Electric cars, smart apps, green AI, carbon capture, solar panels-everywhere we turn, we're told technology will save the planet. Green Dreams shows why that promise is so compelling, and why it keeps us chasing solutions that leave the real causes of the climate crisis untouched.

Blending cultural criticism, political analysis, and environmental history, Green Dreams traces the rise of green techno-optimism from postwar fantasies of progress to Silicon Valley manifestos, EV marketing, Big Tech sustainability campaigns, and Hollywood eco-futures. Along the way, it exposes the hidden costs of supposedly “clean” technologies: extractive mining, exploding energy demand, ecological destruction, and the preservation of systems built on endless growth and consumption. Rather than rejecting technology outright, Tanner Mirrlees and Imre Szeman argue that technological solutions can matter only if paired with deeper social, political, and economic transformation. Provocative, accessible, and sharply argued, Green Dreams offers a powerful critique of one of the defining ideologies of our time.

Tanner Mirrlees is Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies at Ontario Tech University.

Imre Szeman is the inaugural Director of the Institute for Environment, Culture and Society and Professor of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

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