Yahoo! The Kickstarter campaign has closed and The Environment: A True Story is funded. Thanks to everyone who made it happen. I'll keep people posted as the production process unfolds. And if you meant to contribute but didn't get to it, I'm still happy to accept support by cheque or via PayPal; email me for details. But for now, a great big thank you to all our backers. I literally can't do it without you.

It's really exciting that The Environment: A True Story has made its basic funding target on Kickstarter and the project will definitely be going forward. If you've contributed, let me repeat how grateful I am. It's because of you that I'm able to proceed. And I do appreciate how many other worthy demands there are on your resources. If you haven't contributed, let me remind you that anyone who puts in any sum, even just $1 dollar, will be listed in the credits unless they request anonymity. Given the unpleasant rhetoric that accompanies the misleading science of the climate alarmists, it makes a difference to have people stand up against the sneering and be counted on the side of clarity and decency.

Look, if you're in a position to make a substantial contribution I'm keen to have it. We do have a stretch target and all sorts of things we'd like to include in the project if we can fit them into the budget. But regardless, if you want to take a stand, put in a dollar, or two, or ten between now and Sunday at 6 p.m. EDT and I'll be proud to add your name to the nearly 500 people already on the list of backers.

Thanks.

On the eve of tomorrow's anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge it's good to see so much remembrance including the outstanding front portion of today's National Post. It was a pivotal Allied victory in the First World War partly for strategic reasons, partly for tactical ones and partly for psychological ones given how bleak things looked in the spring of 1917. It wasn't just important for Canada's sense of nationhood. The First World War, for all its horrors, was a necessary struggle for freedom and it was very important that the Allies won even if the victory was in significant measure squandered over the next two decades.

A reminder as the anniversary approaches that my documentary The Great War Remembered, which tries to explain and also to vindicate the war despite everything, is available free on YouTube.

Our crowdfunding campaign for The Environment: A True Story had an excellent week last week. We're now at very nearly 80% with 13 days to go. So thanks very much to everyone who backed it and everyone who shared and promoted it, including Ezra Levant and The Rebel, Tom Harris of the International Climate Science Coalition and Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore. But we're not there yet. I'm keen to get going on the actual documentary, and I'm busy compiling and sorting information and creating the basic storyline. But we still need just over $10,000 to reach our minimum target, which my widget tells me means nearly $850 per day from now until April 16. And we'd really like to get a bit beyond the minimum to help us afford a new camera, a bit more travel for interviews and on-location filming, really good graphics and, well, food on the table between the end of this project and the start of the next one.

So if you've already contributed, many thanks. If you're not in yet, but you want to see common sense and sound science on climate change, please make a pledge today and get us to 80%, 90%, 100% and beyond. And either way, please keep sharing the project.

I know times are tough and people have all sorts of worthy demands on their budget, from looking after their own families to charitable giving to other desirable public policy causes. But in addition to meeting our target, it's important to have a lot of names in the credits to show how many people are fed up with bad policy based on bad science backed by bullying rhetoric. That's why anyone who can put in as little as $1 gets their name in the credits, unless they request anonymity, as a way of standing up for sensible and civil debate on a key issue.

We're heading into the home stretch and it's very gratifying. But we need your help to make it to the finish line.

Just how high are carbon taxes going to go in Canada? Fasten your seatbelt... in a car you can't put gas into. The federal Liberals are only talking soothingly about carbon taxes of $10/tonne, rising to $50 by 2022. But now the National Post reveals that in fact they know their targets would require $100/tonne within 3 years, and $300 by 2050. Meaning the virtual end of heating your home, cooking your food or getting around with any technology we actually have. It shouldn't really come as a surprise. Both the BC and Ontario governments are entirely open about their plans to reduce CO2 and equivalent emissions by nearly 80% by 2050. Which doesn't just spell doom for oil and gas producers. It means you, your kids and your grandkids will be ordered by government to use 80% less oil, gas and natural gas, necessarily requiring prohibitive taxes, strict regulations or probably both, and leading to a desperately impoverished lifestyle.

Now let me be clear here. If the "man-made global warming" or more recently "man-made climate change" crisis is as bad as the alarmists say, no price is too high to stop it. Not that their plans would, but that's another story. The point here is that you cannot concede the extremists' science then try to fight the carbon tax on the basis of jobs lost. If you agree that we are destroying the planet with CO2, you must agree to drastic measures to change our behaviour. You cannot, as conservatives too often do in this country and elsewhere, try to rally the troops round the white flag. To surrender on principle then fight on implementation makes you look like greedy fools, willing to incinerate the planet for short-term gain. Not a good PR strategy.

That's why The Environment: A True Story is so urgently needed. If I believed the alarmists' claims, I would be urging an end to fossil fuel use and what's more I would refuse to use the stuff myself. But the science is appallingly full of holes. And if we don't want to succumb to bad policy driven by bad science and wrapped in deceptive PR, we need to set the record straight.

So make a pledge today. And share it as widely as you can: the short link for social media is kck.st/2mrzS3w

Thanks to Ezra Levant and the Rebel Media crew for airing a segment promoting The Environment: A True Story. And thanks to all the Rebel viewers who responded by backing the documentary and got us past 62% and counting.Won't you join them, and see if we can get to 66% by the end of today? We literally cannot make these documentaries without your help. So if you want common sense and sound science on climate change, make a Kickstarter pledge now. P.S. If you want to support the documentary but are more comfortable sending a cheque, email jr- at – johnrobson – dot – ca and we'll give you the mailing address.

UPDATE: Thanks to Mike van Lammeren and Isabel Gibson who stepped up and put us past 60%. Now we need your help to get to the next milestone at 66%... then on to 75%, 90% and full funding. The deadline for making our target is April 16 and we can't do it without you. ---------------

The Environment: A True Story documentary project is this close to being 60% funded. Who wants to make the next pledge and get us past that mark?

It won't get us into the homestretch. There's still a ways to go, and just over 17 days in which to cover it. But if you want common sense and sound science on the issue of "man-made" climate change, won't you be the next contributor and push us past 60%?

P.S. If you've already backed the project, thank you again, and please share it as widely as possible.

Danielle Smith with AM770 in Calgary interviewed me last Friday (I was in the lobby of the hotel during a break in the Heartland Institute Climate Change conference) on what happens if reputable opinion is intolerantly wrong on "man-made" climate change.