One year of Quitting Carbon

Quitting Carbon is a 100% subscriber-funded publication. To support my work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a one-time donation.

Today marks one year since I launched this newsletter.

All of you who have bookmarked this site, signed up for the newsletter, shared one of its stories on social media, or supported Quitting Carbon with a paid subscription have made it possible for me to keep this publication going into its second year. Thank you!

As I wrote when this publication went live last year, the “through line at Quitting Carbon will be the projects, people, and policies advancing the energy transition and reducing climate pollution.”

And that’s what I’ve done. In a mix of original reporting, commentary informed by my many years covering this space, Q&As with policy and business leaders, and roundups of what I’ve been reading, my goal has been to explain the unfolding energy transition.

And you’ve responded enthusiastically, making time in your inbox each week for stories about solar repowering, cold-climate heat pumps, California’s efforts to prune its fossil gas network, the launch of plug-in solar in the U.S., and my all-electric home – to name some of your favorites.

I am immensely grateful to everyone who has supported Quitting Carbon with a paid monthly or annual subscription, even though the stories were not behind a paywall.     

But … this is also what we journalists are up against. Most Americans do just about anything they can to avoid paying for journalism:

I share this graphic not to scold anyone, but to reinforce just how much journalism now depends on readers’ willingness to pay for the stories that really matter to them.

The business models that had kept publications afloat no longer work, with layoffs still an everyday occurrence across all media. Times are especially tough for the parts of the news business that are essential to understanding the world (i.e., climate teams) but, unlike games, recipes, and sports, don’t pay the bills.

Most of the climate and energy journalism I value most is published either under a nonprofit model (Canary Media, Inside Climate News), or via newsletters (Volts, Cold Eye Earth) like this one. With legacy media not willing to reliably support journalism on the climate crisis and energy transition over the long term (CBS News recently gutted its climate team, as Sammy Roth reported at his new newsletter, Climate-Colored Goggles – subscribe!), journalists like me have turned to other models to keep doing the work we love.

You’ll never read a story published at Quitting Carbon whose first draft was generated by ChatGPT. All the work I publish here is – and always will be – my own, informed by my more than two decades of experience as a reporter and editor covering climate solutions and clean energy.

In Quitting Carbon’s first year, everything I published was free and open to the public. I want these stories to reach as many people as possible.

But the unavoidable truth is that unless more of you are willing to pay for the journalism you read here, and everywhere else your curiosity takes you online, independent, original reporting and analysis won't survive for long.    

I want the stories at Quitting Carbon to remain free to read, but I can only do so if readers like you step up to invest in my work.

So, please consider becoming a monthly or annual subscriber, or making a one-time contribution of whatever you can afford, so I can continue to bring you my reporting and analysis on the world’s most important story.

With gratitude,

Justin

P.S. You can find me on Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Mastodon and reach me at justingerdes@gmail.com or at Signal: JustinGerdes.85 to share feedback, tips, and story ideas.