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"The climate emergency cannot be confronted while online public and political discourse is polluted by fear, hate, confusion, and conspiracy," one campaigner warned.
Members of a global coalition on Thursday released a report detailing "significant and immediate dangers" that artificial intelligence poses to the climate emergency.
"AI companies spread hype that they might save the planet, but currently they are doing just the opposite," said Michael Khoo at Friends of the Earth, part of the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition. "AI companies risk turbocharging climate disinformation, and their energy use is causing a dangerous increase to overall U.S. consumption, with a corresponding increase of carbon emissions."
As AI has rapidly developed over the past year, global leaders and experts—from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists—have sounded the alarm about the technology furthering disinformation on all topics.
The World Economic Forum earlier this year "identified AI-generated mis- and disinformation as the world's greatest threat (followed by climate change)," notes the new CAAD report. Citing cases in Slovakia and the United States, it says that "the world is already seeing how AI is being used for political disinformation campaigns."
"AI models will allow climate disinformation professionals and the fossil fuel industry to build on their decades of disinformation campaigns."
"AI models will allow climate disinformation professionals and the fossil fuel industry to build on their decades of disinformation campaigns," the document warns. "More recent attempts, such as falsely blaming wind power as a cause of whale deaths in New Jersey or power outages in Texas, have already been effective."
The publication specifically points to potential abuse of generative artificial intelligence, systems that create content—including text, images, music, and videos—in response to prompts. It states that "generative AI will make such campaigns vastly easier, quicker, and cheaper to produce, while also enabling it to spread further and faster."
Such content can include deepfakes, audio or video of a person appearing to say something they never did. The publication highlights that "an August 2023 study focusing on climate change-related deepfakes found over a quarter of respondents across age groups were unable to identify whether videos were fake."
"Adding to this threat, social media companies have shown declining interest in stopping disinformation, reducing trust and safety team staffing," the document stresses.
Invoking an old Facebook motto, Kairos Fellowship's Nicole Sugerman said that "we must not allow another 'move fast and break things' era in tech; we've already seen how the rapid, unregulated growth of social media platforms led to previously unimaginable levels of online and offline harm and violence."
In addition to social media, the report outlines concerns about disinformation spreading via large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, search engines, and online advertising. Sarah Kay Wiley, director of policy at Check My Ads, noted that "we are already seeing how generative AI is being weaponized to spin up climate disinformation or copy legitimate news sites to siphon off advertising revenue."
"Adtech companies are woefully unprepared to deal with generative AI and the opaque nature of the digital advertising industry means advertisers are not in control of where their ad dollars are going," she continued. "Regulation is needed to help build transparency and accountability to ensure advertisers are able to decide whether to support AI-generated content."
Oliver Hayes at CAAD member Global Action Plan also demanded swift intervention, arguing that "the climate emergency cannot be confronted while online public and political discourse is polluted by fear, hate, confusion, and conspiracy."
"In a year when 2 billion people are heading to the polls, this represents an existential threat to climate action."
"In a year when 2 billion people are heading to the polls, this represents an existential threat to climate action," he said. "We should stop looking at AI through the 'benefit-only' analysis and recognize that, in order to secure robust democracies and equitable climate policy, we must rein in Big Tech and regulate AI."
The report features recommendations for companies, lawmakers, and regulators to boost accountability, safety, and transparency related to AI. The suggestions echo coalition letters to U.S. President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and apply to not only disinformation but also energy and water use.
The limited company statements that are available and independent research show that the proliferation of LLMs "is already causing energy use to skyrocket," which "comes on top of the highest rate of increase in U.S. energy consumption levels since the 1990s," the document notes.
On top of that, "training large language models such as GPT-3 can require millions of liters of freshwater for both cooling and electricity generation," the report explains. "This thirsty industry therefore contributes to local water scarcity in areas that are already vulnerable, and could exacerbate risk and intensity of water stress and drought with greater computing demands."
Greenpeace USA senior strategist Charlie Cray said that "the skyrocketing use of electricity and water, combined with its ability to rapidly spread disinformation, makes AI one of the greatest emerging climate threat-multipliers."
"Governments and companies must stop pretending that increasing equipment efficiencies and directing AI tools towards weather disaster responses are enough to mitigate AI's contribution to the climate emergency," he added.
"In 40 years of democracy, there has never been such a frontal attack on the labor sector," said one union leader.
Many thousands of Argentine workers walked off their jobs and took to the streets Wednesday in a general strike led by the nation's largest labor unions against far-right President Javier Milei's all-out assault on worker rights, vital social programs, and the right to protest.
