HEATED/Atkin: Retrenchment, Burnout, Questioning

“Will HEATED end its biased and vehemence against critics of climate exaggeration and forced energy transformation? Will Emily Atkin consider the welfare of energy consumers and taxpayers? The harms of wind, solar, and batteries? The Big Money and Big Power agenda of the Climate Industrial Complex?”

The announcement came the week before Christmas. In “A Note on the Future: Taking a Short Break, and Changing Course,” Emily Atkin of HEATED (“A newsletter for people who are pissed off about the climate crisis”) announced:

In 2024, the fifth year of HEATED, we continued our mission of producing original, impactful, reader-powered journalism that holds polluters to account…. But our paid subscriber community did not grow in tandem with our free community this year. In fact, we have fewer paying subscribers now than we did at this time last year….

But I also know that HEATED failed to grow in 2024 because I’m once again experiencing symptoms of burnout. I’m slipping back into burnout—not to the extreme degree I felt when I took my six-month hiatus in 2022, but to a serious enough extent where I know it’s time to change course.

The upshot? The goal of reader funding has been abandoned, Emily laid off her coworker, and HEATED is going silent for the next month. “I’ll use this time to decompress and reflect on the reporting cadence and direction I want to take once I return on January 20—the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration,” Atkin states.

“I’m genuinely sorry to anyone I’ve disappointed with this decision,” she added.

If you subscribed because you were excited about the prospect of building a reader-funded climate newsroom, I totally understand if you want to move on. But if you still want to read my reporting and perspective as we head into Trump 2.0, I hope you’ll stick around.

But will HEATED end its biased and vehemence against critics of climate exaggeration and forced energy transformation? Will Atkin consider the welfare of energy consumers and taxpayers? The harms of wind, solar, and batteries? The Big Money and Big Power agenda of the Climate Industrial Complex? Desperate times call for a fundamental rethink.

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MasterResource has challenged HEATED/Akin in these prior posts, and the criticisms still stand.

“Psychedelics for Climate Action” (August 7, 2024)

“Personally, when I take mushrooms, the last thing I want to do is think about climate change. But that’s apparently what I should be doing, according to … Psychedelics for Climate Action.” (Emily Atkin)

Kevon Martis Responds to ‘Heated’ Ad Hominem (February 10, 2023)

“Though Martis’s crusade hasn’t been covered much by national media, clean energy advocates say it’s actively hamstringing the fight against climate change in the Midwest. A clean energy executive told HEATED and Distilled that if Martis gets to a community before them, their projects are almost certain to be blocked by the local government. The executive asked for anonymity in fear of being targeted by Martis.” (Emily Atkin)

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