Rachel Ramirez

Writer, CNN Digital

Rachel Ramirez is a general assignment writer on CNN's Climate team, covering climate change and environmental justice.
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CNN Expansion 11/17/21 Rachel Ramirez Climate Writer, CNN Digital
CNN Expansion 11/17/21 Rachel Ramirez Climate Writer, CNN Digital

Latest

Shanghai is one of the coastal cities significantly exposed to both land subsidence and projected sea level rise. Roughly a quarter of the country’s coasts will be lower than sea level, according to new research.
AFP/Getty Images
270 million people are living on sinking land in China’s major cities, new study finds
Apr 18, 2024
Nearly half of China’s urban areas comprising 29% of the country’s population are sinking faster than 3 millimeters per year, according to a new study.
BULL SHARK, Carcharhinus leucas, Carcharhinidae, Bahamas, The Caribbean
Gerard Soury/The Image Bank RF/Getty Images/FILE
How climate change could be driving ‘killer’ cold outbreaks in oceans
Apr 15, 2024
The same planet-warming pollution that’s driving the climate crisis is likely to blame for “killer events” on the colder end of the temperature spectrum.
Flames and smoke emerge from the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refining Complex in Philadelphia, Friday, June 21, 2019.
Matt Rourke/AP
Activists helped shut down this oil refinery in Philadelphia. Now locals wonder what’s next
Apr 15, 2024
Philadelphia Energy Solutions was the largest oil refining complex on the East Coast. Activists closed lobbied to close it. It’s unclear what will replace it.
04/10 Storm damage out of Katy, TX.
from Harris County ESD 48 Fire Dept.
•Live Updates Live Updates
Dangerous tornado and flooding situation unfolding in South
Apr 10, 2024
Severe storms, including flooding and possible tornadoes, are sweeping across the Gulf Coast states on Wednesday.
Methane plumes observed by Carbon Mapper during aerial surveys at a landfill in Georgia.
Carbon Mapper
A potent planet-warming gas is seeping out of US landfills at rates higher than previously thought, scientists say
Mar 28, 2024
Garbage piling up in landfills isn’t just an eyesore, it’s also a climate nightmare, belching out large amounts of planet-warming gas.
View of Southern Africa and the Antarctic polar region from space.
Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Polar ice is melting and changing Earth’s rotation. It’s messing with time itself
Mar 28, 2024
One day in the next couple of years, everyone in the world will lose a second of their time. Exactly when that will happen is being influenced by human activities.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed early Tuesday morning after it was struck by a large ship.
StreamTimeLive
•Live Updates Live Updates
March 26, 2024 - Baltimore Key Bridge collapses after ship collision
Mar 27, 2024
Two of the six construction workers who were missing after Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed are from Guatemala, the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said late Tuesday.
Peaches are piled in a box as workers harvest the last crop of the season off the trees at Pearson Farm on July 24, 2023, in Fort Valley, Georgia.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
How the climate crisis is putting your favorite summer fruits at risk
Mar 23, 2024
Warmer winters mean earlier blooms, and a sudden dip in temperatures during the season could damage or kill the fruits, drastically affecting the amount harvested for the year.
Old Fadama, Accra, Ghana, February 7, 2023: Locally generated end-of-life mobile phones sold for parts and recycling.
Muntaka Chasant for Fondation Carmignac
Electronic waste has grown to record levels. Here’s why that’s a huge problem
Mar 20, 2024
The growth of global e-waste is far outpacing recycling efforts, with serious health, environmental and climate consequences
A drone view of the grasslands burning from the Smokehouse Creek Fire in Roberts County, Texas, U.S., February 28, 2024.
Nathan Frandino/Reuters
New map shows just how extreme last month was for the planet
Mar 15, 2024
Soaring temperatures. Unusually hot oceans. Record high levels of carbon pollution in the atmosphere and record low levels of Antarctic ice.
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 14: A student tour group walks past the Cherry Blossom trees on the Tidal Basin on March 14, 2024 in Washington, DC. The National Park Service announced this week that it will begin to remove over 140 Cherry Blossom trees around the Tidal Basin and West Potomac Park in anticipation of construction for a sea wall to guard against flooding. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
National Park Service set to remove nearly 160 cherry trees in DC to repair seawall
Mar 14, 2024
The National Park Service is gearing up to remove nearly 160 cherry trees in Washington, DC, in an effort to repair the city’s deteriorating seawalls, the agency announced Wednesday.
NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 08: People walk through Manhattan on a warm afternoon on February 08, 2024 in New York City. Scientists on Thursday announced that the world surpassed a key warming threshold across an entire year for the first time on record. New York City, and much of the Northeast has been experiencing increasingly mild winters over the past few years. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
This simple solution could bring some chill to scorching summer heat
Mar 11, 2024
When installed on buildings, retroreflective material can decrease surface temperature by up to 36 degrees Fahrenheit.
A live crawfish caught by Jody Meche is seen at the Atchafalaya Basin near Butte LaRose, Louisiana, May 20, 2011. Meche worked to bring the strings of his crawfish traps above the waterline as water levels began rapidly rising, a week after the Army Corps of Engineers opened the Morganza spillway. REUTERS/Lee Celano (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENVIRONMENT DISASTER)
Lee Celano/Reuters/File
Louisiana governor issues disaster declaration for crawfish shortage amid extreme weather and drought
Mar 7, 2024
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry issued a disaster declaration Wednesday for the state’s critical crawfish industry, as extreme weather disrupted this year’s harvest and triggered an industry-wide shortage of the crustaceans.
Cars travel through high floodwaters in Boston during high tide. New England residents were greeted with a coastal flood warning for the entire coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts on up to Maine.
Erin Clark/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
Where sinking cities are pushing sea level rise into overdrive
Mar 6, 2024
Cities on the US coast are sinking, leaving them far more exposed to flooding from sea level rise than previously thought, scientists reported Wednesday.
FORT KENT, ME - FEBRUARY 28: Dogs on the team Todd Sullivan of Lanark, Ontario start the Irving Woodlands CAC 250 at the Can-Am Crown sled dog races in Fort Kent, Maine on Saturday, February 28, 2009. (Photo by Yoon S. Byun/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Yoon S. Byun/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
Longest sled dog race in eastern US is canceled because there’s not enough snow
Feb 27, 2024
The organizers of the Can-Am sled dog races canceled this year’s event due to dangerously insufficient snow coverage.
A leatherback turtle begins its decent into the abyss
Samuel J Coe/Moment RF/Getty Images
Humans have altered the Earth so much that migratory animals are facing extinction
Feb 12, 2024
Of the 1,189 migratory creatures studied, more than one in five are threatened.

About

Rachel Ramirez is a general assignment writer on CNN’s Climate team, covering climate change and environmental justice. She focuses on breaking news, trending stories, and deeply-reported narratives that help CNN readers understand how the climate crisis affects all aspects of their lives.

Prior to joining CNN in 2021, Ramirez spent a year freelance writing for other publications including Vox, HuffPost, The Guardian, Grist, Financial Times, and more.

She is the co-founder of the Asian American Journalists Association’s Pacific Islander Task Force. Currently based in New York City, Ramirez was born and raised on the island of Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory just north of Guam.