In this week’s newsletter: from Google to Amazon to OpenAI, the economic and climate cost of datacenters continues to grow• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe headlong rush to build huge new datacenters, in order to support the growth of AI, is raising a number of concerns in the US – around the impact upon the climate crisis, water use and electricity bills. It’s also set to reshape American politics in potentially unusual ways.Companies such as Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Amazon and Meta are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into new datacenters that will form the backbone to the surging use of AI by businesses and the public.Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualisedTowns may have to be abandoned due to floods with millions more homes in Great Britain at riskThe plastic inside us: how microplastics may be reshaping our bodies and mindsDatacenter emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it keep up the ruse? | Isabel O’BrienPower struggle: will Brazil’s booming datacentre industry leave ordinary people in the dark?Revealed: Trump’s fossil-fuel donors to profit from datacenter boom and green rollbacks Continue reading...
Saturday 18 October 2025
theguardian - 1 days ago
What the datacenter boom means for America’s environment – and electricity bills
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