Google’s climate commitments are insincere.
They want us to think they care. They hold enough power to really make a difference. But right now, they are using smoke and mirrors to distract from the most powerful tools they have – but aren’t using – to fight the climate crisis. We need them to stop putting their short term profits ahead of our futures.
Google is Enabling the Climate Crisis.
Underneath their sustainability promises, Google is making the climate crisis worse. Add your name to our petition to Google’s CEO, Mr. Sundar Pichai. This Earth Day, we demand real climate action.
Google has failed to stop disinformation in Google search results, lets climate deniers profit off their lies in YouTube videos, and makes money from fossil fuel greenwashing.
Google partners with oil mega-corporation Aramco to make their fossil fuel extraction more efficient and more lucrative.
Google spends money on unproven climate scams like carbon capture and offsets instead of shrinking their actual fossil fuel use.
Google is developing resource-guzzling AI at an unsustainable pace, straining our water supply and upending our shift to green energy.
Google lobbies against climate action via it’s membership in trade groups.
Google invests their employees’ retirement savings in fossil fuels.
Sources: https://www.kairosfellows.org/usererror/#climate, https://vanguard-sos.com/google-fix-your-funds, https://escapethechamber.org/.
Our Demands
Google pays lip service to their supposed environmental commitments, but their actions are aligned with the fossil fuel industry—not our health and the health of our planet. As environmental advocates, advertising watchdogs, civil society organizations, researchers, scientists, Gmail users, Google maps navigators, YouTube video watchers, GSuite account holders, and more, we demand that Google:
Curb energy and water use.
Release an actionable plan for meeting their own phase-down targets.
Stop investing in untested false “solutions.”
Reinvest the money they currently spend on carbon capture, carbon offsets, and other unproven technologies into frontline organizations fighting to end the use of fossil fuels and cut emissions at the source.
End greenwashing, disinformation, and climate denial on all Google-owned platforms.
Effectively combat dis- and misinformation to inform the public climate narrative responsibly.
End all cloud partnerships with Big Oil and Big Gas.
End the Google Cloud partnership with fossil fuel mega-corp Aramco, and cancel all cloud partnerships that use Google technology to aid fossil fuel extraction. Do not start any new cloud partnerships with fossil fuel companies.
Rein in AI before it becomes a bigger problem.
Include Artificial Intelligence resource use reports in all future environmental impact reporting, and regulate Google’s AI products using the same energy targets as their other technologies.
About
Kairos is an organization that is building a multiracial movement to hold tech accountable. Our work is centered on racial justice and building a working democracy. We campaign and organize to ensure that technology and the internet are not used to uphold systemic injustice and undermine democracy. We do this by working to change policy, holding corporations accountable to communities of color, and empowering supporters to see that they hold the means to bring about change.
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