Google says its greenhouse gas emissions have surged 48% in the past five years due to the expansion of the data centers that underpin its AI efforts
About this report Google's 2024 Environmental Report provides … Dan Milmo / The Guardian : Google's emissions climb nearly 50% in five years due to AI energy demand The Keyword : Our 2024 Environmental Report — This report offers a deep dive into our efforts … Katie Bartlett / CNBC : Google's carbon emissions surge nearly 50% due to AI energy demand Jowi Morales / Tom's Hardware : Google reveals 48% increase in greenhouse gas emissions from 2019, largely driven by data center energy demands Colin Fernandez / Daily Mail : Google's carbon emissions are higher than ever due to energy demands of AI, tech giant admits Vilius Petkauskas / Cybernews.com : Google blames AI over 48% emission increase Ben Geman / Axios : AI pushes Google emissions upward Connor Sephton / Sky News : AI: Why Google's greenhouse gas emissions have surged 48% in five years TechRadar : Google says its emissions have grown nearly 50% due to AI data center boom — and here's what it plans to do about it Paul Marsh / Envirotec : Google's emissions soar 48% over 5 years due to AI Mat Smith / Engadget : The Morning After: Google's greenhouse gas emissions climbed nearly 50 percent in five years due to AI Isabelle Nolan Finnegan / Climate Action : Google's carbon emissions soar by 48% due to AI Tom Allen / Computing : AI to blame for Google's rocketing greenhouse gas emissions Martyn Landi / London Evening Standard : AI driving rise in Google's greenhouse gas emissions, says company Oliver Haill / Proactive : Google carbon emissions up 48% over five years due to data centre expansion Shivani Kumaresan / Benzinga : Green Dreams vs. AI Reality: Google's Emissions Soar Amid Tech Expansion Al Jazeera : Google blames AI as its emissions grow instead of heading to net zero Kurt Robson / Verdict : Google's emissions climb 48% in five years due to AI energy demand Dashveenjit Kaur / AI News : Google's dilemma: AI expansion vs achieving climate goals Jack Haddon / Capacity Media : Google scope 2 GHG emissions up 37% YoY, expects further increase belganewsagency.eu : Google's carbon footprint balloons as it goes all in on AI RTTNews : Google's Carbon Emissions Surge Amid AI Energy Demand Leigh Mc Gowran / Silicon Republic : Google's emissions surge by 48pc amid AI boom Charlesarthur / The Overspill : Start Up No.2247: free our data Keir Starmer!, Google News likes AI spam, making batteries with salt, AirPod cameras?, and more Amanda Yeo / Mashable : Google's greenhouse gas emissions have jumped, and AI is a big cause Stuart Stone / Business Green : Google emissions grow 13 per cent in 2023 on back of AI energy demand Greg Noone / Tech Monitor : Google admits emissions spiked by almost 50% in the past five years Jenn Gidman / Newser : Google's Emissions Goal Now at Risk, Thanks to AI Damien Wilde / 9to5Google : Google's carbon emissions have jumped almost 50% in past 5 years Neil Tyler / New Electronics : With AI energy demand surging Google reports jump in emissions Rachel Metz / Bloomberg : Google's Emissions Shot Up 48% Over Five Years Due to AI The Hindu : Google's total greenhouse gas emissions have surged by 48% since 2019: Report Yale E360 : Amid A.I. Boom, Google's Emissions Have Grown by Half Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch : Google's environmental report pointedly avoids AI's actual energy cost Maria Deutscher / SiliconANGLE : Google's emissions grew 13% in 2023 amid increasing AI energy demand NZ Herald : Google emissions jump nearly 50% over five years as AI use surges Morgan Haefner / Quartz : AI energy demand is ruining Google's environmental goals Dwaipayan Roy / NewsBytes : Google's greenhouse gas emissions soar nearly 50% amid AI expansion Paige West / Electronic Specifier : Google's AI boom drives 48% surge in emissions Josh Marcus / The Independent : Google blames AI for growing emissions that threaten its climate goals Emily Price / PCMag : Google Emissions Jump Nearly 50% in 5 Years Thanks to AI Jon Victor / The Information : Google Reports Higher Emissions Amid AI Spending Binge Digital Journal : Google Greenhouse Gas Emissions Grow As It Powers AI Matías S. Zavia / Xataka On : The ‘4 Ms’: Google's Plan for AI Companies to