{"id":21411,"date":"2026-01-03T08:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T07:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/03\/just-an-unbelievable-amount-of-pollution-how-big-a-threat-is-ai-to-the-climate\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T08:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T07:37:16","slug":"just-an-unbelievable-amount-of-pollution-how-big-a-threat-is-ai-to-the-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/03\/just-an-unbelievable-amount-of-pollution-how-big-a-threat-is-ai-to-the-climate\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Just an unbelievable amount of pollution\u2019: how big a threat is AI to the climate?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Defenders say AI can do good to fight the climate crisis. But spiralling energy and water costs leave experts worried<\/p>\n<p>During a golden sunset in Memphis in May, Sharon Wilson pointed a thermal imaging camera at Elon Musk\u2019s flagship datacentre to reveal a planetary threat her eyes could not. Free from pollution controls, the gas-fired turbines that power the world\u2019s biggest AI supercomputer were pumping invisible fumes into the Tennessee sky.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was jaw-dropping,\u201d said Wilson, a former oil and gas worker from Texas who has documented methane releases for more than a decade and estimates xAI\u2019s Colossus datacentre was spewing more of the planet-heating gas than a large power plant. \u201cJust an unbelievable amount of pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jan\/03\/just-an-unbelievable-amount-of-pollution-how-big-a-threat-is-ai-to-the-climate\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/f2a04695be269550c216a10844504658d2d0f0f1\/1_0_4998_4000\/master\/4998.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=30c7b2b58025c4ce9945a8fd3e61aaed\" title=\"\u2018Just an unbelievable amount of pollution\u2019: how big a threat is AI to the climate?\" \/>Defenders say AI can do good to fight the climate crisis. But spiralling energy and water costs leave experts worried<br \/>\nDuring a golden sunset in Memphis in May, Sharon Wilson pointed a thermal imaging camera at Elon Musk\u2019s flagship datacentre to reveal a planetary threat her eyes could not. Free from pollution controls, the gas-fired turbines that power the world\u2019s biggest AI supercomputer were pumping invisible fumes into the Tennessee sky.<br \/>\n\u201cIt was jaw-dropping,\u201d said Wilson, a former oil and gas worker from Texas who has documented methane releases for more than a decade and estimates xAI\u2019s Colossus datacentre was spewing more of the planet-heating gas than a large power plant. \u201cJust an unbelievable amount of pollution.\u201d Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defenders say AI can do good to fight the climate crisis. But spiralling energy and water costs leave experts worried During a golden sunset in Memphis in May, Sharon Wilson pointed a thermal imaging camera at Elon Musk\u2019s flagship datacentre to reveal a planetary threat her eyes could not. Free from pollution controls, the gas-fired &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/03\/just-an-unbelievable-amount-of-pollution-how-big-a-threat-is-ai-to-the-climate\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">\u2018Just an unbelievable amount of pollution\u2019: how big a threat is AI to the climate?<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":21412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21411"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}