About Us
FAQ | CONTACT US | PRESS
A: The Climate Desk is a journalistic collaboration dedicated to exploring the impact—human, environmental, economic, political—of a changing climate. The partners are The Atlantic, Center for Investigative Reporting, Grist, Mother Jones, Slate, Wired, and PBS's new public-affairs show Need To Know.
Q: Why collaborate on a project about the climate?
A: Because even though it's a fascinating and important story, it hasn't been told very well.
Q: Why not?
A: There are four main reasons: 1) Climate change is slow-moving, vast, and overwhelming for news organizations to grapple with. 2) What coverage there is tends to be fractured and compartmentalized—science, technology, politics, and business aspects are covered by different teams, or "desks" of reporters, despite the intrinsic connections. 3) Coverage is too often fixated on imperiled wildlife, political gamesmanship, or the "debate" over the existence of climate change, all at the expense of advancing the bigger story—how we're going to address, mitigate, or adapt to it. 4) Cuts to news organizations are making matters worse.
Q: Why does your first series of stories focus on how businesses are adapting to a changing climate?
A: We felt it was an underreported topic, and the rich journalistic terrain would give us a great vantage point from which to explore future story ideas. Businesses are increasingly forced to address the risks and opportunities of climate change. They will also drive much of the innovation that could help solve it. Going forward, we plan to look at the question of adaptation in a broader sense, and beyond that we'll go wherever a good story leads us.
Q: Could that include problems with climate science or with advocacy groups?
A: Absolutely. Our only dogma is good journalism.
Q: So what's the advantage to collaborating?
A: For one thing, more hands on deck and more outlets mean we can do more coverage, bringing our various strengths and audiences to bear. For another, given the transformation of the media business, collaboration seems to be part of the future of journalism. We want to test out a new kind of distributed journalism—bringing together a group of reporting shops to brainstorm, assign, and share coverage. Already, this process has enriched our own understanding of the issue, and that can only be a benefit to our readers.
Q: Why these partners?
A: The group developed organically, but we also started with a constellation that didn't contain head-to-head competitors.
Q: Might more partners come on board?
A: Yes, though we're mindful of how many cats can be herded.
Q: So how will this collaboration manifest itself?
A: We're going to experiment with various forms. In our pilot project, a couple of pieces were assigned by consensus with an intent to run them across all of our publications; others originated with one shop but were offered up to all; and others ran in full only on the sites that produced them. We might create and share data sets, tools, or reader-engagement strategies.
Q: Who built your site?
A: The Climate Desk site was designed by the team at Wired, and built in Drupal by New Eon Media. The article and blog feeds are powered by Publish2, a collaborative curation tool that helps journalists bring the best of the Web to their readers.
Q: Where do you get your money?
A: So far, our principal funding has come from two foundations: the Surdna Foundation and the Park Foundation, both of which have a long history of funding journalism on energy and environmental policy.
Q: How is the project administered?
A: Editorially, it's run by a group of journalists from the partner organizations. Fiscally, it is hosted by the Foundation for National Progress, Mother Jones' nonprofit parent. If we attain escape velocity, the Climate Desk could become its own 501(c)3 organization.
Q: Are you going to raise more money?
A: We sure hope so! Given that this story affects every person, creature, and business on the planet, we think there are many potential sources of funding. Anyone who'd like to support us can contact donate@theclimatedesk.org.
Q: Is there any other way I can help?
A: Spread the word: Follow us on Twitter or Facebook.
Q: How do I contact you?
A: General inquiries can be sent to info@theclimatedesk.org. Press inquires can be sent to Marlene Saritzky, at (415) 713-1241 or marmv@comcast.net.