The opposition-aligned Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT), an umbrella labor group boasting about 7 million members, led the general strike against Milei, a 53-year-old self-described "anarcho-capitalist" who took office last month following his decisive victory in November's presidential runoff.
Marching under the slogan, "Our Homeland Is Not For Sale," the CGT-led demonstrators filled streets in the capital Buenos Aires and smaller cities around the South American country of nearly 46 million inhabitants.
"We called a march on [January] 24 to defend labor rights, severance pay, collective bargaining agreements, social security, and the right to protest, all of which have been attacked by the DNU," CGT explained on social media, referring to Milei's December 20 Decree of Necessity and Urgency.
CGT leader Pablo Moyano said Wednesday in Buenos Aires that "every time a [neoliberal] model wins, the first thing they target is the workers."
Martín Lucero, head of the private teachers' union in Rosario, Argentina's third-largest city, toldLa Capital that "in 40 years of democracy there has never been such a frontal attack on the labor sector" as there has been under Milei.
Estela De Carlotto, who leads the activist group Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo—founded by grandmothers searching for children kidnapped under Argentina's U.S.-backed 1976-83 military dictatorship, which Milei has praised—toldBuenos Aires Times that the demonstration "is a way of giving support to this resolution from the people to form a protest and a call of attention for this whole situation we are living with this strange government."
Milei—who said he gets political advice from his dogs—has unleashed what critics have called "a textbook case of shock therapy" on the Argentine people and the country's moribund economy, devaluing the peso by 50%, slashing social spending, reducing government subsidies, and opening the nation to foreign capitalist exploitation.
According to Juan Cruz Ferre, a postdoctoral fellow at the Program in Latin American Studies at New Jersey's Princeton University:
The economic plan was followed by an all-encompassing presidential decree issued on December 20, affecting issues as diverse as labor law, healthcare, foreign trade, private property, and mining. The general thrust of it is very clear: an attack on workers' rights, the liberalization of the economy, the strengthening of big business through market deregulation and numerous incentives, and the erosion of protections for tenants, the environment, and small businesses.
Although courts have suspended parts of Milei's decree in response to legal challenges, Cruz Ferre explained, "attention has now shifted to a mirror bill presented to Congress, which includes all issues contained in the decree, plus a request of extraordinary powers to the executive for a period of four years."
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week, Milei
hailed the corporate executives and wealthy global elites gathered there as "heroes" and "creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity we've ever seen."
From November to December, prices in Argentina increased by more than one quarter, compared with just under 13% the previous month. Annual inflation now stands at 211%, with Argentina rivaling Lebanon for the dubious global top spot.
"In this government of Milei, all the food halls of all the social organizations, of the churches, have not received food [from the government]," one Buenos Aires protester said during Wednesday's march.
"There is no food; they told us that there is no money," the demonstrator added, even as the government adopts "measures in favor of the wealthy sector."
The CGT on Wednesday published a statement "in defense of the civil, social, and labor rights of our nation."
"Today we see how the government seeks to break the social contract through policies and reforms that only seek to subjugate the rights and achievements of the Argentine people," the statement asserted. "We reaffirm our conviction about the importance of social dialogue as the only tool to grow with equity, and that allows us to develop a 'sustainable strategy to achieve development, production, and decent work, with social justice.'"
Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich
dismissed the strike as the work of "mafia unionists, poverty managers, complicit judges, and corrupt politicians, all defending their privileges, resisting the change that society decided democratically and that the president leads with determination."
From Brazil to Belgium, unions throughout the Americas and Europe staged solidarity rallies with Argentine workers.
"The [Argentine] government adopted a perverse combination of radical political authoritarianism with dictatorial tendencies and ultraliberal policies that mostly undermine workers," Unified Workers' Central, Brazil's largest trade union, said in a statement.
Myriam Bregman, a Socialist Workers' Party member of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Argentina's National Congress, said in a Wednesday interview with Left Voice that "international solidarity is key to defeating Milei's attacks on the working class in Argentina."
"Milei, as he made clear at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, is a friend to the superrich, whom he treats as heroes," she added. "It is in the interests of the international working class that we prevent the government from moving forward with its anti-worker policies."
Cruz Ferre wrote that "the current [Argentine] government has declared war on workers, women, human rights activists, the environment, and more. The goal is clear: to make tabula rasa of all past gains and concessions to the working class, and reset the conditions for profits through the unrestrained exploitation of labor."
