Amanda Magnani

OptOut's program for independent climate news.

OptOut Climate

Climate

Climate in the elections 🌿 LGN is back 🌿 Record-breaking hurricane season

OptOut’s budget cuts 🌿 $7 tri for Big Oil since Paris Agreement 🌿 Politicians delay Climate Action 🌿 Criminalizing pipeline protests

Biden’s Climate Rush 🌿 Climate Justice Undermined 🌿 Taxing the Rich

Failed climate goals 🌿 Capturing carbon to pump more oil 🌿 Billing companies for climate disasters

Ceasefire for climate 🌿 Heatflation 🌿 Siding with Big Oil

Elections 🌿 LNG opaque dangers 🌿 Solar energy milestone

GOP protests to LNG halt 🌿 Category six hurricanes 🌿 Climate denier school 🌿 IRA’s success

PODCAST: COP 28 – The Ups and Downs of a Climate Conference Hosted by a Petrostate

Biden’s LNG Freeze 🌿 What Big Oil Knew 🌿 Mining Near the Grand Canyon

Greenhushing 🌿 Endangered Species Act 🌿 Methane Emissions Fee

🌿 2023 Climate Roundup 🌿

🌿Key concepts to understand COP28🌿

World doubles down on fossil fuels 🌿 Governments are world’s biggest oil and gas producers 🌿 Egypt after COP 27

An LNG Project Threatens a UNESCO Biosphere in Canada

Earth’s unfitness for human life 🌿 Carbon offsets’ greenwashing 🌿 COP28’s relevance

Indigenous People’s Day 🌿 NYC Unprepared for Climate Disasters 🌿 American Climate Corps

Deadly flood in Libya 🌿 California sues Big Oil 🌿 Indigenous women around the world

Hurricane Idalia strikes Florida 🌿 CCS pipelines worry Louisianans 🌿 Antarctica’s impacts on climate change

Historic climate win in Montana 🌿 Wildfires in Hawaii 🌿 End to oil drilling in part of Ecuador’s Amazon

Health emergency from extreme heat 🌿 Fossil fuel donations for climate denialism 🌿 Amazon Rainforest Summit

PODCAST 🌿 How to Protect Our Planet: Learning From Indigenous Communities in Brazil

U.S.–China Climate Talks 🌿 Raising fees for oil drilling 🌿 Water vulnerability in the Dominican Republic

All-time heat record 🌿 American energy insecurity 🌿 Heat impacts on Bangladesh

Heat Waves, Power Shortages, and Drought in the U.S. 🌿 Brazil’s Oil Expansion

Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy 🌿 Plastics Treaty 🌿 Brazil's 'Marco Temporal'

Decolonizing Climate Change with Amanda Magnani

A Visit to Indigenous Lands in the Brazilian Amazon

Alex Kotch

Meet Amanda Magnani, Your New Climate Editor

Cristian Salazar

PODCAST: Brown Girl Green (Unlocked Full Episode)

Drill, Baby, Drill! Alaskan Oil Extraction

‘Cop City’ and Domestic Terrorism Arrests

🌏 Train Derailment Raises Questions About Lingering Environmental Hazards

The U.S. Climate Migration Has Begun

Christian Downie is a political scientist and professor at the Australian National University, where he researches climate and energy politics. He is also the author of Business Battles in the U.S. Energy Sector. His recent paper with co-author Robert Brulle in the journal Climatic Change traces how fossil fuel trade associations in the U.S. are investing billions of dollars on political activities.

OptOut Climate spoke with Downie about how these trade groups obstruct climate action.

Here's a public preview of the episode. To hear the full episode and get access to more exclusive content and lots of perks, become an OptOut 🎟Member, 🏀Baller, or 👑OG here.

Podcast: How Fossil Fuel Trade Groups Obstruct Climate Action

Radical activism to defend the planet

California’s deadly atmospheric river storms

🌎 Fossil Fuel Industry Fights Climate Action

OptOut sometimes sends content from our issue-based verticals to the full OptOut list, so those who aren't signed up can get a taste of what they're missing. Today we send you a brand new podcast. If you're not already on the OptOut Climate list, you can sign up here.

