How do we navigate the complex intersection of climate justice and digital technology? How are digital tools and infrastructures being used as both promising sites of collective environmental justice and scaling up extractivism? What promises does our media ecosystems offer in building climate justice and in what ways do they fuel misinformation?

Launching the Centre’s forthcoming Climate & Technology Essay Series, this event will include panels on:

• Climate Misinformation and Journalism

• Environmental Data Justice

• Climate Justice Impacts of Tech and AI

• Climate Justice and Technology Advocacy

Join us as experts from academia, advocacy, journalism, and policymaking dissect the intersection of climate justice and digital technology.

Agenda:

• Welcome and Opening Address

  • Helen Hayes, Research Manager, Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy.

• Panel 1: Climate Misinformation and Journalism - This panel will examine the question of climate misinformation, the role of digital media platforms, and journalism in engendering public debate and understanding.

  • Geoff Dembicki, Investigative Climate Reporter, DeSmog

  • Esli Chan, Ph.D. Candidate, McGill University

  • Chris Russill, Associate Professor, School of Journalism & Communication, Carleton University

  • Moderator: Sonja Solomun, Deputy Director, Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy

• Keynote: Climate Disinformation and the Role of Tech

  • Catherine McKenna, CEO of Climate and Nature Solutions, Former Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Canada, Chair of UN Secretary General’s Expert Group on Net Zero.

• Panel 2: Environmental Data Justice - This panel will consider how data and knowledge practices are being mobilized by communities in building environmental justice and combating environmental racism. The authors bring experience in and beyond academia in environmental justice led-innovation practices, multi-cultural technologies, remote sensing, and conservation data justice.

  • Naolo Charles, Founder of the Black Environmental Initiative and Co-Founder of the Canadian Coalition for Environmental and Climate Justice

  • Joycelyn Longdon, Ph.D. Candidate and Founder, ClimateInColour

  • Ufuoma Ovienmhada, Ph.D. Candidate, Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, MIT

  • Moderator: Rachel Bergmann, Fellow for the Climate Justice, AI, and Technology Team, Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy.

• Panel 3: Impacts of Tech and AI on Climate Justice - This panel will emphasize the climate justice impacts of digital technology, especially artificial intelligence.

  • Dr. Mél Hogan, Associate Professor, Film and Media, Queen’s University

  • Sanjana Paul, Co-founder and Executive Director, Earth Hacks

  • Camille Minns, Deputy Director, Earth Hacks and & Co-Founder, Environmental Justice in Technology (EJIT) Project

  • Melissa Gregg, Senior Industry Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, RMIT University

  • Michael Khoo, Climate Disinformation Program Director, Friends of the Earth

  • Moderator: Janna Frenzel, PhD Candidate in Communication Studies, Concordia University

• Book Talk: Petroturfing - Refining Canadian Oil Through Social Media - What role does social media play in rebranding Canada’s extractive industry as a social good? Jordan B Kinder will speak about his recently released book on the limitations of social media networks in promoting environmental justice.

  • Jordan B. Kinder, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University

  • Moderator: Hannah Tollefson, Ph.D. Candidate, McGill University, Project Lead, Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy.