Executive Summary:

Founded in 2006 by former US Vice President Al Gore, The Climate Reality Project’s mission is to
catalyze a global solution to the climate crisis by making urgent action a necessity across every level
of society. Our dynamic communications initiatives connect climate and behavioral science with the
emotional power of well-told stories, bringing climate change to individuals and communities
everywhere and shaping discussions. Our signature activist program, the Climate Reality Leadership
Corps, has trained and mobilized over 19,000 citizen leaders worldwide on climate science,
communications, and organizing since its inception in 2006.
Recently, we’ve seen the petrochemical industry build facility after facility across the Ohio River
Valley, polluting the air and water supplies with dangerous carcinogens and other chemicals. But
even as this threat to public health and our planet grows, with every new plant and pipeline, public
awareness of these dangers remains dangerously low. Unless this changes, more petrochemical
infrastructure will be built throughout shale country and bring with it a cascading sequence of
negative consequences.
In light of this threat, The Climate Reality Project opted to create a targeted regional campaign
opposing the Ohio River Valley petrochemical buildout and chose to put me on as point. As soon as I
was put on the campaign, I immediately began conducting copious amounts of background research
in my process of constructing an impactful and just campaign plan built around community education
and mobilization. At the same time, I began the process of hiring two dedicate, regional organizers
based in the Pittsburgh area, which is the epicenter of the buildout.
As my team of dedicated regional organizers and I have faced the petrochemical buildout, I have
provided leadership and guidance around our multifaceted approach, which hinges on the continuous
recruitment and mobilization of our trained activists from our regional chapters. The regional
chapters I’ve chosen for my team focus on are represented by 790 Climate Reality Leaders and 366
additional members in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky who work to raise local
awareness on the issue through community meetings, media outreach, community education,
coalition building, and presentations.
I have empowered my team to get creative with their approach for recruiting, engaging, and
empowering the general public in areas without adequate chapter reach to take action against the
petrochemical buildout. The primary focus, that I’ve built in to our on-the-ground organizing, is on
educating and advocating for local community rights and protections in the areas where
petrochemical industry operations have secured all of the necessary permits. Additionally, I’ve built
out the campaign to call upon lessons learned from areas that historically have been taken advantage
of by the petrochemical industry. While the Ohio River Valley is familiar with the impacts of other
dirty fossil fuel industries’, petrochemical plants are a whole different beast that brings new health
and environmental risks.