Editorial practices

Everything we publish aims to serve our readers accurate information and expert perspectives about how our climate works, how it’s changing, and practical ways to adapt. Our content is not designed to tell you what to do, rather, it is meant to give you the tools and modes of thinking to make decisions for your own life, based on what you value.

What we write about

The work we publish falls under three content pillars: climate science, climate risk, and climate adaptation. We prioritize topics at the intersection of climate change and culture, society, and systems like financial markets, insurance, and the built environment. 

The topics that Probable Futures Founding Executive Director Alison Smart and Founder Spencer Glendon write about often arise from their speaking engagements with other organizations and their observations in the course of their climate work. 

Editorial process

Every article we publish goes through our rigorous editorial process. We do not substitute artificial intelligence for any component of our process.

Writing and editorial review

Each article is the work of multiple Probable Futures team members and a highly-collaborative spirit—three to five team members review every article for comprehensibility and alignment with leading scientific consensus. Our authors attend regular meetings with Woodwell Climate Research Center on climate science topics and track publications in scientific journals. 

We also co-author pieces with industry experts and partner organizations that align with our editorial principles. When we write about a specific place, we have conversations with people who live and work there. 

Design

We work with a team of designers and engineers to create visual and interactive features to clarify important concepts. We do not use photos or visuals that dramatize concepts or draw on emotions. 

Scientific review

As a final step before publishing, each piece of content goes through a scientific review with a scientist from the Woodwell Climate Research Center and other experts. Reviewers assess our offerings in depth, confirming that our chosen language holds up to scrutiny, is widely used in the scientific community, and is defensible and well-documented.

Updates

After publishing, the Probable Futures content team revisits content on an annual basis and in response to any notable developments or publications in climate science.

Funding and influence

To us, the gift of information about our changing climate is more important than content ownership. Our work is free to access and available to republish under the Creative Commons license.  Read our republishing guidelines here.

Probable Futures is a non-profit organization run on donations and a fiscal partnership with The Resiliency Company. Donors and our fiscal partner have no influence over the content we create.