From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

“We know this is not going to be easy and that our approach will need to continue to evolve”.

Google falling short of important climate target, cites electricity needs of AI

Google, which has an ambitious plan to address climate change with cleaner operations, came nowhere close to its goals last year, according to the company’s annual Environmental Report Tuesday

By ALEXA ST. JOHN Associated Press
July 3, 2024, 2:01 AM

Three years ago, Google set an ambitious plan to address climate change by going “net zero,” meaning it would release no more climate-changing gases into the air than it removes, by 2030.

But a report from the company Tuesday shows it is nowhere near meeting that goal. 

Rather than declining, its emissions grew 13% in 2023 over the year before. Compared to its baseline year of 2019, emissions have soared 48%. 

Google cited artificial intelligence and the demand it puts on data centers, which require massive amounts of electricity, for last year’s growth.

…

Google Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt told The Associated Press, “Reaching this net zero goal by 2030, this is an extremely ambitious goal. 

“We know this is not going to be easy and that our approach will need to continue to evolve,” Brandt added, “and it will require us to navigate a lot of uncertainty, including this uncertainty around the future of AI’s environmental impacts.”

…Read more: 

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/google-falling-short-important-climate-target-cites-electricity-111614506

What can I say – yet more evidence the AI revolution has broken Silicon Valley’s commitment to Net Zero.

I’d love to know how this AI at any cost push is playing with the Silicon Valley hippies, because it is not just Google – Microsoft and other tech giants are also pedal to the metal when it comes to the AI revolution.

The Connecticut Nuclear Data Center Controversy Exposes Tech Giant Renewable Hypocrisy – Watts Up With That?

Are all the Silicon Valley hippies jumping on board the AI greed train, selling out their alleged green principles for big pay checks, trying to avoid each other’s eyes? Are they hiding their MAGA hats at the bottom of their rucksacks? Or are there intense Soviet style denunciations of the management climate wreckers during lunch breaks, before everyone goes back to work on coding the next energy gulping AI upgrade?

I guess life would be too perfect, if we had answers to all of our questions.