In the last couple of years, generative AI has rapidly transformed society as well as the academic world. It fuels our ever growing demand for more efficiency but what are the costs? Who pays them? Can genAI be used responsibly? On 4 December 2025, Scientist Rebellion Finland hosted a critical panel discussion on what generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) means for politics, civil society and the climate.

Speakers & panelists:

​Panelists:

In this talk, Denise Utochkin zooms out of ChatGPT and takes a look at 'Artificial Intelligence' (AI) as a sociotechnical system and political project dating back 70 years.

Denise presents an analysis of 'AI' as an articulation of capitalist, white supremacist, and state violence and demonstrates that many negative side-effects of this set of technologies are not a bug, but a feature. Among them its growing contribution to the climate collapse, its reliance on blood minerals and devalued, traumatizing labour, its gleeful adoption by authoritarian regimes and greedy corporations.

Based on this analysis, Denise argues that as climate activists, we have an imperative to oppose, resist, and refuse 'AI' and that doing so may open up new possibilities for mitigating the worst excesses of the ongoing climate breakdown.

Video recorded 4 June 2025 for Scientist Rebellion Denmark at Greenpeace premises, Njalsgade, Copenhagen. Video recorded and edited by Henning Husum.

REFERENCES FOR SLIDES:

Trump's policies have affected US academia in the last weeks, with attacks on all diversity-related programs, the National Institute of Health, NOAA, and much more. Everything is happening so fast it seems hard to understand the extent of what is going on and to organize against it.

This is not only about the US. In Germany, students and academics expressing solidarity with Palestinians have faced silencing and even threats since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza. A resolution was just passed in the German parliament, that would allow further crackdown and silencing, with important infringement on academic freedom.

In the Netherlands, scientists and unions are fighting against increasing budget cuts on higher education and research that can pave a negative way around Europe. This all happens in a worrying context of increased far-right power across several countries, threatening a surge of reactionary and anti-climate politics.

As a network of engaged academics, we think Scientist Rebellion can bring together recent attacks on scientific institutions and open a space to reflect on how to react to this. We invited to a panel three members of groups who have been fighting against these attacks in different countries: Rose Abramoff (Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island), Zoë Claire Miller (Allianz für Kritische und Solidarische Wissenschaft), and zephyr penoyre (Scientist Rebellion Netherlands and mobilization against budget cuts).

We hope to create a platform for exchanging analyses, upcoming events, and practices; we have the goal of enlarging the perspective in the future by including more countries and guests.

Abstract: We have an urgent problem to solve. Our societies and progressive political organizations are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. They have been there for some time and are imploding in uncertainty.

Everyone – organizers and otherwise – is more and more aware of two sets of information. The first is that the capitalist system is the root cause of the climate crisis and has absolutely no perspective of solving it. The logical consequence is that the task of the progressive movements is to dismantle capitalism. The second information is the threat of runaway warming cascading into climate chaos. In other words: urgency. Both of these sets of information are extremely heavy to carry.

The progressive movements need a framework that is politically honest, analytically rigorous, and emotionally connected. This framework must push society into the biggest transformation ever occurred in history. This is the problematique of our recent book All In: A revolutionary theory to stop climate collapse. All In builds a theory of change that can hold both of these sets of information, together with the organizational model to deliver that theory of change, to address today’s task: dismantling capitalism in the short-term. In this webinar, we will depart from the main ideas in the book and talk about movement-level thinking for strategy and organization.

For more information on the speakers, visit all-in.now/the-authors/.

Structure:

(Note that we were Zoom bombed around minute 41, which we have edited out.)

The continuous CO2 emissions are leading to a rise in temperature, with heat waves, floods, and other natural disasters as a consequence. The parasitic growth we are taught to worship is impossible to maintain within the planetary boundaries. Degrowth means rethinking which industries are needed and how we want to distribute available resources. We envision this to be a democratic process supported by citizen's assemblies.

Currently, the major components of emissions are industries and transport, energy production, and land use. The "business-as-usual" that governments are pushing now is a pathway to climate hell, with a stabilization of emissions woefully insufficient to tackle the consequences of this madness.

Even to reach the goal of 2 degrees above pre-industrial average we need to reduce the yearly emissions to zero by 2070. This target involves implementing gradually increasing conservation policies and CO2 removal from the atmosphere via technologies still unavailable.

All models that target even faster decarbonization have one thing in common: a deep rethinking of our economic structures to reduce inequalities and redistribute resources while drastically reducing excesses and emissions. Our biggest hope is not unrealistic technologies: it is to empower people and communities to design better distribution and collective use of resources, promoting the benefit of the majority.

