Tech conferences need climate speakers now (an open letter)
Dear tech conference organizer,
I see that the date for the ______ conference is approaching, and that you have issued a call for speaker proposals.
That’s exciting! I’m a huge fan of the ______ conference and can’t wait!
Here’s my proposal.
I propose that you include speakers who will talk about climate change.
Why am I proposing this?
According to scientific consensus, we have 10 years to modify our behavior as a species or face catastrophic consequences.
Yikes!
What could those catastrophic consequences look like?
Well, we don’t know for sure, but we have a range of possibilities. At the ‘nicer’ end of the spectrum (assuming we don’t modify our behavior), we have basically a collapse of civilization.
Hard to focus on UX problems when you’re trying to find food!
On the not so nice end of the spectrum, we have basically an unlivable planet.
In this class of scenarios, finding food could be the least of your problems.
In fact, not having food may be an enviable problem to have, considering all the other problems you may be dealing with!
Also, it may seem like the topic of climate change may not be relevant to the main topics this year at the ______ conference.
I get that!
And that would be true if everyone on the planet, including all the conference participants, speakers, sponsors, every single present and future member of your family, all your pets, and even yourself, dear organizer, weren’t about to be affected by climate change.
I realize that my proposal puts you in a challenging spot.
This makes me think of the Iroquois Confederacy leaders who, when tasked with making decisions that would impact seven generations of their people, were said to have needed skin like the bark of a pine tree.
It’s hard work!
And I empathize.
On occasion, I’ve been asked to do things that I found challenging.
This one time, my girlfriend asked me to schedule a trip to Lake Tahoe.
Because I’m more of a backpacker and don’t enjoy touristy places, I really struggled to both motivate myself, and to envision a future where I would enjoy doing touristy things. But you know what? We did it and it turned out awesome!
Here is a photo from the trip. Aren’t we having fun!
I understand that you may feel conflicted.
On one hand, the conference sponsors are really nice people. You may even know them personally and be friends with them. Perhaps you have gotten drinks, or even indulged in some light and harmless flirtation.
Who am I to judge!
On the other hand, the companies they work for may be contributing to climate change, or hiring lobbyists so the government will relax climate related laws, or even funding climate change denial think tanks (Amazon).
Awkward!
And if they were to change their business model to help us all have a livable future, they may become less profitable, and their shares might even decline.
I feel for them as well.
What are we to do?
Well, one option is that we could keep having awesome conferences and never mention climate change. That could be fun!
Who wants to talk about climate, when conferences should really be about having fun, learning new things and meeting new people!
According to scientific consensus though, the longer we keep having fun and doing what we want to do, the worse things will be.
Such a bummer.
The simple problem is that we live in a bounded complex system with emergent properties and interdependent cascading feedback loops with long time cycles.
Because our minds model the world simplistically, it’s hard for us to imagine all this, so we tend to picture it in a way that makes us believe that it’s ok to wait longer to make changes.
Unfortunately, because it’s a complex system, it’s accelerating, which basically means that it would be like if you were driving a car towards a wall, the longer you drove, the faster you would end up going, and the worse the impact would be.
Ouch!
The great thing is that, like it or not, we all get to work together to discover and implement solutions. That actually sounds like fun!
Plus, there are so many smart, driven folks who attend and speak at conferences like the upcoming ______ conference.
Imagine their voices being used to inspire us all to work together, utilizing our myriad skills and interests to implement solutions to the climate crisis.
Wouldn’t it be great to hear from them on this important topic?
And since we talk so much about leadership at these conferences, I think it would be nice for everyone if we showed them what leadership looks like.
While I do enjoy conferences that don’t mention climate change, and I do enjoy hearing from the amazing speakers and attending the fun workshops, unfortunately, I do feel that after a while, with no mention of climate change, it becomes a bit like debating the paint color on the deck chairs of the Titanic when it is going down.
Yes, it it vitally important to make sure we have the best color that aligns with our brand values, but the larger issue is that maybe we should have this conversation in the fucking life raft.
My apologies. I do get carried away sometimes. I am trying to curse less.
When I was in kindergarten, I called my teacher a bad name, and she washed my mouth out with soap and water. It tasted terrible, and I think it left a lasting impression about people in power being unprepared to face certain situations with integrity.
In conclusion, I think it would be great to have speakers at the upcoming ______ conference who will talk about climate.
I think the other participants will also enjoy these talks.
Thank you for your consideration, and I’m so excited about the ______ conference!
I can’t wait!
Sincerely,
Issara Willenskomer
