About Deceleration – Deceleration

This is Deceleration.

Deceleration is a nonprofit online journal producing original news and analysis responding to our shared ecological, political, and cultural crises. We write at the intersection of environment and justice—journalistically, academically, and creatively—with emphasis on our home communities and bioregion (the watersheds of San Antonio, South Texas, and the Gulf South, broadly). Deceleration is dedicated to cultivating radical imagination that goes to the roots of climate disturbance in historical systems of oppression while expanding and deepening the sorts of solutions we put into practice for protecting and creating the commons.

Deceleration is inspired by intellectual and political movements around the world for degrowth, buen vivir, the right to the city, and the rights of nature/mother earth.

We aspire to create a community space for sharing both the ideas and practice required for a just transition. We aim to fight forward as well as fight back (in the words of the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative) to support the development of community networks of care and resilience rather than simply chronicling catastrophe.

Interested in volunteering or freelance opportunities? 
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We welcome proposals for short- and long-form reporting, essay, and analysis within and beyond our geography that fit within the scope of our mission (see our submission guidelines).

Deceleration’s stories are (typically) published under Creative Commons license and are free to republish with proper attribution. Our stories (and podcasts) have appeared in Truthout, WhoWhatWhy, Esperanza Project, Texas Observer, Texas Signal, Resilience, Public Health Watch, Monthly Review, La Voz, San Antonio Current, NowCastSA, Popular Resistance, Portside, and elsewhere. Deceleration is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, Local Independent Online News Publishers, Covering Climate Now news collaborative, and the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism.

We Are Produced By…

Executive Editor Marisol Cortez, Ph.D. inhabits the difficult terrain between artistic, activist, and academic worlds. Beginning her political life as a poet, she later participated in grassroots campaigns for environmental justice in her hometown of San Antonio, which inspired her doctoral research at the University of California at Davis. After graduating in 2009 with her Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, she trafficked between academia and community organizing before returning to San Antonio to apply her education as a writer, editor, and community-based scholar. In 2020 she gave birth to the South Texas cli-fi novel Luz At Midnight (FlowerSong Press), which won the 2021 Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters and the 2022 Creative Book Award from the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. For more on Luz and other publications and projects-in-process, visit her website at mcortez.net.

Managing Editor/Founder Greg Harman is an independent journalist who has written about environmental health and justice issues since the late 1990s. He has worked as a clean energy organizer for the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club and is a former editor of the San Antonio Current and former contributing editor at Texas Climate News. His work has appeared in places such as the Austin Chronicle, The Guardian, Indian Country Today, Yes! Magazine, Houston Press, and the Texas Observer, among others. His journalism has been recognized by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, Houston Press Club, Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, Public Citizen Texas, and Associated Press Managing Editors. He holds a bachelor’s in English from Texas Wesleyan University and a master’s degree in International Relations (Conflict Transformation) from St. Mary’s University.

Calendar Editor Ceiba Ili is a cultural educator and musician from Honduras who skillfully incorporates indigenous instruments and languages into her music. Her work bridges the worlds of migrant communities and indigenous rights and promotes environmental justice.

Deceleration Contributors: Daniel Braaten, Isabel Briseño, Tom Brown, Jennifer G. Correa, James Courtney, Gaige Davila, Jesse Harasta, Annie Hartnett, Elyse Hauser, Peter Howson, Scott Kanski, Paul Krantz, Jennifer Lane, Rachel Leland, Danielle López, Frances Madeson, Wendee Nicole, Kit O’Connell, Kamala Platt, Chivas Sandage, Diane Wilson, Joseph M. Simpson, and Syris Valentine.

Community Advisors

Deceleration’s Community Advisors help keep us doing good and staying out of (too much) trouble. Learn more about them here.

LISTEN IN: Deceleration’s First Open House

Editorial Independence

Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions. We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.

Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content. Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization.

We vigorously guard against conflicts of interest and disclosing them if they arise. We do not accept compensation or gifts of any kind in return for coverage. We will not make donations of any kind to political candidates or political action committees.

Financial Transparency

Deceleration has a GuideStar Gold Rating. We will be updating our site in the coming months to provide easy access to our financials to provide maximum financial transparency and accountability.

We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization. Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions. We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics and special projects. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that operates as a public trust, we do not pay certain taxes. We may receive funds from standard government programs offered to nonprofits or similar businesses.

Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors or any revenue source. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.

We will make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.

Accuracy

We may disagree about what the facts of a matter mean, but we take our job accurately communicating facts seriously. If you spot an error of fact, email editor@deceleration.news and we’ll take care of it as quickly as possible.

Our readers keep Deceleration growing and deepening our work with small recurring donations. (You can join them here.) In addition to reader donations, Deceleration has received financial support from:

Special thanks to María Antonietta Berriozábal and Jack Elder for their personal donations—as well as their lives spent modeling kindness and justice.