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Our Climate

A Collective Action to Save Our World

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Our Climate

Our Climate

Our Climate

Our Climate

Our Climate

A Collective Action to Save Our World

A Collective Action to Save Our World

A Collective Action to Save Our World

A Collective Action to Save Our World

Climate Pictures
Climate Pictures
Climate Pictures
Climate Pictures
1 Campaign |
Shepherdstown, United States
$455 USD 8 backers
4% of $10,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
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Overview
Jefferson County, West Virginia is a magical place with a rich history, breathtaking natural beauty, and a robust, diversified economy. When all of that is threatened by an industrial polluter and it's cronies in local and state government the citizens fight back to defend their way of life and protect their future. Our heroes suddenly find themselves on the front lines of the global climate wars, organizing and mobilizing against entrenched fossil fuel interests and the politicians they own.

Join the Action!

We're pioneering episodic storytelling and audience participation as an integral part of nonviolent moral direct action to protect our planet from the worst effects of climate change.

Our community is fighting for clean air, fresh water, healthy children and a prosperous future. We're not alone. With the global threat of climate change driven by entrenched commercial and industrial interests, every person on earth faces the same challenges. Most are either in denial, feel powerless, or don't know how to take action and join the fight.

With Our Climate: A Collection Action to Save Our World, we will document the strategies, methods and direct actions we deploy in an asymmetrical struggle against a global, multibillion-dollar corporation. We will capture the drama, intrigue, victories, and setbacks in our uphill battle. Just like in the global climate wars, surrender is not an option. We're all fighting to save our home planet on a tight timeline. The threat to our county is even more imminent.

While the stakes are high, and the sacrifices are serious, we're a fun-loving, warm and often hilarious community filled with characters you'll want to bring into your life.

Unlike documentaries that are released after the dust has settled, nobody knows the outcome of our struggle. Our audience will follow our actions through Facebook Live and periodic, high-quality episodes on Facebook and YouTube. We will be pitching streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime to reach a broader audience, increase the frequency and improve production values.

We intend to build a global platform that documents the fight for environmental, social and climate justice in communities around the world and right here at home.

Let's Escalate

We're launching a global boycott, divestment campaign and direct actions aimed at preventing the construction of a heavily polluting factory. We'll be disrupting supply chains, targeting distributors and customers, and calling out complicit politicians in the most public ways possible.

Our tactics will span from nonviolent moral direct action in the tradition of MLK and Gandhi, through power-mapping and value-chain leverage to corporate culture-jamming antics. 

This fight could get expensive. While we're a volunteer army, we need transportation, lodging, printing, and online marketing as well as videographers, editors, media relations, court costs, lawyers, and bail money.

We'll be fighting battles in Charleston, WV, our state capital, at the headquarters of our opposition in Denmark, throughout Jefferson County, in Washington, DC, and at trade shows, events and corporate offices across the globe.

We're raising $10,000 for the initial half-hour pilot. The benefit of this approach is that the funding for the pilot and each episode also covers the costs of the direct actions that will be covered! If all goes well, we plan to crowdfund the entire season while also pitching streaming services for a distribution deal.

Contributors will receive amazing perks, include books by leaders of our movement, tickets to the Premier Hoedown, t-shirts, hoodies, stickers and other fan favorites.

If we don't reach our entire goal, we'll use the funds for the next direct actions and do our best to produce high-quality content like the video on this page, and our coverage of the Danish Embassy Action, Senator Manchin Action, Denmark Rally at Town Run and other events for distribution through social media in support of our cause.

On the Front Lines of the Climate Wars

West Virginia is known for its pepperoni rolls, rivers, mountains, and fossil fuels. In Jefferson County, we're fighting the construction of a heavily polluting mineral wool insulation factory by the Danish multi-national company Rockwool. 

Rockwool was offered over $37 million in incentives to build the factory for only 150 low-paying jobs, a cost of $250,000 per job. The residents of Queens rejected Amazon's "HQ2" because they felt the $60,000 per job price tag was too high. Even at an average salary over $125,000, locals would have preferred their tax money went to schools, parks, infrastructure and other investments in the commonweal.

So what's driving the project? 84 tons of coal and 1.61 million cubic feet of fracked gas every day. While the rest of the world is shutting down coal plants and transitioning to renewable energy, the West Virginia state government is hell-bent on extracting, distributing and burning as much coal and fracked gas as possible before they can be stopped.

Jefferson County is home to one of the last clean air- and watersheds in West Virginia, and we boast the state's most vibrant, diversified economy. The state of West Virginia and its allies in Jefferson County government are willing to sacrifice the environment and economy in order to create a new market for fossil fuels.

Through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, citizen researchers learned of the state's intention to create a 1,000-acre zone for heavy industry loaded with water, sewer and fracked gas infrastructure, with Rockwool as the anchor tenant.

Most distressing for residents was the location of the Rockwool plant directly across the road from an elementary school and economically distressed housing development. The 156,000 tons of pollutants permitted annually include toxic chemicals such as phenol, benzene, formaldehyde, and methanol, as well as small particulate matter and greenhouse gasses. These pollutants can cause chronic and fatal diseases of the kidneys, liver, lungs, heart, and brain. They cause premature births and birth defects. The plant would further strain an already stressed health system.

But this is where it stops. 

As Jay Mansfield, a local hero of our movement says, "Jefferson County, WV is where bad ideas come to die," referring to the abolitionist John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry that signalled the beginning of the end of slavery.

Situated in the Potomac Highland Valley at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, Jefferson County is home to fierce fighters who are willing to stand up to fossil fuel interests and end their reign in West Virginia, and worldwide. A victory here will signal a blow to global fossil fuel interests intent on creating new markets for greenhouse-gas emitting fuels before we finally muster the political will to transition to a net-zero economy.

The project team has deep experience in movement organizing, video production, social media and entrepreneurship. As we strike a blow against the commercial and industrial interests that are destroying the planet, we'll be engaging, entertaining and educating a global audience in activist strategies, tactics, and techniques.

As a contributor to our project, you'll see the results of your contributions and help us build our movement and defeat the polluters and their cronies in government.

The Challenges We Face

We are fighting an uphill battle against powerful industrial and commercial interests. We might not be able to stop the factory. 

By documenting our struggle through episodic storytelling that unfolds over time, we hope that even if we lose the battle of Jefferson County we will help win the global climate wars. We will not surrender because we cannot. Humanity only has one home, and we must protect it. Everything must change, starting here and starting now.

We will be open and transparent and use our platform to connect with and promote our allies fighting other battles around the world. We will use our stories to inspire, energize, motivate and mobilize. We hope to turn our audience into activists, followers into organizers, friends into leaders.

Join Our Campaign!

Even if you can't provide financial support, you can still join our campaign for clean air and water, healthy children and a prosperous future in communities around the world and right here at home.

Please help us get the word out by sharing our campaign, join our Facebook group, follow us on Twitter and learn more about how we can change the world through non-violent moral direct action.

Let's win!

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