• kromem@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Cornell researchers found that at the current rate of AI growth, the burgeoning industry could represent 24 to 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030

    The United States emitted 4.9 billion tonnes of CO₂ in 2024.

    So by 2030 the AI industry CO2 release might be 0.9% of total US emissions.

    That ‘almost’ in “Almost Incomprehensible” is doing a lot of work there.

    • FlyingCircus@lemmy.world
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      19 minutes ago

      Consider how rapidly they have been built, and the capitalists’ plans to make many many more. Now also consider the state of the planet’s ecology and the already terrible effects of climate change.

      To me, it’s incomprehensible that regular people haven’t already revolted against the death spiral the capitalist class has put us on.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

      I love Lemmy math nerds and honestly appreciate how there’s always at least one to put things in perspective for those of us who worked really fucking hard to get a C in college algebra. Cheers.

        • gwl [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 hour ago

          A huge amount too, 37.9%

          But more than one thing can be bad a time, a novel idea, I know

          And how many beef farms are there compared to data centers? A lot of a lot more.

          If a tiny amount of physical space can do such a large amount of pollution, that’s a worry, when the plan is to increase the amount of them.

          • r1veRRR@feddit.org
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            1 hour ago

            Well, sure, but when everyone loses their fucking minds about the tiniest thing, that even requires us to buy all the lies from billionaires about how much the build out will be, while having never done anything about the biggest thing they could personally change, it starts sounding mightily hypocritical.

            It seems like the personal responsibility to boycott polluting and unnecessary industries is limited to whatever doesn’t require any personal effort from the person speaking.

            Napkin math:

            • 40% of americans are very or extremely concerned about AIs environmental impact
            • To save 34 million tonnes of CO2e, you need about 5.2 million vegans from now until 2030
            • So only 5% of ONLY the complainers would need to go vegan to make up for this “tremendous” impact
            • That’s 2% of all americans

            That’s the thing we’re even attacking random strangers online for. The thing that we pretend is going to bring about the end times. But sure, veganism is the extreme position…

            By the way, what other resources are we saving?

            • Water — about 8.8 trillion gallons (~33 billion m³)
            • Land — around 1–1.5 million acres of forest/land
            • Animals — roughly 8 billion animals including fish and shellfish
            • gwl [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              43 minutes ago

              More than one thing can be bad.

              Why don’t we do both? Less AI, Less Meat

              Also, I’m not American, don’t insult me by assuming I’m one