Julie Cart (original) (raw)
Julie Cart is a projects reporter on CalMatters’ environment team who focuses on wildfires and natural resources. Her projects have included an examination of the state’s push to build massive offshore wind farms, a deep dive into the crisis of PTSD and suicide among California firefighters as wildfires escalate, and the vulnerability of the state’s coastlines to rising sea levels.
Julie’s work for CalMatters has received numerous national and regional journalism awards, including from Best of the West and the Society of Environmental Journalists. In addition, Julie and colleague Bettina Boxall won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for their 2009 Los Angeles Times series on wildfires in the West. In 2023 she won the international Covering Climate Now award, which honored her four-part series in CalMatters documenting the mental health crisis among the crews that fight California’s wildfires. That project was also recognized with an Emmy Award for a collaboration with CBS News.
Julie came to CalMatters after a long career at the Los Angeles Times, where she held many positions: sportswriter, national correspondent and environment reporter. She has reported from numerous countries, including South Africa, Argentina, Cuba and throughout Europe. In 2017 she reported on Gov. Jerry Brown’s trip to the United Nations Climate Change conference in Bonn, Germany.
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Latest Stories
Environment
The high cost of fixing Lake Tahoe: Famed alpine lake still murky after decades of efforts
Billions of state and federal dollars are spent on Lake Tahoe. But is all this attention actually protecting this unique treasure? Pollutants pour in, while development continues. Funding has shifted in focus to tourism and traffic projects, while money spent directly on fixing the lake has declined.
California Wildfires
‘It will not be survivable’: Lake Tahoe region could be a deathtrap during major wildfires
Evacuating the Tahoe basin in summer could take 14 hours, and 99% of properties are at risk — yet new resorts are being built in high-danger fire areas.
CalMatters en Español
Las zonas del Valle de San Gabriel afectadas por el incendio Eaton tienen un “riesgo alto o muy alto” de desprendimientos de escombros esta semana.
California Wildfires
Crushed by boulders, drowned in mud: How debris flows endanger LA’s fire-ravaged communities
San Gabriel Valley areas scarred by the Eaton Fire are at “high to very high risk” of debris flows this week. How do they happen? What is being done to prepare? And what do survivors of a catastrophic one that killed 23 people remember about the day that the hills came down?
CalMatters en Español
En algunas zonas, los riesgos han aumentado. Los edificios en las zonas de mayor riesgo estarán sujetos a las normas más estrictas de resistencia al fuego.
California Wildfires
In some areas, hazards have surged. Buildings in the highest hazard zones will be subject to the strictest fire-resiliency rules.
Environment
Trump’s order won’t halt California’s offshore wind leases. But will it derail the industry?
The president’s order has no immediate effect on offshore wind leases already authorized, including two large areas off California’s coast. But it sends a current of uncertainty through the fledgling renewable energy industry, which relies on federal and state support.
Explainers
California infernos in January? Here’s why wildfire season keeps getting longer and more devastating
As climate change warms the planet, wildfires have become so unpredictable and extreme that new words were invented: firenado, gigafire, fire siege — even fire pandemic. California has 78 more annual “fire days” — when conditions are ripe for fires to spark — than 50 years ago. When is California’s wildfire season? With recurring droughts, […]
CalMatters en Español
La promesa de Trump de bloquear la industria eólica marina podría amenazar los objetivos de energía renovable de California.
Environment
Trump promised to ‘end’ offshore wind. What will that mean for California’s big bet?
Trump's promise to block the offshore wind industry could threaten CA's renewable energy goals, potentially cutting off federal funding.