Laura Paddison - Senior Climate Writer
Laura Paddison
Senior Climate Writer
Laura Paddison is CNN’s senior climate writer based in London.
Latest
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Critical Florida corals now ‘functionally extinct’ due to off-the-charts ocean temperaturesOct 23, 2025Recent record-breaking ocean temperatures have killed off so many elkhorn and staghorn corals, they are on the verge of disappearing completely, scientists have found. -
Iceland just found its first mosquitoesOct 21, 2025Iceland’s frozen, inhospitable winters have long protected it from mosquitoes, but that may be changing. This week, scientists announced the discovery of three mosquitoes — marking the country’s first confirmed finding of these insects in the wild. -
US helps sink world’s first global carbon tax after threatening sanctions against countries supporting itOct 17, 2025A fierce Trump administration push to stop the global shipping industry from paying for its own climate pollution appears successful. -
The planet has entered a ‘new reality’ as it hits its first climate tipping point, landmark report findsOct 13, 2025The widespread death of coral reefs is the first in a series of catastrophic and potentially irreversible tipping points the world may hit, according to a landmark report produced by 160 scientists across the world. -
Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around AntarcticaOct 10, 2025Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate,” raising fears that future global warming predictions may have been underestimated. -
Three CNN reporters on three continents wore chemical-tracking wristbands. The results were alarmingOct 7, 2025Plastic is woven into our lives and its chemical pollution is in the air we breathe, the dust we inhale, the food we eat. We did an experiment to see what we’re exposed to every day. -
This sea route has been dismissed as too treacherous. China’s taking the riskOct 3, 2025The Arctic journey is billed as the first step in China’s quest to open a “Polar Silk Road,” a commercial shipping route across the top of the world, and it’s only made possible by climate change. -
Nonstick cookware is sparking a celebrity food fightSep 26, 2025A battle is brewing between California legislators and celebrity chefs including David Chang and Rachael Ray. -
Where ‘day-zero droughts’ could happen as soon as this decadeSep 23, 2025Many parts of world face are predicted to endure periods of unprecedented extreme water scarcity, which could happen as soon as this decade in certain hotspots. -
The system that moves water around the planet is increasingly ‘erratic and extreme,’ new report findsSep 18, 2025The world is experiencing wild swings between drought and deluge, and it spells big trouble for economic and social stability, according to the World Meteorological Organization. -
Scientists went hunting for freshwater deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. What they found could have global implicationsSep 17, 2025An international team of scientists spent three months at sea drilling into a huge, mysterious reservoir of freshwater under the salty ocean. They hope it could help tackle an increasingly severe global water crisis. -
Re-freezing the Arctic? A giant sea curtain? High-tech efforts to save the ice sheets are doomed, report findsSep 9, 2025Moonshot proposals to save the poles are gaining popularity as the planet heats up. But none of the most high-profile ideas are viable — worse, they may cause irreparable harm, according to a new study -
Scientists find a surprising reason why people are eating more sugarSep 8, 2025Ice creams, frozen desserts and super-chilled sodas take on a new appeal in the sticky summer heat. As global warming drives higher temperatures, Americans are reaching for them more and more, new research finds. -
These devices harvest drinking water from the air in the planet’s driest places. Critics say they’re an expensive distractionSep 6, 2025The arid desert landscape of Death Valley may not seem the obvious place to find water. Yet it’s here, in one of the planet’s hottest and driest places, that MIT engineers decided to trial new technology to pull drinking water from an unconventional source: the air. -
Bioluminescent algae are bathing this Australian beach in an electric blue ‘ethereal glow’Sep 2, 2025The phenomenon is caused by a chemical reaction algae produce when agitated or disturbed. The frequency of these blooms has been linked to warming oceans. -
Your subway wasn’t built for this worldAug 25, 2025The infrastructure that powered the last century of urban life was not built for the one we’re in. Even the world’s newest subway systems are getting harsh lessons in the designs needed to survive an overheating Earth.
About
Laura Paddison is CNN’s senior climate writer based in London, where she covers the far-reaching impacts of the climate crisis and the ambitious efforts to solve it.
Paddison has reported on scientists’ growing understanding of how climate pollution is changing our world and our lives. She has covered its effect on our water, food and the world’s poorest, most vulnerable populations. And she has written about the extraordinary solutions humanity is reaching toward to keep Earth habitable.
She joined CNN from the Guardian, where she covered the environment and climate change with a focus on oceans and food systems. While at HuffPost she developed and edited This New World, a series commissioning journalists from around the world to tell under-reported stories about climate change, environmental justice and social inequality. Paddison has freelanced for publications including the BBC, the Financial Times, Forbes and Wired, reporting from countries including Greenland, Mexico and Arctic Sweden.
She graduated from University College London and began her career as a litigation lawyer.
