“I had conversations with tech workers at large companies…with people who are at smaller startups…and with many tech workers who left the tech industry, who were really disillusioned by the ways that corporate management would obfuscate their true impacts on the environment and on communities, and essentially greenwash a lot of the actions that they were actually doing in the world.”
— Tamara Kneese
“[T]ech CEOs have locked themselves into an AI race…and they are selling this race to the public as a race for ‘technological progress.’ But really…it’s a race for land, for water, power and electricity, and for political power.”
— Eliza Pan
Description
In this moment of AI ascendance and data center accelerationism, there are thousands of tech workers who are concerned about the realities of climate change and see the tech industry’s growing role in it — and who are actively working to create change, develop better tools, and organize for collective action. In her report Turning the Tide: Climate Action in and Against Tech, Climate, Technology, and Justice Program Director Tamara Kneese examines the ways these workers have attempted to reform the tech industry from within while applying external forms of pressure through policymaking and activism. By engaging in workplace activism and forming broader coalitions with environmental justice organizations, climate conscious tech workers who adhere to the organizer mindset use their insider knowledge to advocate for social change rather than technical tweaks. What does that look like in practice?
On December 11, Kneese discussed the findings of her report with Eliza Pan, co-director of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, in a conversation moderated by Khari Johnson, technology reporter at CalMatters. Together, they explored the stakes of tech-focused climate work — and how it gets done.
Speakers
Eliza is a co-founder and organizer with Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. While working at Amazon for 6 years, she helped organize thousands of Amazon employees to take public actions, culminating in a walkout that won Amazon’s Climate Pledge. She’s been organizing at Amazon ever since.
Tamara Kneese is the director of Data & Society’s Climate, Technology, and Justice program. Previously, she led Data & Society’s Algorithmic Impacts Lab (AIMLab). Building on the participatory impact assessment frameworks developed at AIMLab, she is the principal investigator of a NSF ReDDDoT planning grant that will engage the communities most impacted by AI’s infrastructures, including data centers, to go beyond technical measurements of carbon emissions. Before joining D&S, she was lead researcher at Green Software Foundation, director of developer engagement on the green software team at Intel, and assistant professor of media studies and director of gender and sexualities studies at the University of San Francisco.
Moderator
Khari Johnson | Bluesky: @khari.bsky.social
Khari Johnson has reported on how artificial intelligence impacts people and communities for nearly a decade. He initially focused on reporting on consumer technology and startup funding rounds, and today explores AI policy solutions to protect human rights. A tech reporter at CalMatters, he previously worked at WIRED and VentureBeat.