Meet the 37C3 "Sustainability & Climate Justice" track team

Meet the 37C3 "Sustainability & Climate Justice" track team

For several years now, the topics of climate breakdown and (un)sustainability have been addressed by the CCC, because there is no hacking on a dead planet. For example, the CCC was a core member of the first Bits & Bäume conference in 2018, and one year later in 2019 the motto of the 36C3 was ambiguously but spot on “Resource Exhaustion” with the new content track “Resilience and Sustainability” providing for relevant talks and discussions.

This paved the way for this year’s Chaos Communication Congress, one of the biggest gatherings in the hacker world, to continue pursuing the topics of “Sustainability & Climate Justice” with a dedicated track and therefore creating a dedicated space for one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Together we want to discuss what sustainable technology might look like, what digital solutions exist to preserve the environment, how technology and technological thinking need to change to protect our common livelihood, and how we can create a just world that respects all people and the planet. Our track therefore links society, technology, hacker attitudes and sustainability on stage, and we are proud and more than happy to share our 14 great talk selections with you!

To be able to compile an exciting track, we broadly advertised the 37C3-CfP far beyond the hacker and tech bubble, combed through the HaveYourSay, encouraged numerous people to submit and answered countless questions. In effect, we received 55 submissions and would sincerely like to thank every single person who submitted a talk, because we know how much heart, brain and bravery can go into even an abstract. Then our thorough and exhaustive curation process started for all talks and all submitters. This includes getting familiar with their work, their organisations, their expertise, their agendas (political, commercial etc.) and even their previous talks at conferences. Eventually, we spend hours researching, even more hours doing looong meetings and in the end making very tough decisions.

In order to tackle this broad and complex interdisciplinary topic, our track team also had to consist of people with very diverse professional backgrounds. From Free Software advocates, tech wizards and activists for free network infrastructure to environmental experts, sustainability researchers and global political activists. What brings us together is our love for technology, the goal to protect our environment, and our commitment to sharing knowledge for a good and fair future for all.

The track teams from previous congresses warmly welcomed us in the content team for the 37C3 and we are very excited to contribute to this year’s amazing C3! We hope the selections inspire all within and outside the Chaos Family to rethink and then build the future of humanity on our spaceship earth.