John Ryan
Reporter
About
Environment reporter John Ryan welcomes tips, documents and feedback from listeners. For secure, confidential communication: he's at 1-401-405-1206 on the Signal messaging app, you can use KUOW’s SecureDrop portal, or you can send snail mail (but don't put your return address on the outside!) to John Ryan, KUOW, 4518 Univ. Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105.
Good thing John was a clumsy traveler.
Otherwise his cheap microcassette recorder wouldn't have fallen out of his pocket in an Indonesian taxi, a generous BBC stringer wouldn't have lent him some recording gear, and he wouldn't have gotten the radio bug. But after pointing a mic at rare jungle songbirds and gong-playing grandmothers for his first radio story, there was no turning back.
He spent several years freelancing for most of the major public radio news shows (as well as newspapers including Christian Science Monitor and Los Angeles Times). John also did an award-winning documentary for KUOW on the side from a day gig covering transportation at the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.
In 2009, John moved back to Seattle to become KUOW’s first investigative reporter after two exciting years covering avalanches, political intrigue and just about everything in between for KTOO, the NPR station in Alaska's capital city. He returned to Alaska for a 4-month stint in the Aleutian Islands in 2015 and won awards for KUOW and KUCB-Unalaska for his coverage of Arctic oil drilling from two states.
John’s stories have won multiple national awards for KUOW, including the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi awards for Public Service in Radio Journalism and for Investigative Reporting and national Edward R. Murrow and PRNDI awards for coverage of breaking news.
John is a shop steward of KUOW’s SAG-AFTRA newsroom union.
He believes democracy only works when journalism holds the powerful accountable for their words and actions.
Stories
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Tax breaks for green cars: helping the climate or the wealthy?
The tax breaks might make the difference for some electric car buyers.
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Frustrated by adult apathy, Seattle-area kids join global climate protest
“We are the next generation, and we do care about this, and if you care about us, please help us solve this issue.”
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Cleaner fuels could soon power Washington cars
Transportation is the biggest climate polluter in Washington and nationwide.
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An ancient beach reborn — and renamed for a clam
Heading out through the mud to dig clams by hand, Holden was following the footsteps of his ancestors who were doing the same thing in the same spot 1,100 years ago.
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Green airplanes? Not on the horizon yet
Kicking aviation’s climate-harming carbon habit is likely to be a long, slow climb, made more difficult as the industry expands rapidly.
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Jay Inslee says he’s the climate candidate. So let’s look at his record
In a Washington Post op-ed, Inslee called for an end to carbon pollution by mid-century, but in the Washington that he actually leads, he has only worked to cut pollution in half by that time.
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Another climate foe: energy-guzzling buildings
Wasting less energy as we heat and power buildings could take a big bite out of our carbon footprint and help stave off catastrophic climate change.
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Seattle’s carbon emissions keep rising, and city keeps calling itself a climate leader
Seattleites did 2.5 percent more harm to the climate in 2016 than they did in 2014, according to the city’s most comprehensive measure of greenhouse gas emissions.
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Amazon will reveal its carbon footprint ... a decade after others
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Why salt became king in Seattle snowstorms