Profile Interview with New York Times Climate Reporter Lisa Friedman

Lisa Friedman is a climate reporter for the New York Times, focusing on environmental policy in Washington, D.C. She has covered eight international climate talks, and stories took her from the bottom of a Chinese coal mine to the top of Himalaya Mountains. Before joining the New York Times, Lisa was the climate editor at Climatewire where she traveled around the world to cover what climate change means to the poorest communities in the world. A life-long journalism enthusiast who was born and raised in a three-newspaper-a-day

family in New Jersey, Lisa likes to call herself an “accidental climate reporter”. Even though she accidentally fell into this beat, Lisa’s love for climate reporting grew so deep that she once found herself writing a climate story from her hospital bed while getting chemotherapy. Now, almost 50, she still doesn’t know if there is anything else she’d like to do other than reporting.

Q: You call yourself an “accidental climate reporter”. Why?

A: I was never an environmental reporter. I came to the climate beat accidentally because I was covering Congress in Washington for some California newspapers, and I got laid off, couple times. I was climbing the rung of newspapers and the ladder was falling, the economy was lousy. I just really wanted to stay in journalism. It’s the only thing I really know how to do: to be nosy, talk to people and write. There was a new publication called Climatewire. Someone I knew there recommended me, and I started working there. I really thought it would be only for a couple years until newspapers got back on their feet. And then, I was there for 10 years or so, because I loved it.

Q: With Climatewire, you traveled to the poorest countries to learn what climate change means for those communities. Which story stuck with you the most?

A: The story I did in Bangladesh in 2008. I wrote about climate migration, and there was lots of simplistic coverage about what climate change means for people living in island nations: ‘sea levels will rise, people will be forced out’. I wanted to take the experts’ idea that climate change is not the only thing that forces people to move, but is a threat multiplier. So I went to Bangladesh to look at what climate change means on top of globalization and urbanization. As one of the world’s poorest countries, they were not only building resilience but were also using their money to adapt to climate change in ways that much wealthier countries weren’t doing at the time.

Q:How did you then start working for The New York Times?

A: I had applied to the Times and kept in touch with people. Then, I learned they were creating a new climate team. My-now-editor reached out to me, to see my interest in coming there. And I was like, yes please! I am from New Jersey and working for the Times has been my dream. Once I got there and saw people much younger than me, I realized I was holding myself back. Even approaching 40-years-old, I thought, “I don’t have enough experience to work at the Times!” But I think everything happened at the right time.

Q: What was your first reaction when you got the job?

A: I took a video in the middle of the newsroom on a Sunday where no one was there, and I was like, “Here I am in the New York Times newsroom where I am allowed to be, because I work here, and they gave me a key, I can prove it!” It was overwhelming and wonderful.

Q: You’ve said that the most interesting place you wrote a story was while getting chemotherapy. Is it okay if I ask about this?

A: Sure. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. The lead is, I’m fine. But yes, I once wrote a story while getting chemo. And to be fair to my editors, they said, “Lisa please don’t, you’re fine, no”. But I just wanted to do it. They were giving me a benadryl drip beforehand, and I kept asking the nurses “Can we not do this, I need to write a story”. Finally, a nurse came in and said, “ If we don’t give you this, you can have a serious reaction”. And I was like “Oh, okay. I thought it was just for itching or something”. As I wrote the story, I could feel myself falling asleep. I must have written something very goofy at the end because my editor was like, “ We got it from here, Lisa.”

Q: Was journalism still a big part of your life?

A: Sure, I was diagnosed not long after I started working at the Times, which was scary. Here, I just joined the New York Times and I didnt know what was happening with my health. I took time after surgery, but I worked all through this. I scheduled my chemo for Thursdays or Fridays because I’d feel fine that day, but the next day was lousy. In fairness, it’s easier to do something to take your mind off of things.

Q: Did it help you mentally?

A: Totally. A lot of this was during when Scott Pruitt was the EPA Director, and he was just a walking scandal. Everyday there was a new story and it was bizarrely very helpful to have something to focus on that wasn’t my body and my mind.

Q: Were you interested in journalism as a kid growing up?

A: Yes. My parents really looked up to reporters. I just remember getting a summer job at the North Jersey Herald & News as a teenageer, and then immediately thinking, this is where I want to be for the rest of my life. It was mostly the newsroom than the act of doing it. You’re surrounded by people who are really smart, obnoxious, sarcastic, irreverent, and know what’s going on in the world, and they care.

Q: You actually wanted to work at a record store that summer, but your mom wanted you to work at the newspaper. What would you be doing now if you took the job at the record store instead of the paper?

A: I don't know. I feel really lucky to have discovered newspapers at a young age. I don't know any other business where as a 24-year-old, you can just ask the mayor questions, and they kind of have to answer you! And then you write about it, and then someone pays you money for that.

Q: Do you think of an after-New York Times?

A: Oh man, it took me so long to get here! At the moment, no. I am doing what I want to be doing.