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Feb 2026: AI, tech, and its climate implications

Each month, we break down our topic into four weekly modules. Catch up on previous editions here.​

This week's module: REFLECT

• CONNECT | Dream about a future where AI doesn't eat all our resources and actually we use technology for our purposes​
• LEARN | What are some challenges and impacts of AI we need to get ahead of?​
• ACT | How can we create an AI resilient future?​
• 🎯 REFLECT | Art, poetry, and commitments

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Here's what we'll learn today Reader

Hi!

​Can you believe what a year 2025 was for Soapbox? I kinda can't.

Anyway, 2026 is off to a wild and sometimes wonderful sometimes wack start. We have officially launched our Portland location and settled into our SECOND MONTH! I've been taking the train every single week from Seattle to Portland, which is a 3.5ish hour train ride each way, and it has been e x h a u s t i n g.

I'm on the brink of burnout trying to onboard our wonderful Portland lead Sam, not stress about how things are going in Seattle with Jonny, relaunch our online community with Kayla, write grants, follow up with individual donors, remember to update our board on stuff, and write these Changeletters. And probably more stuff that I'm forgetting.

It kinda pisses me off when people say you can't burn out doing what you love. Brother, please understand the laws of space and time. Anyway.

I'm actually simultaneously burning out AND doing fairly well at the same time, as far as one can in the current hellscape, and I hope you're holding up.

The daffodils are blooming early this year, which is heartbreaking because of climate change, but also I love daffodils. Always tough to hold two things in my heart.

It's time to wrap up our REFLECT module on AI and sustainability, and as always, we'll end it with a poem!

Before that, two things:

1. In case you don't already know, adding "-ai" to your search turns off the Al snippet. Then, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you file the support ticket on why you don't want unwanted Al features so people cannot keep citing "rising demand." People work at these tech jobs. They track this data. Al has its place, but we don't need to manufacture demand until our waterways wither in service of "profits" most of us will never see.
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2. There's so much talk about how "Al can't do this now, but it can in the future," and I want to just say. That's not the point. If you wrote a poem, I want to read it, If you painted a picture, I want to see it. Just because Al can, doesn't mean that I (or many people frankly) gives a single booty hair.
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   Keep making art. Keep dancing. Keep hugging your loved ones. Keep gardening. Keep living, laughing, and loving.

Alright. Nivi out. Pics of Soapbox Portland's watercolor & pressed botanicals workshop (Al could never) are below for funsies.

Onward 🔜 ⬇️

Love you <3

Your bite-sized action plan Reader

✅ REFLECT with these activities:

1. Last week, in our action module, I told you to check in on a friend. If you didn't do it, now's your chance.
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2. Create something earthly. Plant an herb. Dry an orange in your oven and make a garland. Make a watercolor + pressed botanical art piece like we did last night at Soapbox Portland.
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3. Make a vision board or a collage that showcases the solarpunk world you want to live in. Radical imagination is soooooo underused, and when we collaboratively imagine the future, we can make it happen.
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4. Share the poem below with a friend. Maybe the one you checked in on. Or maybe on social media if that's your jam on LinkedIn or Instagram. Or maybe out loud to the trees.

"Things You Can Make ChatGPT Write for You" by Hayley DeRoche
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Your last words
But before them
What to murmur to a lover in bed
What to say in the group chat when someone's
Sister mother brother is dead and
The apology you could never get quite right for a friend
And hell why not make the robot compose your proposal
Your wedding toast, too
Your best friend's birthday roast
You could ask it to write a custom lullaby
For the baby snuffling at your breast.
You can cradle to grave away
Every warm human word
You could ever have said
And when they chisel your gravestone
For your final rest
We can ask ChatGPT
Because it knew you best

Upcoming Soapbox events

We have WEEKLY events in Seattle AND in Portland! Both are on Tuesday evenings, same time, same place.
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​Our entire events calendar for ALL locations + virtual can be found here.