am honestly scared for the future. what are we supposed to do?

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[–] 3 points 1 day ago (3 children)

This is a chaotic system with a lot of contributing factors and creating correlation from causation would be difficult to impossible, but I wonder how much AI datacenters are contributing to this. Thermal pollution is actually a huge deal, and if take into account the amount of thermal energy put out by, say, global air travel, than global temperature deltas should be much greater than they are. Datacenters have been proven to be quite efficient at creating thermal pollution, so it stands to reason that creating more thermal pollution could be responsible for much of the temperature delta.

This also holds a bit of hope for us: not all of global warming is caused by green house gases (yes, most of it is, but not all), but rather some of it is simply caused by thermal pollution from burning fuels or even using electric heaters. Because of this, climate change is likely, to some extent, partially reversible if only by stopping the mass-scale dumping of thermal energy into the atmosphere. Again, it's realistically impossible to draw causation from the data, but "rebellions are built on hope."

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  • [–] 1 point 21 hours ago (1 child)

    Am I missing something or does this completely miss the first law of thermodynamics?

    All energy generated is 'thermal pollution', whether you use it to run a heater, move a boat, or dig a hole in the ground.

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  • [–] 2 points 20 hours ago

    Solar heating input is 10000 times larger than all energy consumption. Solar energy is also net 0 thermal emissions, and less net thermal gain at low albedo solar capture, than fuel based energy. The problem with GHG emissions is that they reduce the heat loss of the planet. Albedo (white roofs and ice caps) help with global cooling too.

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