One for all and all for one.
Anthropocene Alliance (A2) has almost 400 member-communities in all U.S. states and territories. They are impacted by flooding, toxic waste, wildfires, and drought and heat — all compounded by reckless development and climate change.
The goal of A2 is to help communities fight back. We do that by providing them organizing support, scientific and technical guidance, and better access to foundation and government funding. Most of all, our work consists of listening and responding to our frontline leaders. Their experience, research, and solidarity guide everything we do, and offer a path toward environmental and social justice.
Supported by outstanding partner organizations with expertise in engineering, hydrology, public health, planning, and the law, A2 leaders have successfully halted developments in climate-vulnerable areas; implemented nature-based hazard mitigation strategies; organized home buyouts; and pushed for clean-ups at superfund sites, toxic landfills, and petrochemical plants.
We support everyone we can, but our special priority is people who have suffered the worst environmental impacts for the longest time; that usually means low-income, Black, Latino, Native American and other underserved communities.
To learn about our policies, read our A 10-Point Platform on Climate Change. Also see our Strategic Plan.
Explore A2’s Interactive Member Map
Find out more about the climate and environmental justice impacts our members are confronting.
To experience the map tool fully, please visit the site here, or preview it below.
Achievements
When Hurricane Laura hit residents in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Gloria Horning, leader of of Higher Ground Pensacola, FL, drove a truck of household goods to another grassroots leader, Beth Butler of A Community Voice who distributed them to evacuees in New Orleans. When Gloria’s home later flooded due to Hurricane Sally, A2 members, Kathy Sullivan (Elmhurst, IL) and Susan Liley (De Soto, MO), set up a GoFundMe campaign to help Gloria get back into her home. It is this camaraderie and love that makes A2’s work so durable and powerful. It also provides a strong basis for an effective political and environmental movement.
Anthropocene Alliance has organized a roster of pro bono experts ready to support justice communities when they need it: Environmental Protection Network, Thriving Earth Exchange, and Center for Applied Environmental Science. “With a little help from our friends” is our favorite Beatles song. Together, we have achieved a lot, both for communities and individuals. Here’s a sampling:
- We helped 236 A2 members submit $140 million worth of individual and collaborative funding proposals to 34 different funders. Of this amount, $32 million has been secured, with $60 million still pending.
- Since our founding in 2017, 64% of our member-communities (250) have received pro bono technical support with a value of about $9.3 million.
- We helped Terri Straka and Melissa Krupa of Rosewood Strong access $13 million to buy-out 60 flooded homes and Susan Liley of the Citizens Committee for Flood Relief (Jefferson County, MO) secure $500,000 for the purchase of flooded homes.
- We’ve helped almost 40 A2 members join our free EveryAction account, letting them run petitions and send out email blasts.
- We’ve helped members secure extensive media coverage. Recent stories about our members appeared in Inside Climate News, Mississippi Free Press, Counterpunch, The Daily Climate, Medium, Earth Island Journal, U.S. News and World Report, Associated Press, The Hill, The Guardian, Grist, ABC News, The New York Times, E&E News, The Washington Post, and the popular podcast, America Adapts.
- Cynthia P. Robertson of Micah Six Eight Mission, Louisiana, was able to expand her post-disaster relief work thanks to the intervention of A2.
- Treva Gear of Concerned Citizens of Cook County, GA, recently reached a settlement against a toxic wood pellet facility. They were represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center. A2 made the introduction.
- We secured technical assistance from the South West Environmental Finance Center for the City of Casa, AR, who have contaminated drinking water, and the Environmental Policy and Innovation Center is developing a Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan for the city. A2 made these introductions.
- Dot Lake Village, a federally recognized native Alaskan tribe in Alaska, is concerned about the Manh Choh Gold Mine. Sixty-five trucks are scheduled to haul ore daily on the area’s main road. We helped them with baseline monitoring assistance via the Center for Applied Environmental Science.
- We have initiated a program, in collaboration with Magnum, the photo consortium established by Robert Capa and Cartier-Bresson, to hire some of the best photographers in the world to document people and places impacted by climate change and environmental abuse. We expect to place these photos in newspapers, magazines, books, online, on our website, and in galleries, museums and member communities.
We believe that grassroots power is key to systemic change, and that the most effective and durable policy solutions will emerge from communities on the front line of the climate and environmental crisis. 70% of our frontline leaders are women and 83% represent Black, Latino, Native American and low-income communities. They live in cities like Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, and New York City, but also in small and mid-sized towns including La Playa, Puerto Rico; Miami, Oklahoma; and Koyukuk, Alaska.
Our community leaders are diverse: Black, white, Latino, Asian, LGBTQ, rural, urban, Indigenous and immigrant. Most are working class, but we also we also have middle-class leaders in Houston, Charleston and Long Island. By maintaining solidarity among different classes, ethnicities, and gender identities, we have gained consistent support from politicians and regulators. A tight network of cooperation and commitment is essential to the work of curbing harmful development and reducing the use of climate-destroying fossil fuels.
*What’s In A Name?
Anthropocene: noun, An·thro·po·cene | \ ˈan(t)-thrə-pə-ˌsēn , an-ˈthrä-\
Here’s how to pronounce it.
“Anthropocene” is the name of the epoch in geologic history when earth systems no longer follow their natural course but are directed by humans. Its geologic markers, found across the globe, consist of technofossils (industrial litter deposited by rivers and streams) and radionuclides (from atomic blasts). Before it is officially part of the geologic time scale, the name must be adopted by the International Union of Geological Sciences.
But regardless of its official acceptance, Anthropocene has entered our vocabulary. That’s because it summarizes what so many people have understood for at least two generations: that humans have changed for the worse the physical and biological nature of the planet. The degradation of air, water and soil, the disappearance of habitats and extinction of species, and the growing threat to human civilization itself, combine to make ours an extremely perilous time.
The solution to the crisis is not obscure. It is simply humans acting in concert – in alliance – to protect vital air, water and land, and end the use of fossil fuels and other sources of global warming. Anthropocene Alliance was formed to advance this essential work of self and community transformation.