It’s been way too long since we’ve updated our journal. A ton has happened in the interim, but today we’re really excited to announce the launch of the website and trailer for our new project, MOMENTA. We’re launching a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter week after next and are optimistic that we raise the funds to shine a light on this crucial issue.
Right now, in America’s Pacific Northwest, communities are taking part in a historical opposition to Big Coal and its reckless pursuit of profits. American demand for coal is declining, and as a result the American coal industry plans to extract billions of tons of coal from the Powder River Basin and ship it to rapidly expanding Asian markets via proposed deepwater ports in Washington and Oregon.
What is at stake if Big Coal gets its way?
Our health. Our planet. Our future.
Each day over fifty mile-and-a-half-long trains, laden with Powder River coal, will travel from Wyoming and Montana through hundreds of small towns to ports in the Pacific Northwest, leaving arsenic and mercury laden coal dust in their wake. The near-constant stream of escaping coal dust imposes toxic environmental pollutants and a myriad of health risks to communities through which the trains travel. And that’s not even the worst of it…
Opening a gateway to burgeoning coal markets in Asia would all but ensure that billions of tons of coal found in the Powder River Basin deposit would find it’s way to Asia’s coal-burning power plants and eventually into our atmosphere. The amount of carbon emissions produced by the burning of this coal deposit alone would undoubtedly result in cataclysmic and irreversible impacts on global climate.
That coal has to stay in the ground. You can’t make the math of climate change work if you get the huge coal deposits of the Powder River Basin out and pour them into the atmosphere. -Bill McKibben, world-renowned author, scholar and environmentalist
The choices we make now will determine the makeup of future energy policies. Are we going to succumb to the financial interests of Big Coal with their false promises of job creation or will we act to protect our planet and ourselves? We all stand to gain from cleaner, more sustainable energy solutions. The clean energy economy has the potential to reestablish American innovation, manufacturing and leadership while creating an enduring source of employment.
Momenta is a campaign to stop the abuses associated with an antiquated energy source and to focus our efforts on a cleaner energy future. It is a movement driven by a band of healthy-climate stakeholders: the outdoor and winter sports communities and the global nonprofit, Protect Our Winters. Please join us.
For more information about the project or to become involved, follow Momenta Project on Facebook or visit www.momentaproject.com