Emily Cassidy

Emily Cassidy

Environmental scientist, writer, and open science advocate.

About

Emily Cassidy is an environmental scientist and science writer, with expertise in agriculture, climate change, and land use. She has published in scientific journals including Science, Nature, and Environmental Research Letters and her work has been featured in National Geographic, Vox, and NBC News.

Emily has over a decade of professional experience working with environmental non-profits, universities, and the federal government. In 2022, Emily worked with the United Nations Climate Champions, the International Energy Agency, and the International Renewable Energy Agency on the inaugural Breakthrough Agenda, a roadmap for accelerating international collaboration on reducing emissions from major sectors. Emily led the Agriculture Breakthrough with the World Resources Institute and the United Nations Climate Champions.

An accomplished science writer, Emily is currently a contractor at NASA’s Earth Observatory, where she reports on how our planet is changing. In 2021, she was awarded a NASA Group Achievement Award for contributing to the NASA/ESA/JAXA COVID-19 Earth Observation Dashboard. The dashboard was recognized by the International Astronautical Federation as an example of how remote sensing data can allow decision makers, citizens, and the scientific community to easily access information that may be fundamental to protect our planet.

Emily earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in natural resource science and management from the University of Minnesota. As part of her master’s research, Emily led the publication of a groundbreaking paper, Redefining agricultural yields: from tonnes to people nourished per hectare, which estimated the number of people fed per hectare of cropland across the globe.

Select Recent Work

  • Charting the Exceptional, Unexpected Heat of 2023 and 2024 (November 2024) Global temperatures have soared in recent years and climate scientists are trying to understand why.
  • Satellite Data Suggest U.S. Methane Emissions Underestimated (June 2024) Emissions of the potent greenhouse gas may be higher than previously thought, especially from landfills.
  • Emissions from Fossil Fuels Continue to Rise (March 2024) Scientists’ annual checkup on Earth’s carbon cycle found that burning oil, coal, and natural gas is impeding progress to limit climate change.
  • Indigenous Communities Protect the Amazon (October 2023) Indigenous people are protecting carbon-rich forests in South America, and satellites are helping.
  • Protected Areas Safeguard Climate (June 2023) Protecting carbon stored in ecosystems could be a powerful tool in tackling climate change.
  • How Nepal Regenerated Its Forests (February 2023) After relinquishing control of forests to the villages that depend on them, forest cover in this small mountainous country nearly doubled.
  • Breakthrough Agenda (September 2022)
    The 2022 Breakthrough Agenda Report, led by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, focused on supporting stronger international collaboration to drive faster reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions. Emily led the agriculture sector chapter of the report, published in September 2022.
  • State of Climate Action 2022 (October 2022)
    The State of Climate Action 2022 provides a comprehensive assessment of the gap in climate action by highlighting where recent progress must accelerate over the next decade across power, buildings, industry, transport, forests and land, food and agriculture, technological carbon removal, and finance. Emily co-authored the food and agriculture chapter.
  • Lasering In on Corn Fields (March 2022) An instrument designed to measure tree height can also distinguish corn from other crops. NASA Earth Observatory.
  • Mapping Methane Emissions from Fossil Fuel Exploitation (January 2022) Scientists track the sources of 97 million metric tons of methane emissions. NASA Earth Observatory.
  • Mapping Marine Microplastics (December 2021) Researchers used satellite data to detect and track masses of plastic floating in the ocean. NASA Earth Observatory.
  • Birthplace of a Hidden Figure (August 2021) Katherine Johnson rose above racial struggles to help America rise into space. NASA Earth Observatory.