Kristy Drutman is the founder of Brown Girl Green, a digital media brand that educates and inspires action around sustainability, climate change, and the environment. She is also the founder of Green Jobs Board, the top online destination for people of color to learn about employment in the environment and climate sectors. OptOut Climate spoke with Drutman about how she got started, what it takes to stay authentic on social media, and career planning for 2023.

I think it's really important for content creators to figure out how to do cross-sector collaboration. I've felt much more empowered by my content by actually partnering with organizations on the ground that I feel aligned with, that I know are doing on-the-ground, offline work. I basically like viewing myself as a tool and a servant in some ways to be able to amplify and uplift amazing work that's happening off the internet, and to try to connect people together.

Here's a public preview of the episode. To hear the full episode and get access to more exclusive content and lots of perks, become an OptOut 🎟Member, 🏀Baller, or 👑OG here.

🌍Are you signed up for the OptOut Climate newsletter? If not, sign up here.

🌏 Podcast: Brown Girl Green on BIPOC in Climate Media & Staying Authentic on Social

Podcast: Eric Holthaus on Meteorology, Climate Journalism, and Twitter

Fossil Fuel Companies Fight Climate Action 🌏 California’s Ailing Salton Sea 🌏 Eric Holthaus on Meteorology and Climate Change

COP27 Wrap-Up: Climate Fund 🌎 Lula 🌎 Fossil Fuel Lobbyists

Negotiators Strike Deal for Climate Fund 🌎 Indigenous Climate Action 🌎  Elon Musk Is Not a Climate Champion

Big Oil’s Midterm Meddling 🌍 Reparations for Global South 🌍 NYT Publishes Fossil Fuel Talking Points

Special Edition: OptOut’s Independent Media Guide to COP27

David Moore

Oil and Gas Companies Fuel GOP Congressional Takeover Attempt

Fighting Climate Destruction • Jackson Water Crisis • Climate Activist Xiye Bastida

The Increasing Costs of Hurricanes • An Indigenous Climate Solution • Climate Jobs

A Coal Baron’s Dirty Pipeline Bill • Geoengineering As A Potential Climate Solution • Puerto Rico’s Plight

Pakistan's Catastrophic Flooding • Fossil-Fueled Beauty • COP27

Fossil Fuel Giveaways in the Climate Deal • California Takes on the Auto Industry • Speaking with Emily Atkin

Monster Climate Deal Is Called Historic; Others Angered by Embrace of Fossil Fuel Industries

OptOut Team

Press releases from the OptOut Media Foundation.

Press

Independent News Outlets Call on Corporate Media to Stop Making Ads for Fossil Fuel Industry

Maria Bustillos

Corporate Media Must Stop Making Ads for Fossil Fuel Companies

Liana DeMasi

OptOut's program for independent LGBTQ+ news.

OptOut LGBTQ+

LGBTQ+

The Latest, Some Historical Context, and LGBTQ+ Joy

It’s Pride Month

Florida’s “Summer of Freedom,” Project 2025, and Other Horrors

A Closer Look at Anti-LGBTQ Rhetoric and Subsequent Violence

Nex Benedict, LGBTQ+ Youth, and More of the Latest

The Loss of a Legend & Pamela Paul Strikes Again

Welcoming in 2024 & Taking a Closer Look at Ohio

The Last LGBTQ+ Newsletter Before 2024

Trans Day of Remembrance and the Latest LGBTQ+ News

Our New Extremist Speaker

On Oppression and the Anti-LGBTQ+ Movement

The Body Politic Keeps the Score

The NYT Claims “Sensitivity” and “Respect” While Doing the Exact Opposite

The GOP Debate Served as an Alarming State of the Union

Misinformation, History, and Death by Hate Crime

Whose America is it, Anyway?

SCOTUS, DeSantis, and Existential Dread

Reflecting and Looking Ahead as Pride Month Comes to a Close

Pride 101: Centering Joy Amidst Atrocity

Happy Pride From OptOut!

