SOME CRITICAL ENERGY USE ISSUES
By Dr. Michael W. Fox
Americans have voted into office a president who called climate change “a big hoax”. Researchers and activists across the world have reacted with dismay and anger. Trump called human-made climate change a “big hoax” during his campaign and is expected to increase investment in fossil fuel extraction.
The Trump campaign promised to once more withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which the United States rejoined during the presidency of Joe Biden.
The day after Trump’s win, the price of Bitcoin cybercurrency soared. The energy consumption of all crypto assets combined is between 0.4% and 0.9% of annual global electricity usage, or 120 and 240 billion kilowatt-hours per year. That is more energy usage than all the world’s data centers combined. Current estimates suggest Bitcoin mining spews about 65 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. However, the latest research suggests that the crypto sphere is starting to clean up its act, with 50% of Bitcoin mining powered by renewable energy sources: (https://justenergy.com/blog/crypto-energy-consumption-crypto-energy).
Hydroelectric and wind power, regarded as renewable energy sources, may not be reliable with increasing extreme weather events.
We are becoming mindful of our collective carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change and its impact on us and wildlife, but as society moves to increasing dependence on cybertechnology for data storage and developing artificial intelligence, constraints and caps are called for.
According to a Guardian analysis reported by Isabel O’Brein, from 2020 to 2022 the real emissions from the “in-house” or company-owned data centers of Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple are probably about 662% – or 7.62 times – higher than officially reported. Amazon is the largest emitter of the big five tech companies by a mile – the emissions of the second-largest emitter, Apple, were less than half of Amazon’s in 2022.For more details go to https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/15
The escalating amount of water needed to cool these data centers, in addition to their energy use, is now raising concern especially in regions of high water demands from agriculture and cities, and climate change uncertainties.
Tech giants Amazon, Google and Microsoft have all recently announced plans to support nuclear power generation as part of efforts to become carbon-neutral. Amazon and Google’s plans involve companies that are pioneering the design of ‘small modular reactors,’ while Microsoft will support the restart of a decommissioned 835-megawatt reactor in Pennsylvania. These plans come as the energy requirement of data centers supporting artificial intelligence (AI) skyrocket. Sourcing geothermal energy is also being developed, which is a promising initiative.
Crypto mining and data centers now account for 2 percent of global electricity use and nearly 1 percent of global emissions, and their footprint is growing. (https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2024/08/15/carbon-emissions-from-ai-and-crypto-are-surging-and-tax-policy-can-help).
This mammonist cybereconomy that consumes energy primarily from non-renewable resources for each transaction, is a significant contributor, along with data storage centers and corporate and government cybersecurity, to global warming. To ignore the harmful consequences to vulnerable communities and to wildlife and biodiversity is a dereliction of duty by all involved, whom some call “Mother frackers.” As a consequence of climate change and escalating energy demands from these sectors, home-owners pay more and more to cool and warm their homes, and more and more for home and health insurance.
There will be ever more law suits to protect public health and the environment and wildlife from the abuses of unconscionable dominion. This will continue until every nation state bases its economy on cyclical ecological principles, stops subsidizing non-sustainable and polluting industries and supports socially just fair trade with corporate hegemony transformed by international convention into free trade alliances. Otherwise, to quote from W.B. Yeat’s poem, The Second Coming (1919) “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/ Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,..”
Time to Jettison the Jet Set
A recent analysis of the fossil-fuel-burning-carbon dioxide-releasing contribution of the rich travelling in private jets and contributing royally to climate change is getting some media attention. The amount of CO2 produced by flights in private jets last year — an increase of nearly 50% compared to 2019. “Per hour, a large private aircraft can emit more than an average person emits per year,” says transport researcher and study co-author Stefan Gössling. (Gössling, S., et al. Private aviation is making a growing contribution to climate change. Commun Earth Environ. 2024; 5: 666.). This includes many corporate executives going to climate change and conservation conferences—and I would add to this consumptive mix the mega-concerts of some global superstars. For Earth’s sake, stay at home and go on Zoom or view on You Tube if you must!