{"id":9176,"date":"2019-10-18T17:03:14","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T21:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metcalfinstitute.org\/?p=9176"},"modified":"2025-09-02T12:49:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T16:49:03","slug":"amelia-urry-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/amelia-urry-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Amelia Urry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Amelia Urry\u2019s deep curiosity took off at an early age, fueled by rocket scientists. Her father helped launch NASA satellites into space and her mother worked on the Hubble Telescope. \u201cThey were always encouraging me to ask questions about things that interested us, and science was always a part of that,\u201d says Urry, an associate editor at Grist<\/a> and an alumna of Metcalf Institute\u2019s 2016 Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After graduating Cum Laude from Yale University with a B.A. in English, Urry, who had once considered a career in the sciences, set her sights on journalism. \u201cI felt like doing environmental reporting was a real service,\u201d said Urry. \u201cI could still be curious and ask a lot of weird questions about how the world works, but I\u2019d also get to do the storytelling that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Urry covers everything from ocean science, wildlife and climate change to clean energy and technology. A desire to dig deeper into environmental stories and gain a clearer understanding of the context and nuances behind those stories led her to apply for a Metcalf fellowship. \u201cI really liked environmental reporting, but I didn\u2019t feel like an expert by any means,\u201d explained Urry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe workshop helped me see the bigger picture,\u201d said Urry, who, in addition to developing new skills, also gained new sources including Rutgers University climate scientist and Metcalf Advisory Board member Jennifer Francis. \u201cI needed an outside expert to give credence to a report I was covering,\u201d said Urry, who spoke to Dr. Francis on background for at least two stories, including a story about new climate change projections<\/a> by James Hansen, the scientist who first sounded the alarm about global warming. \u201cI think Dr. Francis trusted that I had the ability to do a good job with the story, and she was willing to talk to me longer than a scientist who didn\u2019t know me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Urry particularly enjoys writing about people who are committed to solving monumental environmental problems against tremendous odds. In 2015, she won a grant to cover the climate crisis threatening coral reefs, and the researchers trying to protect them. \u201cI\u2019m interested in those kinds of people who are so driven like that,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are a lot of important and big stories that I want to take on. There\u2019s also an ever-shrinking pool of resources to cover these stories and an ever growing need for these stories to be told.\u201d<\/p>\n

Telling environmental stories in the current climate also presents a challenge, according to Urry, \u201cespecially when you have national politics that appear to be so distant from the scientific consensus about climate change,\u201d she said. Despite the obstacles, Urry feels accurate stories about climate change are making a difference in people\u2019s lives. \u201cPublic acceptance of climate change has increased and there\u2019s a better understanding of how things like air pollution in neighborhoods are connected to larger policy and environmental challenges,\u201d she said. \u201cThe more people are exposed to the truth, the better equipped they are to handle things like fake news or ideological misdirection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Urry has also made an impact on a personal level. Her essay about the erosion of a stretch of shoreline near her grandparent\u2019s house, exploring time and memory, was published in the literary magazine of Binghamton University and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her essay was also published in the book, Coming of Age at the End of Nature, a Generation Faces Living on a Changed Planet<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

She is also co-author of a book on fractal geometry, Fractal Worlds: Grown, Built, Imagined<\/a>.<\/p>\nRead More Alumni Profiles<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amelia Urry\u2019s deep curiosity took off at an early age, fueled by rocket scientists. Her father helped launch NASA satellites into space and her mother worked on the Hubble Telescope. \u201cThey were always encouraging me to ask questions about things that interested us, and science was always a part of that,\u201d says Urry, an associate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2195,"featured_media":9224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[51,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alum-hp","category-alumni-reporting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13782,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176\/revisions\/13782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}