Don’t Say DeSantis

‘Saying the Quiet Part Loud’: The GOP Is Telling Us Exactly What It Means

The GOP’s Genocidal Plans Against the Trans Community

🏳️‍⚧️ PODCAST: Imara Jones on the Anti-Trans Hate Machine

The GOP’s Terrifying Obsession With Erasing LGBTQ+ People

Notes from an Authoritarian State

The NYT Refuses to Part With Transphobia, and More Notes on Hypocrisy

Black History Month 🏳️‍🌈 One Hell of a Performance 🏳️‍⚧️ Trump’s Pledge

Corporate Media Are Making Life Worse For Trans Kids

Maybe He’s Born With [The Propensity to Lie Through His Teeth]...Maybe it’s George Santos

Kicking Off the New Year With…Much of the Same LGBTQ+ News

Another Two Weeks Plagued by Violent Extremism—Or, On Being LGBTQ+

Maybe She’s Born With it…Maybe it’s the Crippling Weight of Living in an Anti-LGBTQ Hellscape

Newsletter

Another Transphobic NYT Article • The Predictable Crypto Scandal • Labor Strikes Back

Maybe She’s Born With It…Maybe It’s the Crippling Weight of Living in an Anti-LGBTQ Hellscape

🗳️ Election Preview ✊ Fighting Conversion Therapy 🎃 Scary Movies!

Promotions

Independent LGBTQ+ Media Are Essential For Our Basic Rights

Scientology's Secret Immigrant Workforce • Anti-Trans Witch Hunts • Brazil on Fire

Walker Bragman

Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Problem

The Hack of Project 2025, Elections Overseas, and Biden’s Refusal to Step Down

Originals

Opinion: Democracy For Sale

OptOut Stories, Alito’s Woes, and Mask Bans

Unlikely Alliances, Gaza, and The Supreme Court

Chris Rufo’s Big Money Support, The Gaza War, and Trump’s Deal

The Flint Water Crisis At 10: An Interview With Journalist Jordan Chariton

On Student Protests and Free Speech

A Big Week for OptOut, New Revelations About Incarceration in America, and a Former President’s Legal Troubles

Gaza’s Political Footprint, Labor Fights, and More

Supreme Court Cases You Need to Pay Attention To

“Unbought” Kennedy Chooses Major Financial Backer For Running Mate

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Four Years In

COP 28: Three Months Later

The Assault on Public Health, The End of Democracy, and Gaza

The Death of Navalny, Labor Struggles, and COVID Again

Analysis: The Age of Biden

The Immigration Football, a Pandemic, and a Look At Our Government

Long COVID Sufferers Have Their Day

We’re Back and the World is Still a Mess

Happy New Year From OptOut!

One Thing Is Clear: We Need Independent Media

Xmas Newsletter

Gaza Siege Continues, Climate Developments, and Inequality

When a War Criminal Dies

Support Independent Journalism!

Thanksgiving/The National Day of Mourning

New Collaboration with Sludge

The Real Halloween Horror

What is Happening in Gaza?

Extremely Online with Taylor Lorenz

Pessimism With a Strong Economy, Labor Rising, and the 2024 Election

Commentary: 9/11 Left Us All Damaged

Big News About Coming Changes!

Trump's Indictments: A Step Forward Amid Uncertainty

About That New Country Song

Big Story Coming Tomorrow & Top Picks For Last Week

An Interview With 2024 Democratic Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson

The Barbie Meltdown and More Hate

End of Twitter, Green Oceans, and Labor Rising

Technology Woes, New Strategy on Wildfires, and Israeli Occupation

Happy Independence Day to the Unenthusiastic

The Implosion Heard Round the World

Happy Juneteenth From OptOut

Trump Charged, Voting Rights Preserved, and Medicaid Purged

Remembering Black Wall Street, A New Pipeline, and Strikes

Cuts for the Poor, Misinformation, and the 2024 Race

Florida's Anti-LGBTQIA+ Discrimination, OptOut Has Big News, and The Debt Ceiling Becomes a Debacle

CNN's Disastrous Trump Town Hall, Starbucks Union Woes, and Title 42

A Week Of Violence

Silence of the Left, Long COVID, and More

Beyond Trump: Pandemic Medicaid Coverage Ends 🗞 Abortion Pill Banned 🗞 Clarence Thomas' Corruption

Check out the OptOut network's independent coverage of Trump's indictment and more.

