I had incredibly dark dreams and did not sleep well, so many people I know have cancer, a fucking AI data center just got approved right near me, and one of the baby goat litters is not doing well.
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I had incredibly dark dreams and did not sleep well, so many people I know have cancer, a fucking AI data center just got approved right near me, and one of the baby goat litters is not doing well. Today is hard.
A couple of these things I can do nothing about. Some I can.
One I need help with from you: in a few days I'm giving a talk on the environmental consequences of AI data centres (with a focus on orbit, but starting with ground-based).
So, fediverse! Please send me your favourite statistic (with citation please) on exactly how bad AI data centres are for the environment. I'm looking for: comparisons on CO2 emissions per centre, water usage per slop-video made, stuff like that.
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I had incredibly dark dreams and did not sleep well, so many people I know have cancer, a fucking AI data center just got approved right near me, and one of the baby goat litters is not doing well. Today is hard.
@sundogplanets I started off hoping you were describing your dreams, but then I realized you had bad dreams AND all those other things are happening. I'm sorry.
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I had incredibly dark dreams and did not sleep well, so many people I know have cancer, a fucking AI data center just got approved right near me, and one of the baby goat litters is not doing well. Today is hard.
@sundogplanets hope things improve!
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I had incredibly dark dreams and did not sleep well, so many people I know have cancer, a fucking AI data center just got approved right near me, and one of the baby goat litters is not doing well. Today is hard.
Oh god I'm sorry.
You work so hard and do so much. The world could cut you some fucking slack already.
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A couple of these things I can do nothing about. Some I can.
One I need help with from you: in a few days I'm giving a talk on the environmental consequences of AI data centres (with a focus on orbit, but starting with ground-based).
So, fediverse! Please send me your favourite statistic (with citation please) on exactly how bad AI data centres are for the environment. I'm looking for: comparisons on CO2 emissions per centre, water usage per slop-video made, stuff like that.
@sundogplanets ERCOT is (politely and wonkishly) ringing alarm bells in Texas. https://www.ercot.com/news/release/04152026-ercot-releases-preliminary
This graph is ludicrous. It shows the requests for power to all providers in ERCOT - the growth in the right bars is driven almost entirely by datacenters (particularly in DFW).
Yes, they're requesting Texas *triple* its power generation over the next six years.
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A couple of these things I can do nothing about. Some I can.
One I need help with from you: in a few days I'm giving a talk on the environmental consequences of AI data centres (with a focus on orbit, but starting with ground-based).
So, fediverse! Please send me your favourite statistic (with citation please) on exactly how bad AI data centres are for the environment. I'm looking for: comparisons on CO2 emissions per centre, water usage per slop-video made, stuff like that.
@sundogplanets AI data centres create localized heat islands, with temperatures going up by several degrees.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.20897News article: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/ai-data-centers-significantly-heat-121626690.html
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A couple of these things I can do nothing about. Some I can.
One I need help with from you: in a few days I'm giving a talk on the environmental consequences of AI data centres (with a focus on orbit, but starting with ground-based).
So, fediverse! Please send me your favourite statistic (with citation please) on exactly how bad AI data centres are for the environment. I'm looking for: comparisons on CO2 emissions per centre, water usage per slop-video made, stuff like that.
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@sundogplanets AI data centres create localized heat islands, with temperatures going up by several degrees.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.20897News article: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/ai-data-centers-significantly-heat-121626690.html
@mayintoronto @sundogplanets They also make a constant humming/whirring noise https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/communities-are-raising-noise-pollution-concernsabout-data-centers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JflFFqbZ1X8And there's a lot more you can find about the hardware side. I started my career by working in the first megadatacenters. I can tell you also that investment in hardware is not one-time. We don't think of it this way, but computers wear down the same way cars or anything else do, and these machines are being pushed to their limits, and the amount of e-waste for churning through parts is huge.
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@mayintoronto @sundogplanets They also make a constant humming/whirring noise https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/communities-are-raising-noise-pollution-concernsabout-data-centers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JflFFqbZ1X8And there's a lot more you can find about the hardware side. I started my career by working in the first megadatacenters. I can tell you also that investment in hardware is not one-time. We don't think of it this way, but computers wear down the same way cars or anything else do, and these machines are being pushed to their limits, and the amount of e-waste for churning through parts is huge.
@mayintoronto @sundogplanets Not to mention that hardware gets outdated, machines get entirely replaced fairly regularly.
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A couple of these things I can do nothing about. Some I can.
One I need help with from you: in a few days I'm giving a talk on the environmental consequences of AI data centres (with a focus on orbit, but starting with ground-based).
So, fediverse! Please send me your favourite statistic (with citation please) on exactly how bad AI data centres are for the environment. I'm looking for: comparisons on CO2 emissions per centre, water usage per slop-video made, stuff like that.
@sundogplanets Rhetorically it’s interesting to start with the ground-based issues, as on-orbit proponents would presumably argue that they solve many of those problems (power, CO2, water).
Of course, they’re disastrous for other reasons…
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A couple of these things I can do nothing about. Some I can.
One I need help with from you: in a few days I'm giving a talk on the environmental consequences of AI data centres (with a focus on orbit, but starting with ground-based).
So, fediverse! Please send me your favourite statistic (with citation please) on exactly how bad AI data centres are for the environment. I'm looking for: comparisons on CO2 emissions per centre, water usage per slop-video made, stuff like that.
@sundogplanets Here in Oregon: "Google built its first data center in The Dalles in 2006. In 2012, the tech giant used 12% of The Dalles water supply. By 2024, a third of The Dalles’ water went to Google’s three local data center sites."
More context and data here: https://www.opb.org/article/2026/01/15/as-googles-water-demands-grow-the-dalles-aims-to-pull-more-from-mount-hood-forest/
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