Michelle Thorne

A huge thank you to my wonderful co-hosts @FiekeJ @mayarichman @brennan_mike Julie Broome and Hanan Elmasu.

Blog post version of the above: https://michellethorne.cc/2022/04/funders-convening-on-climate-justice-and-digital-rights/ … Fuller proceedings from the event will be published on the project’s wiki page, along with the full research later in June.

There is incredible work already underway. What it needs now is more support and more coalition. Together we can meet this moment. Let’s move slowly, quickly.

Let us, as digital rights organizations, partner with climate groups and grow solidarity with other movements working towards social justice and sustainable, equitable knowledge commons.

The twin transition is an opportunity. Let us divest from Big Tech and Big Oil. Let us invest in sustainable and just alternatives.

And how the internet itself is a significant contributor to climate change as it emits 2-3% of global carbon and has become the world’s largest coal-powered machine.

And there are new perspectives we are learning about: - Big Tech’s very lucrative business selling machine learning services to Big Oil to speed up fossil fuel extraction - historic & ongoing practices of colonization & environmental depletion taking on accelerated forms

The digital rights movement knows that these are false solutions. We have been fighting this fight for a long time. We know the issues around privacy, digital security, misinformation, and internet access.

In Europe right now, there is a conversation about the twin transitions. This describes a digital transformation and a shift to renewable energy. Within these agendas, technology is sold as a solution. It is the smart city. The surveilled borders. The automated everything.

Let us see this crisis as urgent. And while we hold this, let us also acknowledge that the solutions may be slow. I invite us to move slowly, quickly.

This is not about individual blame and shame. It’s about systems change.

The science is clear. We need to stop all new fossil fuel extraction. We have to transition away fossil fuels as fast as possible. And we have to make rapid and unprecedented change to a more just and sustainable society.

The climate crisis is not a single issue. It is an era. We are living in it now. And we’re going to be living in it for the rest of our lives.

Russia’s war on the Ukraine is fueled in part by reliance on fossil gas. A water emergency was just declared in California. And these are simply headlines from this week.

Right now, there is a heatwave in India. With temperatures of over 45C for days on end, there are millions of people in danger and crops are failing. The people who are least responsible for the fossil fuel emissions causing this heatwave are suffering the most.

The UN Secretary General recently tweeted: We have 36 weeks—not 36 years, not 36 months—but 36 weeks, to dramatically reduce emissions from the world’s largest polluters to avert a climate catastrophe. Just 36 weeks.

Yesterday's funders convening was a moment to reflect on those questions and shape them into recommendations and action. These were my opening remarks:

Now in the second phase, we're sharing what we learned while asking: what still needs more research, what is already working that needs more support, what doesn't exist yet but should?

We needed to begin by listening and learning more. So the first phase was grounded in a landscape analysis led by @EngnRoom and issue briefs by @APC_News , @BSRnews and @OpenEnviroData