33 Publications that Pay for Writing on Climate Change

Around a month ago, Hurricane Helene appeared in the news. It was heading towards Florida as a “category 4” hurricane. I know few people in Florida, so while I was worried, it wasn’t personal.

Then, when it hit, it didn’t stay in Florida. It traveled. Fast. All the way up to the mountains of North Carolina, where the devastation was completely unexpected. A friend was without power, running water, access to gas, or clear roads for over a week.

And while climate change may not have caused Hurricane Helene, it certainly made it worse. Our oceans are heating up — and that extra heat adds extra fuel to hurricanes just like this one.

I’m 42 years old. When my eldest child is 42 it will be 2057. The state of the world she will live in very much depends on what we do about climate change now, and in the years to come. It’s been clear for many years that fossil fuels cause climate change, and that climate change will lead to more natural disasters. Yet fossil fuel extraction is still increasing. This will affect every hot-button issue of today: immigration, the cost of food, housing, and even healthcare. I don’t know what the future holds, but I sincerely hope that we’ll be able to make real progress on this, so that my now 9 year old can live in a sane and peaceful world when she’s my age.

And now — for those who want to get paid to write about climate change, here’s a list of 33 publications that pay for writing on the topic.

Keep in mind that this isn’t a comprehensive list. I very much see a need for local newspapers and publications to publish more stories about how climate change will affect local communities — which is another avenue to look into, for those pursuing this niche.

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1. Mother Jones is an investigative news organization. They report on politics, criminal and racial justice, democracy, human rights, education, climate change, food/agriculture, and more. They commission revelatory and dynamic stories that teach people something they didn’t already know. Their print rates begin at $1.75/word, while their online rates begin at $0.75/word. For more details, read their freelance writer guidelines.
2. The Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ) is a nonprofit print and digital magazine that educates the nonprofit sector through research-based articles and resources. They usually publish articles of 1,500-3,000 words. They especially look for articles and pitches that cover one or more of their “four justice areas—economic, racial, climate, and health justice—as well as leadership, management, and philanthropy.” According to their climate justice senior editor, they pay $300 for web pieces. To learn more, refer to their submissions page.
3. Climate Home News covers global climate politics. They accept news stories that have a climate change angle as well as an international outlook. Topics of interest include “climate finance, major energy projects, land use conflicts, loss and damage attributable to climate change, greenwash, climate diplomacy and geopolitics.” The standard word count is 600 words.  Rates begin at £0.35/word. For more information, visit this page.
4. Grist is a non-profit online publication that covers climate and sustainability. They welcome “a wide range of freelance pitches, from reported essays to in-depth investigations to changemaker profiles and Q&As.” Their “core topics include clean energy, sustainable food, environmental justice, livable communities, and reinventing the economy through cutting-edge science and cleantech.” Articles range between ​800 to 2,000 words.  Pay starts at $0.80 per word. Details here.
5. The Earth Island Journal is a quarterly magazine that discusses the environment and how it relates to present-day issues, including climate change, environmental justice, and wildlife and land conservation. They pay 25 cents per word, up to 4,000 words. They pay $200 for stories published online. To learn more, make sure to read their full submission guidelines.
6. The Sierra is the magazine of the Sierra club, the non-profit environmental activist organization. Their readers are “are environmentally concerned, politically diverse, and actively enjoy the outdoors.” Their standard rate for online stories is $450 (up from $350). They pay $250 for reviews and opinion pieces. They pay up to $1.50 a word for feature articles in their print edition, and between $250 to $2,000 for other stories. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
7. Hothouse is a climate focused newsletter that publishes investigative reporting about climate solutions. They pay 50 cents per word. They’re relatively new, but they have backing from Columbia University, the Solutions Journalism Network, and the Google News Initiative. To learn more and to pitch them, read this page.
8. Long Now is a non-profit organization that fosters long-term thinking. Their pitch guide says, “Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now.” They want stories that explore the ‘long now’ of climate change, the rise and fall of civilizations, biotechnology and artificial intelligence, economics, architecture, and more. They accept pitches for essays (1,200 – 3,000 words), reported features (1,200 to 3,000 words), interviews (2,000 to 3,000 words), book reviews, shorter articles, fiction, and poems for Ideas, their living archive of long-term thinking. Rates begin at $600 for features and essays and range between $300 and $600 for interviews, reviews, science journalism, and news articles. Rates are $100 for science fiction stories and $25 for poems. For more information, refer to their pitch guide.
9. Nexus Media News is a nonprofit news service dedicated to climate change. They are always seeking pieces on how communities across the United States are responding to the climate crisis. They are especially interested in solutions-oriented stories centering on frontline and BIPOC communities. Their rates start at $500 for reported features (1,000 to 1,200 words) and single-subject profiles. For details, read their pitch guide.
10. Outrider strives to be “an online source of hard-hitting commentary and journalism that calls for the end of nuclear weapons and action against the existential threat of climate change.” They are seeking new voices to produce climate and nuclear non-proliferation journalism. Their standard rate is $1,000/story. Their stories are usually 1,000-1,200 words. To learn more, read their writer guidelines.