Taruma neighbourhood, a rural area west of Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil, in May 2020. Credit: Ricardo Oliveira/AFP via Getty Images.

In the Amazon, Indigenous and Locally Controlled Land Stores Carbon, but the Rest of the Rainforest Emits Greenhouse Gases

By Bob Berwyn, Katie Surma

Delegates applaud after reaching an agreement during the plenary for the tail end of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on Dec. 19, 2022. Credit: Andrej Ivanov/ AFP via Getty Images

Nearly 200 Countries Approve a Biodiversity Accord Enshrining Human Rights and the ‘Rights of Nature’

By Katie Surma

Steven Donziger is seen at a "Free Donziger" rally held in front of the Manhattan Court House as he faces sentencing in contempt case in New York City on Oct. 1, 2021. Credit: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Their Lives Were Ruined by Oil Pollution, and a Court Awarded Them $9.5 Billion. But Ecuadorians Have Yet to See a Penny From Chevron

By Katie Surma

Southern Resident killer whales encountered during NOAA's PODs (Pacific Orcinus Distribution Survey) in October 2021 near the west end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Credit: NOAA Fisheries

Two Towns in Washington Take Steps Toward Recognizing the Rights of Southern Resident Orcas

By Katie Surma

Aerial view of an illegal logging operation in Humaitá, southern Amazonas State, Brazil, on Sept. 17, 2022. Credit: Michael Dantas/AFP via Getty Images

Lawyers Press International Court to Investigate a ‘Network’ Committing Crimes Against Humanity in Brazil’s Amazon

By Katie Surma

Blanca Chancosa, juíza do Tribunal Internacional dos Direitos da Natureza e líder indígena equatoriana, examina parte da maior mina de minério de ferro do mundo, de propriedade da gigante brasileira de mineração Vale, em 23 de julho de 2022. Crédito: Katie Surma

Mil Milhas na Amazônia, para Mudar a Maneira como o Mundo Funciona

By Katie Surma

Tree plantings in Sand Martin Wood in Faugh near Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K. Credit: Ashley Cooper/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images

Countries Want to Plant Trees to Offset Their Carbon Emissions, but There Isn’t Enough Land on Earth to Grow Them

By Katie Surma

Celebrating Victories in Europe and South America, the Rights of Nature Movement Plots Strategy in a Time of ‘Crises’

By Katie Surma

Blanca Chancosa, a judge with the International Rights of Nature tribunal and an Ecuadorian Indigenous leader, looks into part of the world's largest iron ore mine owned by the Brazilian mining giant Vale on July 23, 2022. Credit: Katie Surma

A Thousand Miles in the Amazon, to Change the Way the World Works

By Katie Surma

A woman walks home carrying flour on her head past a damaged sea wall on Saibai Island in the Torres Strait. Credit: Andrew Meares/Fairfax Media via Getty Images via Getty Images

In Pivotal Climate Case, UN Panel Says Australia Violated Islanders’ Human Rights

By Katie Surma

Outside Pittsburgh, host city last week to the Global Clean Energy Action Forum, a hydro-fracking drilling pad in Robinson Township, Washington County, extracts natural gas from the Marcellus shale formation. During the forum, attended by science and energy ministers from over 30 countries, activists denounced fracking and said they were still awaiting results from the state on what caused an apparent cancer among children in Washington County that coincided with the fracking boom. Credit: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images.

At a Global Conference on Clean Energy, Granholm Announces Billions in Federal Aid for Carbon Capture and Emerging Technology

By Katie Surma

Demonstrators gather in Santiago, on Oct. 25, 2019, a week after protests started in Chile. Credit: Pedro Ugarte / AFP via Getty Images

Chilean Voters Reject a New Constitution That Would Have Provided Groundbreaking Protections for the Rights of Nature

By Katie Surma

Climate activists protest against seismic blasting on May 28, 2022 in Cape Town, South Africa. Credit: Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images

A Court Blocks Oil Exploration and Underwater Seismic Testing Off South Africa’s ‘Wild Coast’

By Katie Surma

Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)gives an interview at the UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi on Feb. 22, 2022 Credit: Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images

UNEP Chief Inger Andersen Says it’s Easy to Forget all the Environmental Progress Made Over the Past 50 Years. Climate Change Is Another Matter

By Katie Surma

Exterior View of new International Criminal Court building in The Hague on July 30, 2016 in The Hague in the Netherlands. Credit: Michel Porro/Getty Images

The International Criminal Court Turns 20 in Turbulent Times. Should ‘Ecocide’ Be Added to its List of Crimes?

By Katie Surma

Hilochee Wildlife Management Area in Orlando, Florida. Credit: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Two Lakes, Two Streams and a Marsh Filed a Lawsuit in Florida to Stop a Developer From Filling in Wetlands. A Judge Just Threw it Out of Court

By Katie Surma

Maasai elders in Tanzania.

In an Attempt to Wrestle Away Land for Game Hunters, Tanzanian Government Fires on Maasai Farmers, Killing Two

By Katie Surma

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate uses a megaphone while marching with environmental demonstrators through central Stockholm during a protest organized by Fridays for Future against perceived inaction by governments towards climate change last week in Stockholm. Climate activist organizations, including Fridays For Future, protested on the side-lines of the Stockholm 50+ climate summit, and the youth-led Aurora movement announced details of their legal action against the Swedish state in relation to their climate policies. Credit: Jonas Gratzer/Getty Images.

Fifty Years After the UN’s Stockholm Environment Conference, Leaders Struggle to Realize its Vision of ‘a Healthy Planet’

By Katie Surma

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