321
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt says we should go all in on building AI data centers because 'we are never going to meet our climate goals anyway' (www.businessinsider.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
33 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Paywall removed https://archive.is/jzlfB

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] -4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

That’s a stupid reaso, but I’d buy: we should go all in on ai data centers since that’s a new economic sector that we can dominate, plus it’s less polluting than lusting after a coal industry that never was or steel that never will be again

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Actually we have discovered the liquid Natural Gas plants we have been building to get more "clean" power to handle the demand for electricity is actually worse for the world and more polluting than coal! Neat right?

    Also metal work will literally always be needed or what are we building all these data centers with?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] -4 points 2 years ago

    Natural gas is generally converted to LNG for shipping, especially exports but also wherever pipelines are insufficient. US is a huge producer of natural gas and has hundreds of thousands of miles of natural gas pipelines. This wouldn’t be LNG.

    Of course natural gas pipelines also may have leaks and methane is much worse for climate change than CO2 (but for shorter time). However we have been making progress on monitoring and repairs

    Predictably increased power usage may also drive investment in renewable energy, shortening the life of polluting power. Regardless, AI is likely much less polluting than say cement or steel production

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent