PSM’s 2010/2011 youth new media program, Solutions for Survival (S4S), fills a glaring void in the 
climate movement. By producing compelling visual media that educates people on climate solutions, we are able to make climate change a human issue rather than a pie-in-the-sky statistical or theoretical future problem. S4S then utilizes strategic partnerships with cutting-edge organizations to make our media available as educational or campaign tools. Our media will energize the movement base, motivate more people into action, and empower climate NGOs to upgrade their campaigns. We report on the latest information about clean energy solutions, focus on communities, and pushthe envelope on what is possible in order to ensure our survival.
Solutions for Survival (S4S), is a two-part program:
- Globally, S4S showcases local, tangible, and equitable climate solutions being implemented by ordinary people, making them widely accessible for replication in communities worldwide.
- In the United States, we will produce a documentary that examines true renewable energy potential given all of our existing resources in six different regions.
Globally, (S4S) is designed to deal with a frightening new reality: the climate crisis is already underway, and our governments are failing to rise to the challenge. As our planet’s natural systems become increasingly unstable, people around the world are looking for ways to cope. They are looking for climate solutions.
S4S is a new media series that will feature compelling stories of people who are implementing tangible, local, and equitable climate solutions. The goal for S4S isn’t just the spread of information–it’s also the spread of inspiration. Through the power of new media, a single video can help catalyze transformation in communities around the world.
In the S4S program, 15 media teams will fan out around the planet. Their focus will be on telling powerful stories of replicable solutions: small-scale solar power, holistic agriculture, water security, smart urban planning, sustainable transportation, and women’s empowerment.
As a result of the program:
- Communities will become more resilient. Citizens worldwide will have access to blueprints for inspirational climate solutions that they can implement locally.
- Youth journalists will become more empowered. By participating in a rigorous program with consistent deadlines and technical support, they will emerge from S4S with the skills, experience, and legitimacy they need to embark upon a new career path.
- Grassroots organizers will become more savvy. The wealth of resources newly available will allow organizers to identify which solutions can and should be replicated on a local, national, or international level.
S4S will:
- Catalogue 200 climate solutions from all over the world in a visually pleasing, taggable, searchable web platform.
- Implement a robust new media distribution strategy:
- Partner with key NGO’s who use our media as educational or campaign tools
- Build relationships with major media outlets locally, nationally, internationally.
- Show our “documentary shorts” in film festivals.
- Use social media to ensure exposure far outside “the choir”
- Train 100 youth journalists.
In the United States:It will be impossible to make large-scale change without reforming the largest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet, the United States. To that end, we will produce a US documentary series challenging the myth, re-enforced by industry representatives, politicians, many 
economists and the mainstream media, echoed even by President Obama: “No matter how fast we ramp up those [clean] energy sources, we’re still going to have enormous energy needs that will be unmet by alternative energy.”
We’ll work to answer the questions: Just what does America’s energy usage look like? What does our renewable energy potential really look like? Can we dramatically scale up our renewable energy production given the financial limitations of a recession? And lastly, how much money are we currently spending on subsidies for big oil and big coal? The answers to these questions can blow the doors off the current energy in the US. This could be just what the climate movement needs to regain its footing after the failure of the climate bill. If we can break down the realities of regional renewable energy potential (a very wonky topic in and of itself), and juxtapose this information with an expose of the subsidies the US government gives to dirty energy, we’ll have done something profound.
S4S will assemble media teams from 6 regions: the West Coast, South West, Midwest, North East, South East, and the South. These teams will work alongside researchers and editors to help find and synthesize the relevant policy information and couple this with personal and community narratives into a cohesive and compelling story of possibility.