{"id":19639,"date":"2020-11-19T15:40:34","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T20:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metcalfinstitute.org\/?p=19639"},"modified":"2025-09-02T12:54:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T16:54:48","slug":"emily-atkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/emily-atkin\/","title":{"rendered":"Emily Atkin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PhotoClimate change creates a sense of urgency and uncertainty for many. But for climate journalist Emily Atkin, her frustration over the response to the crisis speaks to another emotion: anger. \u201cAnger about the inaction and injustices behind this crisis is a key emotion in fighting the major forces that have been preventing climate action for the last 30 years,\u201d says Atkin, an alumna of Metcalf Institute\u2019s 2015 Climate Change and the News: Planning and Response seminar.<\/a> That anger gave birth to Heated<\/em><\/a>, an online newsletter she created in 2019 \u201cfor those who are pissed off about climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkin says she produces the newsletter for those who question why more action is not being taken to address major climate change impacts. \u201cI want Heated<\/em> to expose and explain the forces behind past and present inaction on the most existential threat of our time,\u201d states Atkin. \u201cPeople are dying and suffering, and we can only expect more of this in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkin received a B.A. in journalism from the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz. She began her career reporting for the Legislative Gazette<\/em>, a New York-based newspaper focused on politics and policy issues. She also worked as a research assistant for the late Wayne Barrett, a widely-respected investigative reporter for the Village Voice,<\/em> who served as an important mentor for her. Atkin went on to work for Think Progress<\/em> as a climate reporter and deputy editor where she managed a team of reporters and traveled across the country covering environmental and political issues. \u201cAfter working a range of political scenes, I was still interested in political journalism but wanted to produce coverage that was more meaningful,\u201d explains Atkin.<\/p>\n

This led her to the New Republic<\/em> and a focus on climate reporting. \u201cClimate change is the most important and interesting story a journalist can cover,\u201d says Atkin, a move she calls an important prerequisite for starting Heated<\/em>. \u201cWorking for the magazine helped give me the courage I needed to express my own approach to climate journalism through my own outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkin also values the connections she made with other journalists at Metcalf Institute\u2019s 2015 Climate Change and the News Science Seminar, which she calls \u201cthe most lasting and memorable impacts of my participation with Metcalf.\u201d The Metcalf Seminar \u201cwas my first gathering with other environmental journalists and it laid the foundation for a career\u2019s worth of networking, meeting people, and building relationships within environmental reporting.\u201d Having associations with other journalists, who recommended Atkin as a trustworthy source, boosted the newsletter\u2019s reputation. \u201cAlong with building trust and a foundation with your readership, connections with other journalists are essential to having a successful career,\u201d she states. \u201cJournalists rely on each other to lend credibility.<\/p>\n

Atkin says Heated <\/em>has had a significant impact on readers\u2019 attitudes about climate change, in some cases resulting in policy changes. For example, Atkin published a story in Heated<\/em> about Twitter banning ads that promoted climate action, but allowing fossil-fuel industries to place ads that rejected climate change. Atkin recalls this story generating so much outrage and strong reactions that Twitter changed its policy. \u201cHeated<\/em> has justified the value of and the force of accountability reporting,\u201d says Atkin, who adds that many of her readers say they are now much more confident about discussing climate change. \u201cIt can actually make a difference!\u201d<\/p>\n

She says Heated prompted some of those readers to get involved in climate activism or start their own initiatives. \u201cHeated has created a community of people who rely on it to be better-informed citizens,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is the most important thing journalism can do: create an informed public.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to publishing Heated, Atkin also teaches a climate journalism course at SUNY New Paltz. As for the future of Heated, she has high hopes for the newsletter\u2019s continued success and envisions expanding the publication beyond a newsletter in the future. \u201cI want to use the latter part of my career to mentor and teach journalists, especially journalists from underserved populations,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt was an important part of my education to learn from great professors who had careers as journalists, so I want to give back what they gave to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Written by Gabriella Placido. She’s in her second year of a URI College of the Environment and Life Sciences (CELS) Communication Fellowship. The Fellowship was established in 2014 to help graduate students gain hands-on science communication experience by interviewing, gathering content for stories, and writing for the CELS website, social media, and newsletter.<\/em><\/p>\nread more alumni profiles<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Climate change creates a sense of urgency and uncertainty for many. But for climate journalist Emily Atkin, her frustration over the response to the crisis speaks to another emotion: anger. \u201cAnger about the inaction and injustices behind this crisis is a key emotion in fighting the major forces that have been preventing climate action for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2201,"featured_media":19684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19639","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\/2201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19639"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22934,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19639\/revisions\/22934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}