Based on an original investigation for Truthdig.com, this talk will platform the voices of indigenous leaders, workplace organisers, lawyers and activists who are resisting at every point along AI’s toxic supply chain.

The AI boom is being built on a new wave planetary pollution, extraction and exploitation at a scale the world has simply never seen before.

It will feature:
– local activists resisting the gargantuan data centres which are sucking in scarce water and melting the grid.
– union organizers at Chip Communities United, resisting the massive, polluting semi-conductor factories, called “fabs”, that are being built across the US to serve Trump’s American AI First agenda.
– A lawyer bringing environmental cases against most advanced semiconductor factories on the planet in Taiwan.
– Workplace campaigners in South Korea, who are fighting a planned semi-conductor “mega cluster” that will need half as much water as Seoul, and for which nuclear reactors are being planned to power it.
– Indigenous leaders in Neskantaga, Northern Canada, Inuk Greenland and in West Papua, Indonesia, whose territories are at risk. Critical minerals extraction will increase 400% for digital and renewable technologies, and first nations are on the frontline.

We’ll conclude with alternative tech futures - the four futures model for regenerative pathways, permacomputing - tools for conviviality and Usrsula Franklin's "Holistic Technologies" framework