#energyconsumption — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #energyconsumption, aggregated by home.social.
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#Texas Gov. #GregAbbott on #AIDataCenter Backlash: 'They Dug Their Own Grave'
Jennifer Oliver O'Connell, August 23, 2026
"#NewYork Gov. #KathyHochul (D) and #Kentucky Gov. #AndyBeshear (D) have pushed back against the expansion of #AIDataCenters in their respective states. But with the increasing backlash from communities and individuals toward new #datacenter construction and expansion, even governors that have embraced the #AIRevolution, like #Pennsylvania's #JoshShapiro (D), are now moderating and talking about scaling back.
"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is one governor whose state has embraced the data center expansion. In November 2025, Abbott declared that Texas is the 'epicenter of AI development' in his announcement of #Google building three data center campuses to the tune of $40 million dollars.
"Fast forward to August of 2026, and Abbott acknowledges that much of the community resistance to the construction of new and existing data centers is the fault of the AI companies."
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"Abbott is not wrong. According to a report from #DataCenterWatch, 64 billion in data center projects have been blocked or delayed in #Arizona, #Utah, #Missouri, #Oregon, and #California, to name a few. Even formerly friendly #Virginia is pushing back. #CommunityOpposition surrounds the lack of information provided and the lack of accountability taken towards the citizens who will be most affected.
"Water and power concerns loom large. Many of the newer development concepts, like entrepreneur #KevinOLeary 's 9 megawatt #StratosProject in #Utah, will have their own self-sustaining water and power systems. However, this did not prevent the backlash by #environmentalists and local activists to shut the Stratos Project down, and Utah state lawmakers ultimately backpedaled from their original approval and requested O'Leary cut the project's 400,000-acre footprint down to 10,000, about 75 percent. "
#AISucks #AIDataCenters #AIResistance #USPol #WorldPol #Datacenters #Datacentres #AIDatacentres #WaterIsLife #NoisePollution #LandIsLife #EnergyConsumption
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#SamAltman and others at #OpenAI are trying wicked hard to convince folks that they're all about saving #Nature... Buying #JackieAndShadow's home and now this... Um, sorry Sam and friends. It doesn't make up for the #NoisePollution, #WaterPollution, pollution from #EnergyConsumption , etc. for the #AIHouseOfCards... But folks are seeing right through that!
#OpenAI flew influencers to a #NatureResort to fix its image. The internet called it #greenwashing.
OpenAI flew a group of influencers to a $2,000-a-night wellness resort to warm up the public mood around #AI. Days before a reported $500bn #Datacentre deal, the internet called it greenwashing, and the creators got the backlash.
August 4, 2026
"The event, branded 'Summer Camp,' ran at Wildflower Farms, a resort in New York’s #HudsonValley where rooms can top $2,000 a night, Business Insider reported. Creators posted farm-to-table dinners under bistro lights, a beekeeping session, and classes on OpenAI’s tools. They went home with branded canvas bags and jars of honey.
"The videos were soft-focus and lighthearted. The comments were not. Across TikTok, Reddit, X and Instagram, people called the trip 'dystopian' and accused OpenAI of greenwashing. One commenter told TechCrunch the issue was timing: '#TheWorldIsOnFire. It’s not a great time to brag about your $5,000-a-night suite.' "
Read more:
https://thenextweb.com/news/openai-summer-camp-influencer-retreat-greenwashing-backlash#NoDatacenters #TheWorldIsBurning #USPol #AISucks #BigPower #BigData #ResistDataCenters #PowerCorruptionAndLies #AIDatacenters
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The #EnvironmentalCost of #ArtificialIntelligence: #Carbon, #Water, and #LandFootprints
#AI’s rapid growth drives huge energy, water, and land use, raising environmental and equity challenges across its global infrastructure.
Date Published 3 Jun 2026
UNU-INWEH Report: Aczel, M., Chamanara, S., Matin, M., Farsi, A., Marwala, T., Madani, K. (2026).
"This report, Environmental Cost of Artificial Intelligence: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints, by the #UnitedNationsUniversity Institute for Water, Environment and Health ( #UNU - #INWEH ) on its 30th anniversary, examines one of the most underexplored consequences of AI’s rapid expansion: the environmental footprints of the energy required to power it. As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in economies, public services, research, communication, and everyday life, it depends on a growing physical infrastructure of #datacenters, advanced #chips, #CoolingSystems, #ElectricityGrids, #WaterResources, land, and #CriticalMineral supply chains. The report shows that AI is not only a digital technology, but also a material system with measurable #EnvironmentalCosts.
