FIELD NOTES from Alexander C. Kaufman is a scoop-driven newsletter devoted to original reporting and analysis about the deals, geopolitics, policies and technologies fueling the fast-changing world of energy. Subscribe today to join an influential global audience of business leaders, policymakers, advocates, and experts.
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I’m Alexander Charles Kaufman, a writer and award-winning reporter who has covered energy, climate change and geopolitics for more than a decade.
My reporting has taken readers all over the world, from China’s first atom-smashing lab to the Netherlands’ only nuclear reactor, Greenland’s ice sheet to the Munduruku people’s homeland in the Brazilian Amazon. I strive to understand the nuances of the energy transition and explain how decisions made in faraway capitals affect ordinary people in places from Mississippi to Mongolia, Puerto Rico to Taiwan.
At the moment, I’m particularly interested in stories about minerals, nuclear power, geothermal energy, natural gas, the grid, energy efficiency, supply chains, and the geopolitics of energy in a changing world.
My background:
I started in journalism at 15 years old, writing for The Long-Islander, a weekly newspaper Walt Whitman founded nearly 200 years ago. In college, I became one of the youngest editors-in-chief of my campus newspaper, The Berkeley Beacon. I went on to work for The Boston Globe, The Wrap, and International Business Times before ending up at HuffPost in 2014, where I served as a senior reporter and helped organize a staff union with the Writers Guild of America, East. My HuffPost stories were syndicated by Wired, Mother Jones, Slate, Grist, and Canada’s National Observer. I have spoken on stage at conferences such as SXSW and the WebSummit, and appeared on television in the U.S., the Philippines, Pakistan, Australia and Singapore.
I’m a contributing reporter to Latitude Media, and a regular contributor to the BBC World Service show “Business Matters.” Aside from this newsletter, I write for a range of places including The Atlantic, MIT Technology Review, Fortune, The New Republic, Canary Media, Heatmap, Sherwood News, and GZERO.
I’m a nonpartisan journalist. I do not give money to campaigns or causes other than a few nonprofits related to journalism. Having had an editor at such an early age reminding me to preserve my editorial independence, I have never donated to or volunteered for a politician’s campaign. I always vote, and have not missed a single local election in nearly a decade.
A little more about me:
During the early months of the pandemic, I wrote a children’s nonfiction book about aquatic ecosystems and the threats they face. It’s called Earth’s Aquarium, and it’s available here and in at least four languages.
My wife Amanda, our daughter Eve, and I live up the avenue from where she grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, in an apartment we share with a cat named Ashitaka and dozens of houseplants.
Three facts which I delight in telling people about our neighborhood:
It was once called Yellow Hook, until 19th century officials changed the name to avoid associations with yellow fever.
In the first half of the 20th century, the Norwegian diaspora community was so big that a resident told The New York Times in 1971: “Bay Ridge is the fourth largest city of Norway. First is Oslo, second is Bergen, third is Stavanger—and fourth is Bay Ridge.” There’s still a Norwegian Day Parade here every May 18, and the “Mad Men” character Peggy Olson is from here.
Despite colloquially being referred to as part of South Brooklyn, it is in fact the westernmost portion of southern Brooklyn. The distinction traces back to before the Dutch colonial village of Brooklyn, née Breuckelen, grew and annexed neighboring New Utrecht. South Brooklyn denotes Brooklyn’s original southern border and includes Sunset Park, Cobble Hill, Gowanus and Red Hook. Southern Brooklyn, by contrast, was formerly the western half of New Utrecht, stretching from modern-day Bay Ridge, through Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Coney Island, all the way to Gravesend and perhaps a little beyond.
It’s that kind of trivia and passion you can expect from subscribing to this newsletter.
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