Trump Indicted 🗞 Historic Israeli Protests 🗞 Starbucks Busted for Union-Busting

Criminal Charges for Trump, Calls for a New Civil Rights Bill, and a Big Week at OptOut

20 Years After the Iraq Invasion 🗞 Fire The Fed 🗞 Trump's in Trouble

Bank Failures, COVID Crisis, and Hope For Yemen

Nieman Lab Digs OptOut 🗞 Who's Fighting Student Debt Relief? 🗞 Politico Aids Railroad Lobby

SNAP Benefits, Environmental Protests, and Police Shootings

Derailmentgate 🗞 The Times' Anti-Trans Crusade 🗞 Big Tech Myths

Black History Month 🗞 News From Africa 🗞 Where Did Our Attention Spans Go?

🗞 Union Membership Declines as Big Tech Lays Off Thousands

Fifteenth Time's a Charm 🗞 Anti-Trust Victory 🗞 State Abortion Ban Struck Down

Elon Musk's Twitter Purge, COVID's Continued Surge, and Energized Labor

Since launching this newsletter in August 2020, we have sent you over 200 editions, all completely free to the public. During that time, we've built a network of nearly 180 financially independent, trustworthy news outlets, and we've delivered their important work to you via our newsletters—which now include separate Climate, LGBTQ+, and New York editions—and our free app for iOS and Android.

The newsletters and app will remain free! But we are excited to announce a suite of original content and perks for recurring donors to the OptOut Media Foundation, our nonprofit charity, as well as an additional member tier.


Why we're doing this

OptOut has a very modest, and tight, budget. We're a distributed group of 25 paid contractors and volunteers. In 2023, we want the OptOut Media Foundation to blossom into a sustainable nonprofit organization with employees and a huge impact on the journalism industry and society as a whole. To do that, we need to raise a lot more money than we're pulling in right now.

We're pursuing foundation grants and large donations, but it's clear that we need to increase our small, recurring donor base. And the people have spoken: From our recent audience survey, we learned that you would be most likely to become recurring donors if we offer you original content. So we're doing this! Plus, we've got a bunch of additional perks for our supporters, including a brand new Discord chat channel.

You now have four fun tiers to choose from:

 * Free
 * 🎟 Member: $5/month or $55/year
 * 🏀 Baller: $9/month or $100/year
 * 👑 OG: $20/month or $220/year



Here are the new offerings for our supporters!


Gilded Age 🎟 🏀 👑

A podcast about inequality in the second Gilded Age—that is, the present day. It's hosted by OptOut co-founders Walker Bragman and Alex Kotch and OMF board member Mark Colangelo. Guests have included Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Marianne Williamson, and Dave Daley.

All recurring donors have access to all full-length episodes.

And hey, we've got a new one for you right now! For "The Star Wars Holiday Special," Alex and Walker talked with Tom Scocca, the editor-in-chief of POPULA and former editor at Slate, Gawker, and Deadspin, about the new Star Wars series Andor. This "Star Wars for adults" show was surprisingly good, offering complex characters, an eerie look at the banality of evil behind the fascistic Empire, an exploration of class and exploitation, and a lot more.

Here is a public preview of our discussion for non-donors. Please note: there are spoilers! If you're already supporting us financially, you'll see the full episode at the end of this email (or this post on our site, if you're logged in).


OptOutCast 🎟 🏀 👑

A podcast that features our excellent, independent media outlets. In every episode, we interview the dedicated journalists whose outlets we admire so much that we invited them to join our network. Who are these outlets? What's their latest big story, and how did they produce it? Thus far, OptOut Climate Editor Cristian Salazar and I have recorded episodes interviewing POPULA founder Maria Bustillos, MEANS TV co-founder Naomi Burton, CURRENTLY/Project Mushroom founder Eric Holthaus, and OptOut Climate's Brazil correspondent, Amanda Magnani.