Consume 1,000 Times Less Power Anadolu Ajansı Güncel Haberler : Google's greenhouse emissions rise 48% in 5 years due to AI The Hill : Google emissions rose 13 percent from AI energy consumption Mastodon: Ingmar Lippert / @i_ngli@assemblag.es : Not really a surprise: #google's #CarbonEmissions. #co2 increases... Technology is not neutral. It has effects on the world, intended, unintended, though so many well known. — https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Bluesky: Alan Richardson / @alanrichardson.bsky.social : The soul of corporate irresponsibility [embedded post] Fack / @fack.bsky.social : y'all gotta read this article. vast majority of this is from datacenter construction, which has been on an upswing since 2020. not from the energy usage of ai training or inference. [embedded post] @kezmet.bsky.social : Oh no! How unfortunate! If only Google had hired a world-class team of researchers led by Timnit Gebru to publish a paper warning that this would happen! And then not fired them for writing the paper, while denying its findings! [embedded post] Amy Rae Hill / @amyraehill.bsky.social : Remember a few years ago when that article came out about how NFTs are destroying the environment and most artists were like “yeah sounds bad! Let's not!” But some were like “oh this sounds like a good way to make a quick buck!” Then came AI. Us: “Please stop!” — And now we're here. … Edward Lineberry / @elineberry.bsky.social : Data centers take years to plan and build, so it's not like this is a surprise. They knew they wouldn't hit those targets a decade ago. AI is a convenient excuse (regardless of the utility of AI). [embedded post] @tikkunolamunist.bsky.social : I took a Google Cloud Platform training course before the current generative AI craze, and Google kept promoting its cloud as 100% carbon neutral. — I'm guessing they can't say that anymore. [embedded post] Shiv Ramdas / @nameshiv.bsky.social : seems like a worthy tradeoff for a vital technological breakthrough that tells you to pour boiling oil in your eyes to alleviate redness [embedded post] @jimmytwohands.bsky.social : It's great that we are boiling the oceans to run a service no one asked for that tells you how rats lay eggs [embedded post] Peter / @pboothe.bsky.social : Goddamnit. The efficiency and ever-increasingly-green operation of Google's infrastructure was one of the things that made me most proud to work there. They have (had?) a pledge to work towards zero emissions and every year they got closer. And now this. [embedded post] Bobby / @bobbylewis.bsky.social : damn google really said you can't have emissions reductions but you can have glue in your pizza [embedded post] @wagatwe.com : surged 48%. for a mass plagiarism tool that tells you to eat rocks and glue. [embedded post] X: John Edwards / @john_b_edwards : the phrase of “AI is threatening its ability to meet key environmental goals” is offloading the agency of Google onto the nebulous concept of “AI”. It's not that AI is threatening the goals, Google is deliberately prioritizing AI development over our planet's long term health Rachel Metz / @rachelmetz : i appreciate these reports for 2 reasons: it gives a sense of what's going on at these companies (enviro impacts of AI have in the past been tricky to track) and it makes me think about alllllll the stuff the *other* tech companies are doing that we don't know anything about. Roger McNamee / @moonalice : The energy and water consumed by AI are putting unsustainable pressure on the power grid and clean water supplies. Four high value uses have emerged for generative AI — deepfake porn, disinformation, spam, and plagiarism — and everything is a claim with limited or no evidence. Forums: Hacker News : Google emissions jump nearly 50% over five years as AI use surges r/technology : Google's emissions climb nearly 50% in five years due to AI energy demand r/technology : Google's greenhouse gas emissions jump 48% in five years r/Futurology : Google's emissions climb nearly 50% in five years due to AI energy demand r/environment : Google's emissions climb nearly 50% in five years due to AI energy demand r/collapse : Google's emissions climb nearly 50% in five years due to AI energy demand r/climate : Google's emissions climb nearly 50% in five years due to AI energy demand See also Mediagazer