Digital Solutionism Meets Pandemic Imaginaries

This chapter discusses environmental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and, more specifically, the impact of the overall shift towards digital technologies during the pandemic and in post-pandemic times. Drawing on small-scale observations of UK media coverage and a pilot systematic review of academic publications, the chapter focuses on the striking absence of intersections between discussions around pandemic digitization and questions of climate change and environmental degradation. The chapter considers two key elements of the digital disengagement paradigm: denaturalizing the digital, and using digital reduction and refusal as a starting point, rather than as an afterthought. In doing so, the chapter foregrounds digital reduction, refusal and opt-out, seeking new visions that promote climate-driven digital disengagement, instead of merely documenting digital harms or ways in which they are ignored.