Scientists keep on saying that we cannot ramp up fossil fuel exploration but phase out fossil fuels instead. When there is e.g. a new LNG terminal built, who will be protesting there on the ground?

We scientists must step down from our ivory towers and join them. There is no scientific evidence that taking action would harm our reputation. It’s our moral duty to provide more pressure to our words and join the climate movement.

We can protest ourselves, in civil disobedience. We can participate in civil assemblies, to debates against the fossil fuel lobby-led misinformation.

https://opencollective.com/scientist-rebellion

Abstract: The fossil fuel industry is more vulnerable than its current profit margins would suggest. What are its vulnerabilities and how can the climate movement exploit them, including in countries where the dominant political parties are beholden to polluters? This presentation will review some of the movement’s strategic options, with a focus on nonelectoral strategies that do not require majority support. US history’s most successful movements rarely had majority support at the time of victory. They won in large part because they posed a direct threat to capitalists through strikes, boycotts, and other mass disruption. After analyzing some historical examples, I then review some recent successes of the climate and Indigenous movements, again with a focus on the United States. I stress the importance of targeting unelected powerholders, including polluters, financial institutions, institutional investors, businesses and other big consumers of fossil fuels, and state actors such as regulators and judges.

Speaker: Kevin A. Young is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research and teaching interests are in social movements, revolution, labor, political economy, and imperialism in modern Latin America and the United States. His most recent book is Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won (2024). The book analyzes the power of the fossil fuel industry, how the climate and Indigenous movements have chipped away at it, and how other mass movements throughout U.S. history have defeated capitalists. His other books include Blood of the Earth: Resource Nationalism, Revolution, and Empire in Bolivia (2017), the edited volume Making the Revolution: Histories of the Latin American Left (2019), the coauthored book Levers of Power: How the 1% Rules and What the 99% Can Do About It (2020), and the coedited volume Trump and the Deeper Crisis (2022).

How Can We Exploit Polluters’ Vulnerabilities Clues from Some Movements That Won

Prof. Steve Keen, self-proclaimed "economic heretic", will delve into his latest report with Carbon Tracker and his astonishing findings of just how little economists understand of accepted climate science.

He will outline how this ignorance informs wildly unfeasible economic policies which, if left unaddressed, will further hasten us towards climate and biodiversity breakdown and the resultant economic and societal collapse.

🌟 What gives us hope? We fight for the people around us, for a more just and bright future, for people over profit. Last year, together with Extinction Rebellion DK we targeted the private jets at Rotskilde airport. Listen to our words.

🛩️ Private jets may seem insignificant globally in emissions, but they symbolize climate and social injustice. Used mainly by the wealthiest 1%, their emissions mirror those of the poorest 2/3 of the world's population. It's about time we address this inequality. #ClimateJustice

🌍 Most private flights could easily be replaced by more sustainable alternatives like commercial planes or trains, especially for short distances under 500km. Yet, the convenience of the ultra-rich prevails over the environmental and social impacts. #BanPrivateJets

👔 The owners of private jets not only contribute to emissions but also control some of the most polluting companies globally. Their influence perpetuates the status quo, hindering progress towards a more just and sustainable world. #ClimateActionNow #SocialJustice

🌎 Climate change disproportionately affects the most vulnerable while the ultra-rich continue to benefit from unsustainable practices like flying private. It's time to challenge this unjust system and advocate for meaningful change. #ActOnClimate #GlobalJustice

🛫 Banning private jets isn't just about reducing emissions; it's about challenging the power dynamics that perpetuate inequality and environmental degradation. Let's prioritize people and the planet over luxury and convenience. #ClimateAction #SocialEquality

🌱 It's not enough to ban private jets; we must also address the systemic injustices that enable their use and perpetuate inequality. By advocating for climate and social justice, we can build a more equitable and sustainable future for all. That’s what we hope. #SystemChange #ClimateJustice

Abstract: This "in conversation" session with journalist Nina Lakhani will be essential viewing for anyone interested in the reporting of stories from front line communities. In this interactive Q and A session, members of Scientist Rebellion and the wider audience will have the chance to ask questions and discuss. You can read some of Nina's latest stories on the Guardian:

Bio: Senior climate justice reporter for the Guardian US, Nina has reported from more than a dozen countries including seven years covering Mexico and Central America as a freelancer. She is the author of Who Killed Berta Caceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender's Battle for the Planet. Before journalism Nina was a mental health nurse.