Madeleine Cuff

As environment reporter for New Scientist, Madeleine Cuff covers the cutting-edge of climate science, synthesising the latest research and its real-world implications to produce accessible, vital journalism. Her work opens up the discussions taking place among climate scientists to all of us, handling nuance and subtlety without resorting to scaremongering.

The first piece submitted on her behalf illustrates this perfectly, highlighting a rare disagreement in the world of climate science about the causes of record-breaking heat during 2023. The issue in contention – have we entered a new period of warming? – is both complex and crucial to understanding our global situation, and Madeleine’s piece lays out the arguments from both sides, expertly guiding the reader through the possibilities and the stakes.

Madeleine is also a leading voice in helping the public to understand that the world has almost certainly failed to limit global warming to 1.5°C, despite this being a key part of the international Paris agreement that politicians are still promising to achieve. The second submitted piece highlights the important science being done to conclusively identify the failure of the Paris agreement, and what this will ultimately mean for climate action.

Finally, reporting on climate change means revealing the impacts we are already seeing today. In her magazine cover story “Oceans in Chaos”, Madeleine explored how the oceans have been transformed by increasing heat, finally reaching a point of catastrophe. Told through the experience of marine researchers who are seeing ecosystems destroyed, it drives home the wide-ranging changes humanity has brought to the ocean.

Madeleine's expert reporting and ability to bring to life for readers stories that have the potential to come across as doom-mongering and depressing has played a clear role in a growing interest among New Scientist readers in stories to do with climate change. For instance, in the last quarter, traffic for environment stories has grew by 79 per cent compared with the previous period. Traffic to environment stories in the same period also outperformed traffic to health stories, traditionally the strongest subject for the publication, by over 30 per cent. This is of course great for the business but it is also heartening to see a growing interest in climate stories at a time when action is needed more than ever before.