Members have access to select full episodes, and Ballers and OGs get 'em all.

Here's our most recent episode, which we offered in full to everyone.

Podcast: Eric Holthaus on Meteorology, Climate Journalism, and TwitterCurrently founder Eric Holthaus joins Cristian in an OptOut Climate podcast.OptOut NewsCristian Salazar


Discord Community 🎟 🏀 👑

OptOut News has a Discord chat community! Recurring donors will have ways to communicate, network, ask us questions, post events and job openings, and help guide our organization as we continue to improve the app and grow our news network. Journalists whose work concerns our three issue-specific programs will join the community in the near future.

All recurring donors have access.


Public Recognition 🎟 🏀 👑

All recurring donors will get recognition of their contribution on our website, and we will personally thank OGs on our podcasts. If you do not want your name listed as a supporter, email support@optout.news. Please note that our transparency policy requires us to disclose all donors who give $500 or more in a given year.


Video Chats with OptOut Leaders 🏀 👑

Ballers and OGs will get access to periodic video conversations with OptOut leaders such as myself, our editors, and other folks who make this organization tick.


Merch! 🏀 👑

New annual Ballers and OGs will get some quality OptOut merch (T-shirt, tote bag, hat, or mug), and new monthly donors at those levels will get a brand new OptOut sticker.

And remember: we are a nonprofit charity, so all donations are tax-deductible. See all tiered benefits here and sign up!

If you're already a recurring OptOut donor, expect to get a Discord invite, see your name on our website, and more very soon!


Please Help OptOut Empower Independent News!

It just so happens that we're in the midst of a fundraising campaign to raise $50,000 by the end of this month so we can continue our work on the app, keep up our newsletter programs, and continue growing our news network and our audience through next year. We've made good progress but still have nearly $30,000 to raise over the next 16 days!

🚨 We need to get to $50,000 to hold corporate and legacy media accountable and maintain our free app and newsletters next year! Will you become an OptOut Member, Baller, or OG to help us elevate independent media?

Join the OptOut Crew!

Thanks so much to those who have already supported us in this fundraising drive!

Onward,

Alex Kotch

Co-Founder and Executive Director


The OptOut Media Foundation (EIN: 85-2348079) is a nonprofit charity with a mission to educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.

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Learn more about OptOut.


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Introducing New OptOut Original Content and Perks!

A Week of Labor Rights and Protest ✊

Facebook Is Replacing Its Human News Editors with AI

World’s Richest Man Ruins Twitter • No Red Wave • UN Climate Conference, Week 1

Pre-Election Special • Corporate Media Failures • Cuba & Brazil

Antisemitism on the Rise • Unionizing Trader Joe's • A $28 Meal at Taco Bell

Battle For Congress Shapes Up • Railway Strike Still Looms • Keeping the Mail Going in Ukraine

Pandemic Update • Hurricane Fallout • Dark Money

Human Rights Backsliding • Meet the BIPOC Press • Indigenous Resistance

Rightwing Governors Ship Migrants to the Northeast, Echoing 1960s Segregationists

SPECIAL LABOR DAY EDITION: Workers Around the World Stand Up

Finally, Student Debt Relief • Anti-LGBTQ+ Fascism • Education Justice in NOLA

Inflation Reduction Act is Law • Florida Guv Tramples on Basic Rights • Liz Cheney, Liberal Hero

Small Towns Work to Protect Abortion Rights • Storing Nuclear Secrets at Your Golf Club • Announcing OptOut Climate!

Dems Fail to Cap Insulin Price • 'Fascist Circus' in Texas • A Fake Climate Group

NYT Blames Workers for Inflation • A Climate Deal • Labor Solidarity

Another Health Emergency • 187 Minutes of Treason • Manchin's Toxic Corruption

📲 Android App! • Roe Woes • Dems Want Biden Alternative

Corporate Media Takes Big Oil's Money • SCOTUS' Awful Term • Musk Won't Buy Twitter

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