#climate
11 stories taggedclimate.
Why AI Agents Guzzle So Much More Power Than a Simple Chatbot
AI is shifting from quick questions and answers to agents that run for hours on their own. That shift explains the data-centre building boom, and a growing energy bill.
US data centres could guzzle more natural gas than Germany and Japan combined by 2035
A new BloombergNEF report nearly doubles its own nine-month-old forecast, finding AI's hunger for power could add the equivalent of 12% of total US greenhouse gas emissions every day.
Al Gore Says Stop Worrying About the Data Center and Start Reading the Safety Reports
The former vice president thinks emissions fears are overblown. What keeps him up at night is what AI companies are quietly disclosing about their own models.
Google's AI Weather Model Gives Forecasters an Extra Day to Warn People About Hurricanes
A new study in Nature finds that Google's WeatherNext model predicts cyclone paths three days out with the same accuracy older systems only managed two days out. That extra 24 hours could matter enormously for evacuation decisions.
Communities Around the World Are Pushing Back Against AI Data Centres
From Scotland to India, local groups say the giant buildings that power AI are eating too much energy and land. Governments are starting to listen.
Who should pay for the power hungry AI data centres? Readers say: the companies building them
Two planned UK data centres could emit more carbon than ExxonMobil. Letter writers want the tech industry to generate its own electricity and clean up its own mess.
Why Everyone Suddenly Has Strong Opinions About Data Centres
Those giant warehouse buildings humming away on the edge of town power all the AI tools you use daily. Now they're sparking political fights from both sides. Here's what's going on.
Fifty Eyes in the Sky: How AI Satellites Are Catching Wildfires Before They Spread
A new network of space-based sensors paired with AI aims to spot a wildfire while it is still small enough to stamp out. Three satellites launched in July. Forty-seven more are planned.
Amazon's New Texas Power Plant Could Emit More CO2 Than Any Coal Plant in America
A gas plant built to power Amazon's West Texas data center holds a pollution permit larger than any coal facility in the US. The company says its climate commitment stands, but its own emissions have risen for years.
Your ChatGPT question uses about as much electricity as a kettle boiled for one second
AI data centres ate roughly 0.5% of the world's electricity in 2025. That sounds small until you look at where those data centres actually are.
Big Tech's AI Data Centres Now Emit as Much Carbon as a Third of France
Microsoft, Amazon and Google collectively pumped out 119 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide last year. The main culprit: building more data centres to feed AI demand.