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AI boom has caused same CO2 emissions in 2025 as New York City, report claims
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2025
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So that's actually not that much? After everybody was screaming that AI is boiling the world, 8% of global aviation emissions is kind of low. And you might hate AI, but it is really more useful than Katie from Sales getting skin cancer on a beach in Thailand or that dude getting drunk on Mallorca or whatever those billionaires are doing in their private jets
You could close down all the AI data centres, all the crypto mining farms, all the private jets, and eliminate all the billionaires…and it would be a rounding error in global greenhouse emissions.
The vast majority of emissions come from the fact that 8 billion people exist and need food, transport, heating/cooling, and industries to support their lifestyles.
The focus should be on building towards renewable ways to support whatever we want to do. Purity tests around the worthiness of types of energy use is just a distraction.
Why not both?