Watch out, the climate change agitators and demagogues are fast coming for the 2,990 data centers in the US!

The climate change freaks and fanatics now worry about data centers as the AI boom continues!

"... 2,990 data centers in the United States ... are responsible for tons of greenhouse-gas emissions. New research shows just how much those emissions have skyrocketed during the AI boom. 

Since 2018, carbon emissions from data centers in the US have tripled, according to new research led by a team at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. That puts data centers slightly below domestic commercial airlines as a source of this pollution."

From the abstract:

"The rapid proliferation of data centers in the US - driven partly by the adoption of artificial intelligence - has set off alarm bells about the industry's environmental impact. We compiled detailed information on 2,132 US data centers operating between September 2023 and August 2024 and determined their electricity consumption, electricity sources, and attributable CO2e emissions. Our findings reveal that data centers accounted for more than 4% of total US electricity consumption - with 56% derived from fossil fuels - generating more than 105 million tons of CO2e (2.18% of US emissions in 2023). Data centers' carbon intensity - the amount of CO2e emitted per unit of electricity consumed - exceeded the US average by 48%. Our data pipeline and visualization tools can be used to assess current and future environmental impacts of data centers."

AI’s search for more energy is growing more urgent

AI’s emissions are about to skyrocket even further

Environmental Burden of United States Data Centers in the Artificial Intelligence Era (open access)

Climate change demagoguery in one picture