Washington Post hires Spring from Reuters

Washington Post climate and environment editor Zachary Goldfarb, deputy climate and environment editor Juliet Eilperin and climate and environment power and politics editor Roger Hodge sent out the following on Friday:

We are excited to announce that Jake Spring is joining The Washington Post as a Climate and Environment Enterprise Reporter.

Jake comes to The Post after a decade reporting for Reuters from Brazil and China, most recently as a global climate and environment correspondent.

Jake led coverage of Brazilian ex-President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental rollbacks and soaring deforestation with fast-paced beat reporting and groundbreaking investigations. His series of exclusives on weakened environmental enforcement, illegal wood exports to the United States, and divestment threats won in the 2021 Covering Climate Now Award for Breaking News.

His investigative reporting showed how Brazil’s military deployment to the Amazon held back efforts to stop deforestation while spending millions of dollars, as Bolsonaro simultaneously obstructed the collection of environmental fines. Those stories led a package that won Best Reporting on Latin America from the Overseas Press Club of America in 2021.

Jake has reported extensively in the field, including from the scene vast deforestation and terrifying wildfires. He reported from caves deep in the Amazon, contributing to the Bat Lands series that won awards from Scripps Howard, Society of Environmental Journalists, Deadline Club, the Online Journalism Awards and others.

Most recently he has focused on unreported stories of environmental impacts of climate change and development across Latin America, including coral bleaching in Brazil and how gold mining in Peru is poisoning wildlife. He has also reported on five United Nations environmental summits from four continents.

Jake got his start as a business reporter at a South Carolina newspaper and at China Economic Review, where he eventually became editor-in-chief. He joined Reuters as a trainee in Beijing focused on finance and economics, later covering booming electric car sales and innovations in self-driving cars in China.