Holiday appeal to continue campaign

Dear Friends,

Winter has come to Rock Creek, the leaves have fallen, and the days have been below freezing. After a very busy year in our campaign against mountaintop removal, things show no signs of easing up. Since February, Climate Ground Zero has organized 18 acts of civil resistance against mountaintop removal coal mining here in Southern West Virginia involving 130 arrests, including NASA climate scientist James Hanson, actress Daryl Hannah, 92-year-old Winnie Fox and ex-Senator Ken Hechler, who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. We’ve locked ourselves to a dragline—the largest earth moving machine in Appalachia, occupied the drilling rig which drills the holes for high explosives and blocked roads. We’ve even spent a week in the trees, halting blasting and making the front page of all the West Virginia newspapers. We will not let up until this barbaric practice is halted forever.

We believe our nonviolent campaign is working, the pressure is building and that the movement against mountaintop removal is growing—as even the great Sen. Robert C. Byrd recently acknowledged. But a civil disobedience campaign cannot run on conviction alone—our financial donors are a crucial part of us being able to take on the coal companies and the corrupt courts, and having the resources we need to conduct successful actions.

Right now we are fighting on two fronts. First, we need to keep up the pressure and make sure that this story receives the attention from the news media that it deserves. We will continue to organize nonviolent demonstrations at the mine sites and at the offices of the decision makers who have the power to put an end to mountaintop removal. Second, we need to continue to defend our rights in court. Right now we are facing numerous criminal charges, two court injunctions and three civil lawsuits filed against us by Massey Energy. We have a good, pro bono legal team in place.

As the year wraps up, your donation will help us continue fighting mountaintop removal. You can donate to our Climate Ground Zero Action Fund, which allows us to continue to do outreach, fund our kitchen and keep the campaign running. You can also opt to contribute to our Legal Defense Fund, which helps us cover bail, court fees and fines. We are able to offer the following gifts as a thank you for your donation:

• $30+ = Still Moving Mountains CD, a collection of Appalachian music
• $50+ = Signed copy of the book Tree Spiker, written by Mike Roselle
• $100+ = DVD of Coal Country, the recently released documentary film by Mari-Lynn Evans and Still Moving Mountains CD
• $500+ = Plundering Appalachia, a full size, hard cover book of stunning photographs and commentary on mountaintop removal.
• $1,000+ = Mounted print by photographer Antrim Caskey, who has captured many of the great moments in our campaign.  The photos will be 8×10 exhibition-quality c-prints, professionally face-mounted onto 1/4-inch museum-grade plexiglass that produces no glare, with a 3/4-inch wooden hanging bar with a cleat to float the image off the wall.  Prints and mounting will be done by Duggal, NYC.  Below is Antrim’s gallery for this level:

Climate Ground Zero Holiday Fundraiser – Images by antrim caskey

To donate money by check, make out and mail donations to Action Fund to:
Climate Ground Zero
PO Box 166
Rock Creek, WV 25174

or click this button:

Donations to the Legal Defense Fund to:
Mountain Justice Legal Defense
PO Box 86
Naoma, WV 25140

or click this button:

To request a gift with your donation, please mention so either in the letter you send or by emailing snow-donations@climategroundzero.org.

Please consider donating to Climate Ground Zero this holiday season so that we can stay on the front lines against climate change and the fight for environmental justice.

Happy Holidays,
Your friends at Climate Ground Zero