Pitches (Environment, Climate)

Deceleration welcomes submissions from freelance journalists, writers, and media producers whose interests fall within the scope of our mission. We welcome proposals for short- and long-form news articles, community op-eds, personal or creative nonfiction essays, theoretical/political analysis, calls to action, multimedia content, and hybrid concepts (documentary poetry, photo essay), and more. You can introduce yourself via this Google form and email your specific proposal to editor@deceleration.news.

Interested in volunteering or paid freelance opportunities?
Introduce yourself via this short form.

When considering whether to accept a proposal, here are a few key things we look for:

If topic is environmental, does it explore alternatives, solutions, new approaches or ways of thinking?
If topic is more closely related to human rights issues (racial justice, Indigenous rights, migrant rights, Black Lives Matter, anti-war/anti-militarism), does it also intersect with environmental analyses (climate justice, degrowth, buen vivir, rights of mother earth, resilience, just transition)?
If topic is outside intersections of environmental/justice, does it provide new and interesting ways of thinking about political praxis (theory/action)?
Is the piece grounded in the San Antonio, South Texas, or Gulf Coast bioregion? Or, if grounded in other bioregions/watersheds, does it hold lessons for this bioregion or point to broader global or theoretical concerns?
Does it offer readers a way to act?

Some technical guidelines for submissions:

Type “Submission” in the subject line and include as an email attachment.
If possible, send us a couple good (high resolution) images that can accompany your piece.
Include credits for any visuals and (if applicable) a caption.
When possible, include hyperlinks in text body so we know where to link out when formatting your piece for web.
To aid in verification of references, include a list of sources cited. If you interviewed someone, provide their contact info. If a website was cited, include the URL.

In submitting to Deceleration, you affirm that this submission is your own, original work. If we accept your piece, Deceleration has first publication rights, but all rights return to you after publication. If you later republish your piece elsewhere, we ask that you acknowledge original publication with Deceleration and include the link. Simultaneous submissions are fine, just let us know if your piece is accepted somewhere else as soon as possible.

We participate in story-sharing partnerships with both Covering Climate Now and the Solutions Journalism Network and enjoy sharing our original work with their global networks for Creative Commons republication. But your participation is not required to be published in Deceleration.

Pay is negotiable, but generally ranges from $250 for shorter explanatory stories, videos, or photo essays, to $0.50/word for longer-form investigative and time-intensive features.