The Northeast Climate Confluence aims to kick-start a regional disaster response network. We mean ‘disaster’ in a very broad sense; we want to be better able to respond to both ‘natural’ disasters and the unnatural disasters that people face in their communities every day. The main elements of this disaster response network might include local food networks, accessible health care projects, autonomous energy, first-responder trainings, access to land and housing, and networks of defense from violent authorities (such as police, prisons, and immigration enforcement). We’re going to need to figure out what to do if a major storm hits the Northeast and causes flooding and displacement. We need to be able to feed ourselves as oil becomes scarce and gas and food prices rise even more. We need to do everything we can to reverse global warming. We need to link struggles, get off the grid, stop being dependent on systems that threaten our lives and hurt our communities, and create a world based on respect and justice.

The Confluence is a response to global warming - the disruption of the planet’s climate caused by industrial pollution that threatens all life on Earth. Global warming/global climate change is a central focus, as one of the major emergencies we need to address during our lifetimes. However, we realize that we can’t simply talk about the issue of climate change and ignore the hundreds of other issues that it is deeply connected to. We are trying to address the political and social “climate” as well as the Earth’s changing climate. It is the combination of both that is already bringing us highly visible disasters like Hurricane Katrina, along with hidden disasters in our neighborhoods and worldwide.

At the same time, there is so much amazing grassroots work being done all over our region and all over the world to celebrate, share, and learn from. People are creating and preserving positive alternatives and resisting oppression everywhere. Finding and growing those alternatives and that resistance are what this gathering is about and that’s why we’re contacting you to be a part of it.