"A determined, organized, and massive resistance will be necessary to preserve the rights that are today under attack," he added. "The outcome of these battles will have implications for many years to come."
Everyone from the World Economic Forum to the IMF to our governments to the Pope says they agree things need to change. But in practice, we are far from agreement with the rich and powerful about what change needs to happen and who should be driving that change.
As the world watches South Africa take Israel to the International Court of Justice with a charge of genocidal acts against Palestinians, it is rightly hard to look away. The daily bombings continue in Gaza, as does the human devastation.
With war threatening to escalate in the region, as well as crises in Ecuador, DRC and many other parts of the world, it will have failed to register for many that the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland rolls around again this week. In the context of sharpening inequalities, and perilous global politics, what relevance does this gathering have outside the elite bubble?
Their annual Global Risks Report itself posits misinformation, societal polarization, extreme weather conditions, conflict, and rising cost of living among the key risks to the global economy this year. What the WEF has failed to define is that for many, the coming year does not bring the threat of multiple crises. Those crises are already here, and are being lived daily on the streets and in the homes of people on the frontlines of inequality around the world. But we did not seriously expect a self-selecting gathering of the elite to be in touch with that lived reality.
In many ways, multilateralism that the WEF wishes to (but can only in a de facto way) be a part of has never looked more in peril. The UN system is impotent as members fail to enforce the international rule of law on Israel and its allies in the United States. This blatant example of how the international system currently works for the rich and powerful is seen and understood by many, including a disenfranchised younger generation. The specter of protests across the world on the streets in support of a ceasefire in Gaza and broader Palestinian liberation is the power of people on display. It is not hard to imagine that the same people power that will free Palestine will free the world from neoliberalism.
Every January during Davos, our allies Oxfam release jaw dropping statistics about inequality. It does a great job of crystallising for us the depth of the mess we’re in and provides a wedge into what sits beneath—the wider, systemic and intersectional problem. But statistics can only hold up a mirror. It does not change the picture we see staring back at us.
It is not hard to imagine that the same people power that will free Palestine will free the world from neoliberalism.
For people living on the frontlines of inequality across the world, change is in short supply. We’ve won the debates on how bad inequality is and the fact that it requires deep change. Everyone from the WEF to the IMF to our governments to the Pope says they agree things need to change. But in practice, we are far from agreement with the rich and powerful about what change needs to happen and who should be driving that change. Davos talks about rebuilding trust. The people talk of system change.
So where is the change going to come from? Inequality is, at heart, an issue of power. We in the Fight Inequality Alliance know that change comes when people power becomes stronger than those driving and benefitting from the status quo. People are already gathering in different formations and expressing their strong displeasure about the current state of affairs which is built to oppress the majority in favor of a few. The policy prescriptions that would do the most to ensure societies that work for all are largely known and already campaigned on by many. The agenda of taxing the richest people and multinationals more, funding public services, canceling the debt, and providing decent work for all have been the backbone of struggles for a just and equitable world for many years. Charting a path to an economy that puts people and planet ahead of greed and profit is the course to take to answer the dangerous times we are in.
But given the intense concentration of power and wealth in so few hands across the globe, the dangerous sweep of right-wing extremism, sexism, austerity, misogyny, and discrimination, accompanied by a crackdown on democratic rights and freedoms, these struggles needed to join up and build collective power on a larger scale. With over 50 national elections set for this year across a hugely diverse range of countries from India to South Africa, UK to the US, representing over half of humanity’s population, this year will be a test for democracy. What kind of societies are we able to fight for?
Any talk of rebuilding trust must surely sound hollow to those at the sharp end of oppression, injustice, and inequality.
The reality on the streets and the discussions as the WEF meets in the mountains of Davos are totally disconnected from one another. People cannot, and will not ask Davos to solve their problems. How can trust be rebuilt in a system that is designed to exploit and extract from the majority of humanity? Any talk of rebuilding trust must surely sound hollow to those at the sharp end of oppression, injustice, and inequality.
But protestors know that all is not lost. We believe in ourselves, and that change will come. Glimmers appear when people organize themselves and demand progressive change. And progress is made when governments are forced to respond. We have seen moves towards wealth taxes in Mexico and Zimbabwe to name recent examples. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), a groundbreaking summit between governments led to a new direction for more progressive taxation and for the region to raise a united voice on the international tax reform process. The expectation and the demand for fairer and more just societies drive us forward. We can never give that up.
Listen to those on the streets this week. Their stories and demands are the hope that we have.