Photo by Julia Mitchem
2023 projects
Reporting contributions on Drilled
Editorial Fellow at Sierra Magazine
Senior Editor on ScienceLine KIDS: When Art Meets Science
Environmental Journalist
Marlowe Starling
About
Marlowe Starling is an environmental journalist who writes about climate, conservation, and culture with special interests in wildlife and coastlines. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Sierra Magazine, Mongabay, Hakai Magazine, The Marjorie, the Miami Herald, Earth Island Journal, and more. She earned her bachelor's in journalism with a specialization in wildlife ecology from the University of Florida. She then earned her master's degree in science journalism at New York University.
As a Miami native, Marlowe grew up surrounded by real-time examples of how climate change is threatening the places we love and live in, inspiring her to pursue a career writing rich stories about the intersection of nature and culture. Having written about South Florida's endangered wildlife and ecosystems--like the Florida reef gecko, seagrapes, pine rocklands, and a polluted Biscayne Bay--she is excited to continue reporting on the way climate change is affecting both human and wildlife coastal communities at home and abroad. As a Launchpad Fellow, Marlowe looks forward to continuing research on topics such as fisherwomen communities in East Africa and the fate of commercial crab species in North America.
In her early career, Marlowe has enjoyed working on a number of reporting projects. In 2023, she contributed reporting to the true-crime climate podcast Drilled, focusing on the criminalization of climate protests around the world. She was also an editorial fellow for Sierra Magazine and helped conceptualize, design, and write for an inaugural kids magazine focused on science and art. In 2022, she wrote about novel red tide research and helped analyze water quality data for a collaborative Pulitzer Center project focused on the Clean Water Act, which won two awards for student-led reporting. In 2021, she led the creation of a narrative nonfiction magazine as its first art director and led a project on invasive species in the pet trade as a Florida Climate Institute Fellow. She has also contributed to reporting projects focused on PFAS contamination and nutrient pollution.
Marlowe's reporting has taken her from Florida to Puerto Rico and from Tanzania to Morocco. Overseas, her stories have spanned from energy justice to soil science to how climate change is affecting marginalized communities. She is also a photographer, multimedia journalist, a diligent fact-checker, and a die-hard copy editing veteran, giving her plenty of ways to keep busy. Although she's now based in Brooklyn, Marlowe routinely enjoys returning home, where she relishes a serene paddle through Miami's mangrove forests.