Convergences for Climate Action Aug 8-14

With extreme weather, massive species extinctions, and melting ice caps becoming a more urgent and dire reality each day, it is high time for us to come together to take direct action against the root causes of climate change. This summer, Rising Tide North America, in collaboration with other environmental and social justice organizations, will host two regional Convergences for Climate Action that will create a space for building our skills and making links between grassroots struggles. Convergences for Climate Action: August 8-14
Day of Action: August 13
www.climateconvergence.org

Southeast Convergence: Asheville, NC
West Coast Convergence: Mouth of the Columbia River, Washington State

With extreme weather, massive species extinctions, and melting ice caps becoming a more urgent and dire reality each day, it is high time for us to come together to take direct action against the root causes of climate change. This summer, Rising Tide North America, in collaboration with other environmental and social justice organizations, will host two regional Convergences for Climate Action that will create a space for building our skills and making links between grassroots struggles.

The convergences will consist of a week of information and skill-based workshops, strategy sessions, and direct action aimed at building a no-compromise climate justice movement. With some of the Big Green environmental groups selling out to the nuclear and “clean” coal industries, and large, corporate-led climate initiatives designed to preempt any meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions being pushed in DC, grassroots groups need to join forces with affected communities to fight the fossil fuel empire and create truly sustainable, community-based solutions outside of the capitalist system.

The Convergence for Climate Action will be a space to gain necessary skills for fighting climate change in your region; to network with a broad range of environmental and social justice activists; to engage in intensive strategy sessions aimed at mapping out effective approaches to fighting climate change on a regional level; to confront oppression in our organizing; and to take action.

The Convergence for Climate action aims to promote a just, rapid transition away from fossil fuels; promote environmental justice by supporting communities that are fighting dirty energy developments in their backyards; encourage direct action as a means for challenging dirty energy and empowering the movement to stop climate change, and to increase networking and strategizing amongst the diverse social justice and environmental movements fighting climate change and the energy industry

Workshops will include Direct Action 101, Climbing Trainings, Strategic Action Planning, Anti-oppression, Sustainable living skills, Debunking False Solutions, Blockades, Media, and much more. The convergences will culminate in a coordinated day of direct action against fossil fuel infrastructure projects.

The Convergence for Climate Action is loosely modeled after the UK’s successful Climate Camp which last year saw 600 people come together to share skills and take direct action against the UK’s largest coal-fired power station.

The Southeast Climate Convergence near Asheville, North Carolina will bring together activists across the region who are fighting mountaintop removal mining and coal and nuclear power plants. Mountaintop removal coal mining is currently devastating the ecologically diverse southern Appalachian Mountains. The coal companies have literally flattened hundreds of square miles of mountains, destroyed thousands of miles of our life giving streams, and terrorized countless communities in the process. Meanwhile southern utility companies are planning a blitzkrieg of new dirty coal plants, despite our regions already dismal air quality. To add insult to injury these same utility companies are using climate change as a justification for building a new fleet of dangerous nuclear reactors.

The West Coast Convergence near Portland, OR will build on existing local campaigns against liquefied natural gas terminals. "Liquefied" Natural Gas (LNG) importation infrastructure is being planned around Oregon and Washington - solely to feed California energy demands - and already exists in the eastern seaboard, with a wealth of new proposals in the pipeline. LNG comes from natural gas mined in places with awful human rights records, such as Russia, Peru, Nigeria, Indonesia, and the Middle East. It's then cooled into a liquid, shipped over in highly polluting tankers before undergoing a dangerous re-gasification process. Not surprisingly, many companies oil-extraction companies like BP and Shell are heavily invested in the process. Despite being responsible for large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, LNG is being billed as a "clean burning" transition fuel and as an alternative to oil, which, in Rising Tide's humble opinion, is a tanker-sized heap of crap. Both convergences will feature community-based solutions to the climate crisis. Join us for a week of skill-sharing, strategy and action!
For more information and to register, go to www.climateconvergence.org