| Title | [Lecture Series on Advancing Connected Futures] Green Dreams, or, Why Technology Cannot Save the World | ||||
| Office | 文學院 | ||||
| TIME | 2026/3/4 下午 04:16:14 | ||||
| Content |
[Lecture Series on Advancing Connected Futures] Green Dreams, or, Why Technology Cannot Save the World Time: Tuesday, March 24 | 14:00 – 16:00 Venue: Meeting Room, College of Liberal Arts, National Taiwan University （NTU） Topic: Green Dreams, or, Why Technology Cannot Save the World （Conducted in English） Speaker: Imre Szeman （Professor of Human Geography, University of Toronto； Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada） Moderator: Chi-she Li （Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures； Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts, NTU） Registration: https://forms.gle/rauDBTWUravbej8BA Organizers:College of Liberal Arts, National Taiwan University, Trend Education Foundation, Advancing Connected Futures Abstract: “Green techno-optimism” has become a defining common sense 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. This lecture asks why that story is so persuasive, and how it reshapes what can be imagined, demanded, and defended as a climate future. It treats green techno-optimism as a cultural and political narrative, one that organizes hope, authorizes particular experts and institutions, and sidelines other ways of naming the crisis and acting within it. Green techno-optimism 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 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. For a humanities audience, the stakes are clear: if climate politics is being steered by the stories we tell about technology, then critique, interpretation, and alternative imaginaries are not secondary to climate action, they are part of the struggle over what solutions become thinkable and legitimate. Bio: 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. He is author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of thirty books, including （mostly recently） On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy （2019）, which explores the socio-cultural dimensions of energy use and its implications for energy transition and climate change； Futures of the Sun: The Struggle Over Renewable Life （2024）, a book examining corporate and state control of the transition to renewables； and Power Shift: Keywords for a New Politics of Energy （co-edited）, a lexicon of the politics of energy today. His latest book, Green Dreams: Why Technology Can’t Save the World （co-written）, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2026. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Contact Information Coordinator: Ms. Chih-Hann Chang Tel: 02-3366-3771 Email: chihhann@ntu.edu.tw | ||||
| Related UN SDG(s) | SDG07 Affordable and clean energy,SDG09 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure,SDG13 Climate action,SDG16 Peace, justice and strong institutions | ||||
| Fee | Free | ||||
| Active Date | 2026/3/24 | ||||
| Active Place | 台大文學院會議室 | ||||
| Related website | https://forms.gle/rauDBTWUravbej8BA | ||||
| Contact | 張小姐 | ||||
| Tel | 02-33663771 | ||||
| chihhann@ntu.edu.tw | |||||
| Reader | Faculty/Staff, Student, Alumni, Others | ||||
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