Climate Desk Live: AI, Energy, and Our Fight for Democracy and a Healthy, Affordable Future

Climate Desk
New York
09/24/2026 at 09:00AM

We are excited to share that this vital conversation convenes a powerhouse lineup of community leaders, mayors, scientists, researchers, and journalists. Across three dynamic panel conversations, we’ll examine the collision of technology, energy, and democracy; the rapid expansion of AI data centers; the legacy of nuclear weapons; the toll of these developments on Indigenous communities, communities of color, and rural areas; and the affordability crisis and what it will take for everyday people to build power and shape real solutions.

Together, these conversations connect today’s most pressing challenges to a larger question: How do communities organize and build power within democratic structures when government and industry leave them behind?

AI’s Hidden Toll

  • LaTricea Adams, President & CEO, Young, Gifted & Green, Memphis
  • Manish Bapna, President & CEO, Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, DC
  • Mayor Kate Gallego, City of Phoenix

Tishman Auditorium, The New School

Moderator

  • Adam Mahoney, National Climate and Environment Reporter, Capital B News, New Orleans

Nuclear Legacy: Mapping Local Impacts

  • Lilly Adams, Co-Creator, US Nuclear Impacts Map, Brooklyn, New York
  • Moñeka De Oro, Co-Executive Director, Micronesia Climate Change Alliance, Guam/Guåhan
  • Leona Morgan (Diné), Indigenous Community Organizer and Anti-Nuclear Activist, Diné No Nukes, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Moderator

  • Sharon Weinberger, Editor-in-Chief, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Washington, DC

Power in Our Hands: Solutions for an Affordable, Just Future

  • Dr. Ana Isabel Baptista, Associate Professor of Environmental & Climate Justice at the Parsons School of Design and Director, Tishman Environment & Design Center at The New School, New York
  • Dr. Gretchen Goldman, President & CEO, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, DC
  • Bill McKibben, Author, Educator, Activist, and Founder, Third Act & 350.org, Vermont
  • Mayor Michelle Wu, City of Boston

Moderator

  • Garrison Hayes, Correspondent, Mother Jones, Nashville