Every brief on the wire is written by Mara Okonkwo at the back table and copyedited by Tom Esquivel, who keeps the record: dates, names, quotations and the state of the sources. The photographs that illustrate the briefs are produced for this journal by the photographer Jules Brandt; each caption names its scene, and none is presented as a document it is not.

Checking a brief

A brief is checked against the public record before it joins The wire: archived versions of the pages that once lived at this address, official conference documents, and reference works. The margin of each brief lists the sources consulted, with links where links exist. Where the record is thin, the brief says so rather than filling the gap.

Writing to the back table

Corrections, documents and reading suggestions reach the back table at wire@durbanclimatejustice.org. A correction that changes a brief is noted on the wire, not silently folded in: the wire keeps its own record the way it asks the record to be kept.