Fernando Racimo

I haven't seen a documentary that summarizes the fascist, racist and extractivist logics behind degenerative intelligence as well as Ghost in the Machine. If you watch one documentary about "AI", make it this one: https://kinema.com/films/ghost-in-the-machine-pvxg4p

@snippet@fe.disroot.org @Talia@mstdn.social Jeez that's extreme. I guess it's not surprising activism is being recuperated by capital, just like sustainability and so many other terms. Curiously, where I'm based in Copenhagen, it's almost the opposite: "activism" is a taboo word in Danish academia. There is also something to be said for a critique of "activism" in the Freirean sense (as in, acting without strategic thinking), which could apply to that museum institution for example, though perhaps the strategy here is just to co-opt the word and void it of all meaning.

@snippet@fe.disroot.org @Talia@mstdn.social Happy to chat about this. One of the points of the book is that academic institutions (including mine) are highly complicit in structures of oppression (capitalism, colonialism, etc) and that we need to be organizing labor power from below to democratize and decolonize (or even abolish) such institutions

Want to fight back? A large coalition of academics and NGOs has initiated a legal grievance mechanism at the UN Human Rights Council, calling out Elsevier / RELX for the risks it poses to human rights as a direct consequence of its support for fossil fuel corporations, but it's currently under legal threats from Elsevier. You can find more about them here, as well as alternatives to collaborating with this company: https://www.climaterightscoalition.com/ https://stopelsevier.wordpress.com/

𝐇𝐞 𝐝𝐮𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐄𝐥𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐥 𝐟𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬: "𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝"

If you're into science or medicine, you may have heard of journals like Cell or The Lancet. You might also be familiar with their parent company Elsevier / RELX, and their predatory practices: sometimes charging more than 10,000 dollars for publications whose running costs don't reach a tenth of that amount.

What you might not know is that beyond pocketing public research money, Elsevier is also contributing to climate breakdown, pouring millions into tools and journals providing information about areas yet to be exploited for oil and gas extraction, as well as new technologies needed to dig up oil more efficiently in the Arctic and the Canadian tar sands. The motto of one of their online tools, Geofacets, used to be that, thanks to it, “exploration has never been more seamless.”

But that's the tip of the iceberg. For years, RELX's political action committee REPAC has been providing support to climate denialist politicians in the US, preventing carbon mitigation bills from reaching a vote in Congress.

I document this and other complicities of big academic publishers in my new book Science in Resistance, where I interview Kip Lyall, a former employee of the journal Cell, who was fired after asking too many questions about the company's fossil fuel ties.

Excerpt below. 👇

#Science #OpenScience #Fossilfuels #Climate #Climate #Activism #Journal

Applications Open! LowTech, Luddism and Liberation

Join us in beautiful Saulkrasti, Latvia, July 24-31 for a week-long study retreat on regaining control of technology, nurturing low-tech & dismantling techno-fascism, as part of the family-friendly and democratically-run NSU summer session.

We welcome contributions from academics, artists, writers, NGOs, social movements, workers, civil servants, and anybody interested in participating.

Deadline to apply: April 30

https://www.nsuweb.org/circle-9-degrowth-and-exnovation/

"Speaking out of place" is probably one of the most important things we need to be doing these days. So I was very happy to be invited to David Palumbo-Liu's podcast, highlighting voices confronting systems of oppression, and dedicated to dismantling them.

We discussed my book Science in Resistance, the complicity of higher education institutions in genocide and ecocide, as well as paths to organizing inside and outside the workplace.

https://speakingoutofplace.com/2026/03/26/science-in-resistance-direct-action-for-climate-justice-democracy-in-education-a-conversation-with-fernando-racimo/

"𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐎𝐢𝐥?"

I was recently interviewed by @kgjengedal@snabelen.no for Norway's Forskerforum, as part of a great article she did on the topic of exnovation and its glaring absence from academic research priorities.

https://www.forskerforum.no/reportasje/professor-vil-ha-meir-forsking-pa-korleis-vi-kan-slutte-a-oydeleggje-verda/

In it, she also interviews the scholar who first introduced me to the topic, Jennie C. Stephens. In her words:

"There is a strong focus in academia on innovation and change through coming up with something new rather than achieving change by stopping something."

Where are the institutes for deconstructing oil rigs? For closing down pipelines? For dismantling capital? When do we get a research center on how to drive Shell, Equinor and Total into oblivion? A lab for experimental studies on undoing the fossil grip on our lives, and building something better in its stead?

These are exciting and important questions, and we will be delving into them next week at our study circle on "Abolishing the fossil regime", in Oslo, the oil capital of Europe. Hosted by the Nordic Summer University. We are bringing together scholars, change-makers and policy-makers from across Europe to figure out how to undo extractivist mentalities, spaces and institutions.

And if you're interested in the topic of exnovation, you can sign up for our next session, in July in Latvia, on "LowTech, Luddism and Liberation: reclaiming technology for the collective good", which has just opened for registration!

https://www.nsuweb.org/circle-9-degrowth-and-exnovation/

How do we build collective counter-power in the face of rising fascism and climate breakdown? Join me in Oslo for a book presentation and conversation on organizing academia for liberation:

https://www.uio.no/english/about/climate-environment/green-office/events/2026/science-in-resistance-book-presentation-and-q-a.html

#degrowth #resistance #fascism #climate #ecology #science #academia #liberation

Worried about the role of science in a world on fire and under rising fascism? Then come to my lunch talk tomorrow, Jan 21 at 12 PM CET, with
@Jeggers@mastodon.green on Researcher's Desk, where we'll talk about my new book Science in Resistance. Open to all! us02web.zoom.us/j/6639856178

Thanks to Yale Climate Connections for featuring Science in Resistance in their "toolkit of books to help you survive 2026" among truly great titles, including Luke Kemp's Goliath's Curse & Amitav Ghosh's Wild Fictions.

Check them all out here: https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/01/a-preview-of-the-new-year-in-12-new-books/

#climate #environment #economy #empire #resistance #capitalism #fascism #collapse #climatejustice #climatechange #science

Working with #genomics 🧬 & evolution 🦣 & considering attending the #SMBE2026 conference in Denmark 🇩🇰 ?
Questioning the current #academic system & our role as scientists 🥼 ? Starting to think it's a bit silly to focus on the next paper while the world is on fire and fascism is on the rise?

Our symposium on the role & responsibilities of the #SMBE community in the polycrisis is for you!

We are welcoming abstracts on initiatives & actions in the community to trasnform our academic system to serve a just and democratic socio-ecological transformation.

Abstract submission deadline: February 3
More information & submission:

👉 https://smbe2026.org/programme/

@AudreyBras@ecoevo.social