[adjejmxbdjdn]

The entire environmental argument against data centers is largely bullshit.

Sure, they shouldn’t be powered by gas or coal. And the local effects are significant.

But the macro environmental effects are minor and the local effects can be resolved with the most trivial regulations.

[majorbugger]

Let's see the recent Guardian article: The UK government vastly underestimated the climate impact of artificial intelligence, it has emerged, after officials raised their estimate of carbon emissions from AI by a factor of more than 100.

According to new data quietly published this week, energy use by AI datacentres in the UK could cause the emission of up to 123m tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) – about as much as generated by 2.7 million people – over the next 10 years.

That latest figure replaces a previous estimate – since deleted – that claimed emissions would reach a maximum of 0.142m tonnes of CO₂ in a single year.

[SoftTalker]

> they shouldn’t be powered by gas or coal.

But they mostly are....