A summer of extreme heat, entire villages obliterated in Nepal, a super El Niño breaking records, Exxon publicly saying we may reach 3C by 2050 – could it possibly be any worse?
uncertain
it → obliterate → 2050
As climate activists and funders, we’ve spent years warning about a self-evident, imminent, avoidable climate calamity.
asserted
we → spend → calamity
Whether by making award-winning films (Don’t Look Up and Just Look Up) to warn the public, or by funding protest groups across the planet that bravely stand up for a livable future, we’ve been sounding the alarm to wake the public up.
asserted
we → make → public
Lately, as climate disasters and AI expansion wreak havoc on communities globally, warnings are arriving from everywhere all at once.
asserted
warnings → wreak → communities
Daniel Kokotajlo, a former AI forecaster for OpenAI, recently testified before the Senate that today’s AI models are now trained to pursue goals no human gave them, and then they hide the fact that they’ve done it.
asserted
they → testify → it
Kokotajlo put the odds of AI companies automating their own work by the end of 2028 at about 50%, and, if that happens, the AI safety community warns the technology could improve faster than humans can monitor it, and eventually become too difficult to shut down.
uncertain
humans → put → it
These speculative warnings have earned alarm from mainstream media, politicians and civil society alike.
asserted
warnings → earn → media
Some critics suggest the warnings are marketing ploys by the AI industry to set up an arms race, using the false specter of AI apocalypse to capture government funding.
asserted
warnings → suggest → funding
Others think it might be an attempt to avoid accountability: by treating the machines as gods, we might conveniently forget their maker.
uncertain
we → think → maker
Either way, the debate keeps missing the damage AI is doing right now, polluting communities around the world, or the damage of new AI partnerships with the oil and gas industry.
asserted
AI → keep → industry
And we don’t just mean emissions from datacenter infrastructure alone.
asserted
we → mean → infrastructure
The harms run much deeper.
asserted
harms → run → ?
A recent study in Nature revealed an alliance between oil majors and the tech industry to use AI for new exploration and extraction – in effect adding up to 1.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (the equivalent of Russia’s annual emissions) to the atmosphere.
asserted
alliance → reveal → atmosphere
Meanwhile, AI is flooding our information ecosystems with disinformation that erodes public trust, or it “hallucinates” nuclear threats, almost sparking war between the US and China.
It feels as if we’re in a race over which apocalyptic ending comes first.
asserted
ending → flood → race
At the heart of this sits the same fundamental question: who decides our future?
asserted
who → sit → future
Right now, whether the threat is AI or climate, or a mix of both, the answer is the same: a handful of private corporations, billionaires and their political enablers, making choices that will enrich them but devastate billions of people.
asserted
that → make → people
A datacenter that drains water from a drought-stricken town, burns gas for power, and runs AI that helps oil companies find more oil is both a climate fight and an AI fight.
asserted
companies → drain → oil
Communities are resisting, and winning.
asserted
Communities → resist → ?
Data Center Watch counted at least 120 US datacenter projects worth nearly $200bn blocked or delayed in the first half of 2026, with opposition in 49 states.
asserted
Watch → count → states
Heatmap News found at least 20 canceled outright in the first three months of the year alone, a record.
asserted
20 → find → record
These are the early stages of what we believe is poised to become a global movement against corporate and billionaire capture of our water, the land that grows our food, and the air we breathe.
asserted
we → believe → food
At Climate Emergency Fund, we’ve put half our funding toward grassroots groups at the forefront of this fight, and we hope to scale that up before the year is out.
asserted
year → put → that
We’re asking other funders to join us in this work, which at its core is meant to build thriving communities, not AI datacenters.
asserted
which → ask → communities
This fight can continue to grow into a cohesive, sustained, strategic movement.
asserted
fight → continue → movement
It is one of our last best chances to tackle not only climate change, but also a corporate billionaire class that has decided it has the right to control and steal the future for the rest of us.
asserted
it → tackle → us
The goal is a future in which the possibility of the end of the world no longer needs a daily check-in.
asserted
possibility → need → in
Our existential threats are the result of human activity – systems built by people, on purpose, for money.
asserted
threats → build → money
Things built that way can be unbuilt, and we can choose to build another, better, world.
asserted
we → build → world
“Solving” these crises doesn’t require settling whether the machines or the seas get us first.
asserted
machines → solve → us
It only requires deciding we don’t want to learn the answer.
asserted
we → require → answer
We have everything we need, except time.
asserted
we → have → time
But with the time we have, we can take drastic action now.
asserted
we → have → action
And instead of pouring billions into datacenters and tech IPOs, we must fund those fighting for a thriving future.
asserted
we → pour → future
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Adam McKay is the Academy Award-winning director of The Big Short, Vice and Don’t Look Up; the founder of Yellow Dot Studios; and a board director for Climate Emergency Fund
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Philip Eubanks is the executive director of Climate Emergency Fund
asserted
Eubanks → win → Fund
The Aporia
