Project Confluence: Engineering and Science for Environmental, Climate and Energy Justice

It’s no secret that poor and disenfranchised people — including in the U.S. — suffer disproportionately from environmental problems. At the global scale, poor countries will likely see the worst effects of climate change as increasing temperatures disrupt agricultural systems and rising seas flood coastlines. At the local level, in places from inner city Baltimore to Rural Appalachia, poor and marginalized communities often bear a disproportionate share of negative environmental consequences from industrial operations and environmental policies.

Many organizations around the United States are dedicated to fighting for justice on these environmental, energy, and climate issues. A new movement called Project Confluence seeks to help engineers and scientists meet the needs of community justice groups. Project Confluence is the first big project of re-Engineered, an interdisciplinary laboratory focused on embedding social justice, peace, and environmental protection at the heart of technical research and design.

In the next New Tools for Science Policy breakfast seminar, Darshan Karwat will discuss the approach re-Engineered is taking to identify the needs of these community groups, and how re-Engineered is starting to build a collective of engineers and scientists passionate about addressing these needs.