An illustration of a man’s hands peeling the earth as if it’s a fruit. The hands wear a men’s ring and gold watch.
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“[This book] reads like a dispatch from the edge of a collapsing world.” That’s how Joám Evans Pim, a conservation leader in Spain, described Gerry McGovern’s book, 99th Day: A Warning About Technology.

McGovern, an author, speaker, and expert on internet experiences and data waste—which he has dedicated his life to helping people reduce—has written nine books, but many would describe 99th Day as his most radical. Maybe that’s because this one holds up a mirror many of us would rather not see. As a commentary not just on environmental degradation, but on the human influences, natures, and choices that contribute to it, 99th Day is a reminder that we are the problem—and no one likes being reminded of that.

McGovern is known in the climate space for not pulling any punches. His approach is blunt and straightforward, and due to his long experience in the internet industry, his words carry a lot of weight. His latest work is no exception, dealing with what he sees as a rapidly oncoming environmental and civilizational collapse driven by the excesses and wastes of our abusive technological society, and particularly by White male supremacy culture.

For many climate activists and advocates of a greener future, the connection between climate change and widespread toxic masculinity in our culture is a new idea, or at least has largely gone unspoken. It can seem difficult to make the link, but McGovern makes it suddenly too obvious to ignore.

As Katie Singer, activist and author of Alien Soil: Oral Histories of Great Migration Newark, told NPQ, “The first chapter in Gerry’s book is so extraordinary because he’s really taking responsibility for his part and I salute him for doing that,” agreeing that he doesn’t mince his words. From taking apart what many of us see as a new “green revolution” to highlighting Indigenous communities and voices, 99th Day is a peek both into modern human nature and a realistic—albeit grim—path forward.

The book is undoubtedly intense, but it’s also personal, drawing on his own upbringing and that of people close to him. It takes readers on a journey with themselves, helping them find answers to questions they never realized they had about the choices they make every day.

For many climate activists and advocates of a greener future, the connection between climate change and widespread toxic masculinity…has largely gone unspoken.

“There’s a number of inspirations,” McGovern said. “My wife is Indigenous from Brazil, so she was talking about the number of issues in the Amazon, and Greta Thunberg had a big impact. I did some research and discovered more than I expected.”

He also drew on his own background growing up in Ireland: “Ireland was the only country in Europe that was colonized, and so we have a very different perspective. Irish culture is very old. I grew up on a very small farm. We didn’t have electricity, but we did have stories such as those about trees that you couldn’t cut, and there was a strong Celtic culture so when I came across stories from my wife and others, they weren’t totally alien to me.”

Climate Change and Toxic Masculinity

The idea of toxic male culture as a driver for environmental collapse wasn’t something McGovern set out to explore. But as he researched the changes human beings have made over the course of history to create the massive, destructive climate impact that we have had, he found more links to environmental degradation and toxic masculinity.

“I went back [to] the Green Revolution [beginning in the mid-1960s], and I realized the Green Revolution was really a chemical revolution, and it was about chemicals and machinery, so I went back again and looked at the Scientific Revolution [of the 1500s and 1600s],” McGovern said.

Research shows that for many men influenced by toxic masculinity culture, being environmentally friendly is something seen as feminine, and therefore, negative.

“I saw it was part of a toxic male culture that takes over society, and it wasn’t disconnected from the witch burnings. The burning of witches was actually to remove women from these positions of power, particularly in healing, and replace them with male doctors,” he said.

He connected this to Carolyn Merchant’s book, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution, which described that era’s push to subordinate women, in part by shifting how people saw the natural world.

“[Merchant] was showing that in order to drive forward the Scientific Revolution, capitalism, and other initiatives, there needed to be a shift away from nature. You needed to see nature as something that wasn’t alive, as a resource that was dead, as materials.”

Today we see that same connection deepening. Research shows that for many men influenced by toxic masculinity culture, being environmentally friendly is seen as feminine and therefore, negative.

“Tech companies are extremely misogynistic. You’ll see that in the language of [Mark] Zuckerberg or [Elon] Musk,” McGovern told NPQ. Both have been widely criticized for sexism in their direct rhetoric, as well as the ideals baked into the products they offer, such as Zuckerberg’s metaverse or Musk’s Grok.

McGovern isn’t necessarily surprised by this, adding that when “you have very bad people designing technology you’re going to get bad technology. If you get supremacist people designing AI you’ll get supremacist AI.”

Many of the influencers and male leaders in this “manosphere” movement promote ideas about “being a man” where “conquering” the environment is seen as a powerful way to prove one’s manhood. Ecofeminists, who counter this way of thinking, believe that these ideas come from the creation of hierarchies and systems that value culture over nature. Organizations like Women’s Earth Alliance, which provides support to women leading environmental projects worldwide, challenge these hierarchies by creating more equal spaces where femininity and value for nature are equally respected.

Naomi Spirit, founder of Human Touch AI, focuses on building greener websites by reducing their carbon footprint. She does this via color choices or the code she uses, and points to simple changes like using dark mode on a device to use less power. Spirit champions low-carbon websites and ethical AI use in an effort to bring about positive change in a tech industry that’s currently dominated by men and rife with environmentally harmful behaviors.

“I really started understanding more about climate change around 2017 when the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] climate report came out—it changed the way I lived my life. And then it was a similar effect when I read Gerry McGovern’s [first] book,” she adds.

While the connection between toxic masculinity and environmental harm was new to her, she said she agreed with McGovern’s thesis. And as a parent, she noted that this particular culture is even more worrying.

“It is a ‘tech bro boys club’ and they are directly shaping the minds of our children. That’s scary and worrying, and…some decisions feel out of your hands; I had strict parental controls, but when the kids turned 13, Apple allows children to override the parental controls,” she told NPQ. “You have Musk and Trump and Zuckerberg all controlling exactly what is promoted in their social feeds and changing the narrative for all generations.”

“I think our role is to be good ancestors to what comes after. How much good soil or water do we leave behind?”

Logging Off in a Digital World

Spirit shared that McGovern’s previous work has made her engage with the idea of how to reduce our digital carbon footprint in a world where it seems increasingly impossible to live without an online presence.

“Being completely digitally green is impossible, because it’s the way we communicate,” she said, adding that she is intentional about choosing who she works with, looking at the social impact they have, and trying to remain as low-carbon and efficient in her work as possible.

AI becomes a complicated topic in that regard. As Spirit noted, “Casual use of AI is rampant, and I have built a business model using AI as an integral tool, so I feel hypocritical saying that, but people are using it by default.” For her, AI has also had many benefits, such as allowing her to build websites that are far greener than any she’s made before, so she understands how tech can have both positive and negative impacts. Overall, she said she agrees with McGovern that there’s a long way to go to overhaul the damage done in the system.

Notably, McGovern himself has long been in the internet business. In 1995, he started his own company, Nua, which won the EU top award for digital innovation. That foray into the digital age enabled McGovern to see the reality of the impact of digital waste and the tech industry on our climate and environment, and he took on the responsibility of communicating that understanding in his future work and writing.

The clear lines he draws help readers understand what can actually make a difference, versus the greenwashing trends that have become popular over recent years. This also means the solutions he poses are harder to accept for a world that has become so entrenched with the tech culture we know today.

“There’s no point in solving this problem with fake tech if the base of this culture is still toxic tech bros,” he said.

While the book is undoubtedly important, it’s also heavy—a fact that McGovern acknowledges. “It’s a very depressing book in many ways,” he said, “but I think our role is to be good ancestors to what comes after. How much good soil or water do we leave behind?”