Nila Kartika Wati
The release of Gerry McGovern’s latest work, 99th Day: A Warning About Technology, has sent ripples through both the environmental advocacy sector and the global technology industry. Described by Joám Evans Pim, a prominent conservation leader in Spain, as a "dispatch from the edge of a collapsing world," the book represents a departure from standard environmental literature. McGovern, a veteran of the digital industry and a leading expert on "data waste," has pivoted from technical optimization to a searing cultural critique. His central thesis posits that the current climate trajectory is not merely a failure of policy or engineering, but a direct manifestation of a "toxic male culture" that has historically sought to dominate and commodify the natural world.
McGovern’s professional background lends significant weight to these assertions. In 1995, he founded Nua, a digital consultancy that received the European Union’s top award for digital innovation. Having spent decades helping organizations manage internet experiences, McGovern eventually turned his focus toward the environmental cost of those very experiences. His previous works highlighted the "invisible" pollution of the internet, but 99th Day takes a more radical stance, identifying White male supremacy culture as the ideological engine driving civilizational and environmental decay.
The Historical Evolution of Extractive Ideology
To understand the current crisis, McGovern traces the lineage of modern environmental degradation back through several key historical shifts. He argues that the contemporary climate crisis is the logical conclusion of the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. During this period, thinkers like Francis Bacon and René Descartes championed a mechanical view of the universe. This shift moved society away from an "organicist" worldview—where the Earth was seen as a living, nurturing entity—toward a "mechanistic" one, where nature was viewed as a collection of dead materials to be harvested for profit.
McGovern aligns his analysis with Carolyn Merchant’s seminal work, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution. He notes that the rise of capitalism and modern science was inextricably linked to the suppression of women. The historical "witch burnings" of the era are presented not just as religious persecution, but as a systematic effort to remove women from positions of communal power, particularly in healthcare and land management, and replace them with male-led institutional structures. This transition was essential for the commodification of nature; for the Earth to be exploited without moral restraint, it first had to be conceptualized as "dead."
The book further critiques the mid-20th-century "Green Revolution." While often celebrated for increasing global food production through high-yield crop varieties and synthetic fertilizers, McGovern characterizes it as a "chemical revolution." He argues that this movement prioritized machinery and chemical interventions over ecological balance, further entrenching a masculine ideal of "conquering" the land through technology.
The Rise of the Manosphere and Tech Industry Misogyny
A significant portion of 99th Day examines how these historical hierarchies have manifested in the modern digital age. McGovern identifies the technology sector as a modern bastion of toxic masculinity, frequently referred to in popular culture as the "tech bro" phenomenon. He points to the rhetoric and business models of industry titans like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk as evidence of a culture that prioritizes disruption and dominance over sustainability and social equity.
Research cited in the book suggests a psychological link between traditional toxic masculinity and climate-harming behaviors. Some studies indicate that certain men perceive environmentally friendly actions—such as recycling or using reusable bags—as "feminine," leading them to reject these behaviors to assert their masculinity. This mindset is amplified within the "manosphere," an online ecosystem where influencers often equate the exploitation of resources with personal power.
The impact of this culture extends to the design of technology itself. McGovern argues that if "supremacist people" are designing artificial intelligence, the resulting AI will inevitably reflect those supremacist values. This is seen in the development of tools like Musk’s Grok or the early iterations of Zuckerberg’s Metaverse, which have faced criticism for baked-in biases and exclusionary environments.
The Invisible Environmental Cost of Digital Waste
While much of the climate conversation focuses on fossil fuels and transportation, McGovern highlights the staggering environmental footprint of the digital world—a sector he calls "toxic tech." The infrastructure required to power the internet, store data, and train AI models is among the most resource-intensive on the planet.
Supporting data highlights the scale of this issue:
- Energy Consumption: Global data centers currently account for approximately 1 percent to 1.5 percent of global electricity use, a figure expected to rise sharply with the proliferation of AI.
- E-Waste: According to the Global E-waste Monitor, the world generated a record 62 million tonnes of electronic waste in 2022, a 82 percent increase from 2010. Only about 22 percent of that waste is documented as having been properly collected and recycled.
- AI Carbon Footprint: Training a single large language model can emit as much carbon as five cars over their entire lifetimes, including manufacture.
Naomi Spirit, founder of Human Touch AI and an advocate for "greener" websites, notes that McGovern’s work has been instrumental in making this invisible waste visible. Spirit’s work focuses on reducing the carbon footprint of digital assets through efficient coding and design choices, such as implementing "dark mode" to save battery power and reducing data transfer sizes. However, she acknowledges the difficulty of being "digitally green" in a world where tech giants control the narrative and override parental or individual controls.
Indigenous Wisdom and the Path to Restoration
Contrasting the extractive mindset of Western tech culture, McGovern draws inspiration from Indigenous perspectives, particularly those of his wife, who is Indigenous to Brazil. He notes that while Western systems view the Amazon as a resource to be "developed," Indigenous communities view it as a relative to be protected.
McGovern also reflects on his own upbringing in rural Ireland, a country with a history of colonization and deep-seated Celtic traditions. He recalls a culture where certain trees were considered sacred and could not be cut, representing a lingering vestige of an older, more respectful relationship with the environment. By highlighting these voices, 99th Day suggests that the "path forward" involves unlearning the hierarchies of the Scientific Revolution and returning to a worldview that recognizes the interdependence of all life.
Analysis of Implications and Corporate Responsibility
The implications of McGovern’s thesis are profound for both the nonprofit and corporate sectors. For climate activists, the book suggests that technical solutions—such as carbon capture or electric vehicles—may be insufficient if they are implemented within the same cultural framework that created the problem. This has led to a call for "ecofeminist" approaches that challenge hierarchies and value nature for its intrinsic worth rather than its utility.
From a corporate perspective, the book serves as a warning against "greenwashing." McGovern argues that many companies use "green" rhetoric to mask continued digital waste and extractive practices. True sustainability, in his view, requires a fundamental overhaul of how technology is conceived and who is allowed to design it.
The reaction from the advocacy community has been one of sober reflection. Katie Singer, author of Alien Soil, praised McGovern for his willingness to take personal responsibility for his role in the tech industry. She and other advocates argue that the first step toward environmental restoration is an honest accounting of the human choices and cultural biases that have led to the current state of "civilizational collapse."
Conclusion: The Mandate of Good Ancestry
Ultimately, 99th Day: A Warning About Technology is not a book of easy solutions. McGovern himself admits that the work is "depressing" in its honesty, yet he maintains that there is a moral imperative to act. He poses a central question to his readers: "How much good soil or water do we leave behind?"
This concept of "good ancestry" serves as the book’s final call to action. It suggests that the measure of human progress should not be the sophistication of our tools or the speed of our processors, but the health of the ecosystems we pass on to future generations. To achieve this, McGovern argues, society must move beyond the "toxic tech bro" culture and embrace a more inclusive, humble, and restorative relationship with the Earth. As the digital and physical worlds become increasingly intertwined, the choices made by today’s technologists and consumers will determine whether the "99th day" leads to a final collapse or a necessary transformation.
