LET'S BE REAL...BUSINESS AS USUAL ENDS IN CATASTROPHE, NOT ONLY FOR HUMANITY BUT FOR ALL LIVING THINGS

Yesterday a NY times reporter covered the public announcement of an Anthropic researcher and former Open AI employee who just resigned because “neither company is acting responsibly.” He wrote that the two leading A.I. labs are sprinting to build “superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources” without building in appropriate safeguards. Another Anthropic employee admitted that "he believed the risk of A.I.’s eliminating humanity was greater than 10 percent within the next decade." 

On the climate change front, the UN too has finally admitted that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 ºC to avoid the most dangerous consequences of climate change is officially dead. An analysis of the impacts of Global Tipping points from the Institute of Faculty and Actuaries, hardly a leftist organization, predicts that even assuming no further acceleration in the rate of global warming, catastrophic warming of greater than 2°C by 2050 is likely. The actuaries predict that this will result in the death of more than 25% of humanity - greater than 2 billion people, trigger climate tipping points, result in major extinction events for wildlife across multiple geographies, and cause severe socio-political fragmentation, mass migration and catastrophic mortality from disease, nutrition deficiencies, thirst and conflict.

What should we do with this terrifying knowledge? It is so easy to feel paralyzed, to choose nihilism or even hedonism, to abandon hope.

But hope is the only chance we have of saving whatever can still be saved. Hope inspires action. The possibility of a different outcome - however small - is what inspires revolution, resistance and action on the individual and the collective front. Hope itself is a revolutionary act.

As Indigenous friends have pointed out - despite genocide and near total annihilation at the hands of generations of colonizers, the people still sing, they still have their prayers, their language, their ceremonies and traditional dances. Everything they have preserved, every celebration of life, every ceremony, is a victory over the murderous colonial project that sought to wipe them from the earth.

So let us take inspiration from the survivors who are still with us. Let us dance, let us sing, let us rise up together to resist the oligarchs and fossil fools. 

What does that look like now? It looks like bold collective action. We can no longer be mollified by business as usual and tepid neoliberal climate schemes that don't match the urgency of the moment. As the heat rises and the rivers dry up, we must act like our house is on fire and demand an immediate transition.

When it comes to climate change, every tenth of a degree matters and every single species saved from extinction is a miracle.

That is why yesterday New Energy Economy filed a motion calling for the PRC to dismiss Blackstone's application to merge with PNM. They broke the law and their compliance filing was not only non-compliant but also changed fundamental aspects of the original merger agreement, making it obsolete. We need the private equity owners of the largest data center development company controlling our utility and energy infrastructure like we need a hole in the head.

It is time for New Mexico to demand control of our own energy future - to invest in our own utilities and to demand accountability from public regulators and elected leaders. We need to curb the power and arrogance of AI architects, a moratorium on data center construction, a requirement that any "microgrids" built in New Mexico be powered by 100% renewable energy and meaningful, scientifically sound investments to protect and conserve our water.

There is still the possibility of a different outcome - if we dare to demand one.