"The report moves beyond a carbon-only lens by quantifying the carbon, water, and land footprints associated with the electricity used to train, deploy, and operate AI systems at scale. Its central finding is that AI’s environmental costs depend not only on how much electricity is used, but also on where that electricity is generated and which energy sources power it. Every kilowatt-hour used by AI carries carbon, water, and land implications, and these footprints do not always move in the same direction: low-carbon electricity is not automatically low-water or low-land. The report also shows that AI’s footprint is shaped by both major infrastructure trends, including the rapid growth of data centers, and everyday use patterns, including model choice, output length, modality, and the growing use of text, image, and video generation.
"Importantly, the report frames AI’s environmental footprint as a governance and justice challenge, not only a technical problem. The benefits of AI often flow across borders and sectors, while the environmental burdens of data center siting, electricity demand, water withdrawals, #LandUse, MineralExtraction, and #EWaste can be concentrated in specific communities and regions. To address these risks, the report calls for a responsible AI ecosystem grounded in transparency, efficiency by design, equity and #EnvironmentalJustice, lifecycle responsibility, global cooperation, and sustainable use. By making AI’s carbon, water, and land footprints visible and comparable, the report provides a practical basis for integrating AI into energy, climate, water, and land-use planning, ensuring that innovation advances without shifting environmental costs onto vulnerable communities."
Download PDF:
https://unu.edu/inweh/collection/environmental-cost-of-AIs-Enrgy-Use-Carbon-water-and-land-footprints#AIBoom #Electricity #Hyperscale #BigTech #BigData #CarbonFootprint #EnvironmentalRacism #EnvironmentalDegradation #NoisePollution #LightPollution #WaterIsLife #AIAgents #BotTraffic #GreenSpaces #Farmland #Prairies #Woodland #TechGiants #ProtectNature #NoDatacenters #EnergyConsumption #USPol #WorldPol #Datacentres
#DatacenterMoratoriums -
🤖 Oh, the #irony of "optimizing" algorithms to save a few nickels while burning through enough electricity to power a small nation. ⚡️ Let's all pretend this paper isn't just a roadmap to making AI slightly less ruinous on the way to the inevitable robot uprising. 🤡
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.12631 #optimizingalgorithms #AIimpact #energyconsumption #robotuprising #HackerNews #ngated -
AI's Energy Demands Are Out of Control. Welcome to the #Internet's #HyperConsumption Era
Generative artificial intelligence tools, now part of the everyday user experience online, are causing stress on local #PowerGrids and mass water evaporation.by Reece Rogers
July 11, 2024"In addition to high levels of #energy usage, the data centers that train and operate generative AI models consume millions of gallons of #water.
"The water that is available for people to use is very limited. It's just the fresh surface water and #groundwater. Those data centers, they're just evaporating water into the air,' says Shaolei Ren, a responsible AI researcher at UC Riverside and coauthor of 'Making AI Less ‘Thirsty’: Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models.'
"While it may appear similar at first, the impact on the local #environment from companies operating giant data centers is not comparable to the impact from residents who may take multiple bubble baths a week or leave the faucet running while they brush their teeth. 'They're different from normal, residential users. When we get the water from the utility, and then we discharge the water back to the sewage immediately, we are just withdrawing water—we're not consuming water,' Ren says. 'A data center takes the water from this utility, and they evaporate the water into the sky, into the atmosphere.' He says the water consumed by data centers may not return to the earth’s surface until a year later.
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"Around the world, the server farms that train and operate AI models may compete with local residents and businesses for power—possibly leading to #blackouts during peak times."
https://www.wired.com/story/ai-energy-demands-water-impact-internet-hyper-consumption-era/
#WaterIsLife #NoNewNukes #RethinkNotRestart #Cryptocurrency #AI #Energy #ArtificialIntelligence #PowerGrids #DataCenters #DigitalLifestyle #Bitcoin #EnergyConsumption
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Norrsken Foundation is closing on an oversubscribed impact venture fund at 125 million euros - About four years ago, social impact organization Norrsken Foundation launched a small program invest... - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DF6eDm7m_JM/ #norrskenfoundation #energyconsumption #venturecapital #healthcare #norrskenvc #volkswagen #startups #einride #finance #energy #klarna #submer #tc