The Vere Gordon Childe Centre and the School of Humanities, The University of Sydney, present a special lecture by one of the world’s leading researchers of sustainability.
“Green techno-optimism” has become one of defining ideas of the climate era: the belief that innovation, markets, and new technologies can deliver sustainability without forcing hard choices about growth, consumption, or high-energy ways of life. It finds its most powerful expression in Silicon Valley, where contemporary faith in technological salvation is made and circulated. As climate breakdown becomes a new frontier for venture capital and for the rhetoric of creative disruption, tech companies have positioned themselves as central agents of climate solutions, driving a rapidly expanding field of green tech, from carbon removal and geoengineering to “green AI.”
Focusing on Big Tech in particular, the lecture examines how these firms narrate themselves as climate leaders through net-zero pledges, sustainability reports, and renewable energy claims, even as their growth models, infrastructure, and rising energy demands work against meaningful decarbonization and democratic climate governance. Climate politics are increasingly being steered by the story we tell about technology. This lecture asks why that story is so persuasive, how it reshapes what can be imagined, demanded, and defended as a climate future, and how it sidelines other ways of naming the climate crisis and acting to address it.
Imre Szeman is the inaugural Director of the Institute for Environment, Conservation and Sustainability and Professor of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough, where he has taught since 2022. He was previously University Research Chair of Environmental Communication at the University of Waterloo (2017-2022), Canada Research Chair of Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta (2009-2016) and Senator William McMaster Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies at McMaster University (2004-2009). A cultural theorist distinguished for his contributions to the interdisciplinary field of energy and environmental studies known as “energy humanities,” Szeman is also a key figure in the development of cultural studies in Canada and for research on globalization and culture. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
