ACTIVISTS DISRUPT AI GREENWASHING PRESENTATION AT NEST CONFERENCE
9/22/26
Henry Pratt
Spokesperson, Extinction Rebellion NYC
973-975-3605 (Signal)
Extinction Rebellion NYC Activists Disrupt AI Greenwashing Presentation at NEST Conference, Challenge Big Tech to 'Tell the Truth' with Chalk-spray Outside
JAVITS CENTER, MIDTOWN, NYC — Multiple activists from Extinction Rebellion NYC (XRNYC), in coalition with other climate direct action groups, disrupted a keynote, "Unlocking the Energy Grid: An AI Solution to an AI Problem" on the main stage at the city's largest AI resilience economy gathering. Multiple XRNYC activists shut down the on-stage leaders from Salesforce, Emerald AI, Crusoe, and Fortune Magazine while challenging the assembled tech and policy professionals on the economic and sustainability myths underpinning the day.
Four activists in attendance at the presentation unfurled large painted banners and called out the false solutions as the Earth speeds past ever more climate tipping points. Activist attendees were thrown out by Javits’ security, though some managed to leave the conference on their own terms through the main
entrance. Meanwhile, another activist was arrested for chalk-spraying 'Tell The Truth' to call attention to the conference's greenwashing. During the action, she called for Mayor Mamdani's Office of Mass Engagement to hold a Civic Assembly on the climate transition, including AI’s impact, on the city.
While most of the climate shockwave of AI is still latent, the economic wave is starting to crest. As NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has noted, New York City is uniquely susceptible to the perils of AI. Our city's own fiscal officer has echoed this, with a report estimating that the city has a 50% probability of an impending AI-induced fiscal cliff, due to widespread white-collar job losses. With debt associated with AI infrastructure reaching levels twice the size of the subprime mortgage crisis, an AI bubble explosion could erase trillions in value from the economy, potentially leading to a recession bigger than 2008.
Increasingly, even the Wall Street view is that the AI bubble looks likely to burst soon. It's why the attendees, listened patiently as our activists explained the mass of contradictions from the on-stage accelerationists. If NYC professionals are likely to lose their jobs because of the bluffs from AI greenwashers, they shouldn't stand for also losing access to safe drinking water, affordable energy, and a livable planet. The NEST conference wants us to trust that AI will be at the heart of the resilience economy; XRNYC has countered that the resilience economy is by definition one with human livability at its heart. NEST's only answer to the myriad emerging problems with AI and the climate crisis is to encourage its attendees to work faster and love AI more. They are not done plundering yet.
Whether through superintelligence-led extinction, distraction by greenwashing accelerationists like NEST, or just old-fashioned government incompetence —AI is leading us to collapse, just like the climate crisis. There are at least eight data centers within five blocks of the Javits Center. Photos and video from the action are available to access here.
Quotes:
• "NEST's brazen attempt at greenwashing, is the latest example of the mindless AI-boosterism infecting corporate sustainability. New Yorkers shouldn't fall for it." - Henry Pratt, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion
• "Today I unfurled a banner calling out the lack of any sort of plan or way out from the AI dead-end. Data centers, like those being built by the NEST's sponsors, are accelerating climate collapse. But today's panelists would have you believe that more, and more faster, is just what we need to solve the climate crisis. We need to trust the people to find a way forward, these 'solutions' aren't it." – Topher Dean, an Extinction Rebellion member who participated in the action.
• "Big Tech, Big Banks, and Big Business won't fix this. It's an emergency that can only be solved by Radical Democracy. We demand Mayor Mamdani hold a civic assembly on climate policy to give the people a voice in preventing our own extinction." — Jenna Cardinale, an Extinction Rebellion member who participated in the action.
• "New data center construction represents the will of our tech oligarchs; men who are willing to kill all life on earth just to accrue more money and power." — Davidson Boswell, a Climate Defiance member who participated in the action.
• "You don't have to be an 'AI-native' to discover that its promises, from productivity to sustainability, are bunk. We deserve better than these shallow fairy tales about endless AI-led growth, driven by finite resources" — Tatiana Cruz, an Extinction Rebellion Member who participated in the action
• "Whether there is 10%, 15%, or 25% chance that AI kills all humans due to a misaligned or (misguidedly helpful) hypothesized super-intelligence, is not the only story here. It's that our leaders have done nothing about the ongoing and impending major disruptions to our environmental and economic systems." — Mark Graham, an Extinction Rebellion Member who participated in the action
About Extinction Rebellion NYC
Extinction Rebellion is an international movement that uses nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action on the climate and nature emergency. Extinction Rebellion exists because the conventional approaches: voting, writing to politicians, lobbying, and signing petitions, have failed. Powerful political and economic interests prevent change, as does our outdated political system itself. Our strategy is therefore one of nonviolent, disruptive civil disobedience – in short, it is a strategy of rebellion.
Climate boiling is here and now. It’s happening all around us, and it hits historically vulnerable communities hardest of all. Extinction Rebellion demands that all of us, especially major institutions and governments, tell the truth about the ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction. Extinction Rebellion believes that, when faced with the government’s criminal inaction, it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, through peaceful civil disobedience .
Internationally, Extinction Rebellion has been demanding that those with power act now to halt the worst outcomes of the climate catastrophe currently unfolding. Unlike other climate advocacy groups, Extinction Rebellion understands that we must have radical democracy and establish Civic Assemblies [also called Citizens Assemblies]. Civic Assemblies are deliberative bodies that are, like juries, formed of randomly selected members of the public. Assembly members hear expert testimony and develop recommendations on specific policy issues. Only through this method can we achieve justice for all life.
Leading by example, Extinction Rebellion is fighting for a more stable, sustainable world in NYC. Follow us on: X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky, Website