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    New Gas-Powered Data Centers Could Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Entire Nations
    Futurology

    New Gas-Powered Data Centers Could Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Entire Nations

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    13 Comments

    1. hoangson0403 on

      Very quick Googling suggests Wired’s estimate would be ~1.9% of US emissions.

      AI data center investment is, at core, a bet on increasing the productivity of labor. That’s what businesses will pay for, and what will earn the big money.

      If US labor productivity rises by more than 2%—and implicit in the size of this bet is a guess much higher—US carbon intensity goes down correspondingly, and these data centers end up as a win for the climate.

    2. StrangerConscious637 on

      We are fucked by billionaires…. again and again… till there is nothing left. And people will still vote for these bastards.

    6. WhoSaidWhatNow2026 on

      But think of all the AI cat pictures we’re getting. I saw one where the cat was working at McDonalds!! Worth it!!!

    7. comradesorrow on

      Humans spent decades convincing each other how to cut down on energy needs and emissions. Then made technology more efficient
      and laws more accommodating for that goal.
      And now all off a sudden humanity finds another front to send all that effort down the toilet.

    8. uginscion on

      I don’t know why there’s so much fear mongering when it comes to the apocalypse. Doesn’t anyone think of the shareholders? Quit being selfish.

    9. Not_a_N_Korean_Spy on

      It might be time to take out the pitchforks and torches…

      No new developement of data centers should be powered by fossil fuels. Any new datacenter should have to be associated with the owners paying for buildung more renewables capacity.

      At the end…AI is not the problem, it is who owns it and what for.

    10. Necessary-Music-6685 on

      A whopping 2%, spread out over several years, if these are ever even built.

      Meanwhile, how many people here are aware that US emissions have been dropping by more than 1% per year for two decades? Our current emissions are all the way back down to the level they were at in 1975.

    11. Strict-Carrot4783 on

      I thought we were gonna do Star Trek shit, instead these lame-ass nerds who we for some reason decided to give the world to are building the dumbest-ass, lamest, boring, bullshit world. 900 billionaires, that’s all it would take to change everything. Less than 1/3 of a 9/11.