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Katie Surma

Reporter, Pittsburgh

Katie Surma is a reporter at Inside Climate News covering the rights of nature movement and international environmental justice. Her work has a strong focus on the intersection of human rights and the environment. Before joining ICN, she practiced law, specializing in commercial litigation. Her journalism work has been recognized by the Overseas Press Club, the Society of International Journalists, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and 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.
  • @katiesurma.bsky.social
  • @Katie_Surma
  • [email protected]
A view of the Barker Meadow Reservoir in Nederland, Colo. Currently, Nederland relies on water from the City of Boulder’s reservoir. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post

A Town Board in Colorado Repeals Rights of Nature Resolutions

By Katie Surma

A worker sweeps around a furnace at a coke plant in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on April 11. Credit: Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Mining ‘Critical Minerals’ in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Rife With Rights Abuses

By Katie Surma

Tish O'Dell, next to artist Andrea Bowers' "We Must Rise Above the Tides," in the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MoCa). Credit: Katie Surma/Inside Climate News

‘Truth, Reckoning and Right Relationship’: A Rights of Nature Epiphany

By Katie Surma

American Creosote Works, three blocks north of Pensacola Bay, is a former wood treatment plant turned Superfund site. Credit: Dan Anderson

EPA Faulted for Wasting Millions, Failing to Prevent Spread of Superfund Site Contamination

By Katie Surma

Damage caused by Hurricane Maria in Roseau, Dominica, in November 2017. Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty

International Debt Is Strangling Developing Nations Vulnerable to Climate Change, a New Report Shows

By Katie Surma

Andres Duran, a Sauzal Bonito resident, points to a crack in his chimney that he says was caused by fracking-induced earthquakes.

Fracking-Induced Earthquakes Are Menacing Argentina as Regulators Stand By

Story and photos by Katie Surma

A family of mountain gorillas lives under protection at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Uganda. Credit: Mehmet Emin Yogurtcuoglu/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Global Mining Boom Puts African Great Apes at Greater Risk Than Previously Known

By Katie Surma

Pollution from smelting and mining operations in La Oroya, Peru have made the Andean city one of the most contaminated places on Earth. Credit: Mitchell Gilbert/AIDA

International Court Issues First-Ever Decision Enforcing the Right to a Healthy Environment

By Katie Surma

An aerial view of Aruba’s Palm Beach. Credit: VWPICS/Jimmy Villalta/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Aruba Embraces the Rights of Nature and a Human Right to a Clean Environment

By Katie Surma

The lawsuit to obtain recognition of the Marañón River’s legal rights was filed by the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana, a federation of Kukama Indigenous women. Credit: Miguel Araoz/Quisca

Landmark Peruvian Court Ruling Says the Marañón River Has Legal Rights To Exist, Flow and Be Free From Pollution

By Katie Surma

A man walks through debris in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas on Sept. 9, 2019 in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. Credit: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images

How Developing Nations Battered by Climate Change Are Crushed by Debt From International Lenders

By Katie Surma

A member of the Indigenous Baduy tribe works at his field on Indonesia's Java island. Anthropologist Gonzalo Oviedo says Indigenous communities in Southeast Asia “tend to recognize many more varieties of plant subspecies.” Credit: Bay Ismoyo/AFP via Getty Images

Q&A: To Save The Planet, Traditional Indigenous Knowledge Is Indispensable

By Katie Surma

In the case of Great Barrier Reef green turtles, rising temperatures have been linked to changing sex-determination, with an increasing number of new hatchlings born female. Credit: Jonas Gratzer/LightRocket via Getty Images

The World Is Losing Migratory Species at Alarming Rates

By Katie Surma

Andrea Bowers, Rights of Nature I, 2022, neon. Credit: Katie Surma/Inside Climate News.

Fighting for a Foothold in American Law, the Rights of Nature Movement Finds New Possibilities in a Change of Venue: the Arts

By Katie Surma

State park visitors walk along a section of the Great Salt Lake that used to be underwater on Aug. 2, 2021 near Magna, Utah. Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Utah Legislature Takes Aim at Rights of Nature Movement

By Katie Surma

Anival Tanguila, a Quichua leader from the Corazón del Oriente Community, stands next to decommissioned Perenco oil infrastructure in the Ecuadorian Amazon on March 22, 2023. Credit: Katie Surma/Inside Climate News

How Wealthy Corporations Use Investment Agreements to Extract Millions From Developing Countries

By Nicholas Kusnetz, Katie Surma

Snowfall covers Boulder Creek near Nederland, Colorado. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Colorado Town Appoints Legal Guardians to Implement the Rights of a Creek and a Watershed

By Katie Surma

Environmental activists from the Irish Wildlife Trust and Extinction Rebellion called on the Irish Government to introduce legislation in the form of a Biodiversity Act at a protest outside the National Biodiversity Conference in Dublin Castle on June 8, 2022. Credit: Niall Carson/PA Images via Getty Images

Ireland Could Become the Next Nation to Recognize the Rights of Nature and a Human Right to a Clean Environment

By Katie Surma

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