Project ARCC members have been meeting regularly over the last several months to talk climate change and archives. These informal Climate Yaps are a place to share what we’re thinking about and working on, big and small wins, and challenges along the way.

Here are some of the emerging themes.

To join an upcoming Climate Yap, watch the Project ARCC email list for announcements.

AI and archives

Reorganizing archival work to accommodate artificial intelligence has been a dominant topic at archives conferences, as many institutions seem to ask, “Could we?” without necessarily asking, “Should we?” For instance, we know that server farms are built near low-income and disadvantaged populations, in environmentally sensitive areas, with flaws in public consultation – as some of us have experienced – but few conference speakers addressed these problems.

Yap participants furthermore observed a gap between discussions of climate change and social justice in the field. We’re accustomed to considering climate impacts as consumers trying to make ethical choices. But what if we redirected climate conversations towards social and environmental justice in and out of archives?

There has been limited public engagement in our field with AI’s environmental or labor implications, but that could change. As discussed in the August Climate Yap, Project ARCC members are interested in producing an information brief on these topics for the Society of American Archivists.

Energy and waste

Mitigating archives’ environmental impact often means talking energy and waste. When it comes to energy use, some of our workplaces lack policies for regular data deletion, while other Yappers find themselves (re)explaining the problems with Digitizing It All.

The topic of energy sources brought us back to the question of server farms: Where are they located? What fuel source do they use? Where does their waste go?

Closer to home, archivists’ ability to recycle deaccessioned materials and media depends on parent organization policies and can be cost-prohibitive. Despite the barriers, we discussed ways to engage community in the recycling process: donating materials to arts organizations, hosting community packing days, and turning it all into conversations about climate change.

Facilities

Recent Yaps also looked at ways to mitigate climate impacts on archives. Several of us have experienced system breakdowns in archives facilities, sometimes leading to acute disasters.

We brainstormed tactics to advocate for improvements. For example, archives staff can create timelines of the issues: what happened, where, and why, and how did it affect staff and collections? An outside assessment of buildings, systems, and climate risks can put a price on being underresourced.

And we can articulate the costs of deferred maintenance in ways that put pressure on decision-makers. What promises have archives made to steward materials, allowing donors to contribute in good faith? How have institutions benefited from donations? What has it cost over time to put band-aids over serious problems? What will it cost – for instance, in loss of public face – when a facilities issue loses donors’ trust?

Climate planning

Many of us are trying to build our obligations to the planet into archives decisions: If we’re not reducing our environmental impact, then why are we making 500-year preservation plans?

Yap attendees discussed the important of risk management and climate mitigation plans. We heard about several exciting efforts to map GLAMs overlaid with disaster risks like fire, flood, sea level rise, and earthquakes. Tools like this can be especially useful for small organizations to collaborate on disaster planning and preventative maintenance.

A theme across the Yaps has been that solutions should come from archival workers; we may not hold the purse strings, but we have to live with the outcomes.

What we’re reading, listening to, and clicking around

“AI: Is It Ruining The Environment?” (podcast episode)
Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 (podcast)
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want (book)
Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence (book)
Decomputing as Resistance (lecture)
“Tuscon City Council rejects Project Blue data center amid intense community pressure” (news article)
SAA Issues & Advocacy Call for Takes on Archives & Artificial Intelligence (call for submissions)
Acknowledgement of Climate Change and its impact (Australian Society of Archivists resolution)
Low-tech Magazine (magazine)
Climate Resilience Resources for Cultural Heritage (toolkit)