On Thu, 20 Aug 2026 at 13:25, Jonas Smedegaard <[email protected]> wrote:
> Quoting Aigars Mahinovs (2026-08-20 13:03:24) > > Zero is not a drop. Zero is zero. Zero times a hundred million is still > > zero. > > > > And if we start talking in far off hypotheticals - buildout of green > power > > AI datacenters can be even argued to be *good* for climate as their > demand > > accelerates buildout of the green grid and they also push the non-green > > datacenters out of the market. > > Yes, all else equal. But all else is not equal, and there is zero (pun > intended) indication that accelerating buildout of *whatever* energy > grid leads to less energy consumption. > Well here we have a conflict of interest. I do *NOT* care about reducing energy consumption. I care about not destroying the environment. Only consumption of *non-green* energy contributes to destroying the environment. Using more green power from the solar panel on my roof does *not* contribute anything to destroying the environment (even if I use that power to run an AI agent on my video card). So I only care about reducing *non-green* energy consumption. And that is a *huge* difference in goals and this also changes everything when it comes to how to achieve these goals. > For a comparable complexity, see the attempt at solving road traffic > slowdown by widening the roads, which instead lead to more traffic: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess%27s_paradox Setting up more train lines and increacing the train frequency leads to more people travelling on trains. The thing is - that is not a bad thing. People travel more for business and for leisure, people see other cultures and wonders of the world and everyone is better off. It is consumption and yet it is also causing good. As long as the negative externalities of the fundamental process are minimized or even eliminated. There is a strong anti-consumerism sub-movement in the overal environmental movement. Strong enough that people confuse the two. I do not believe that anti-consumerism is a constructive way forward for a trully long-term sustainable green policy. -- Best regards, Aigars Mahinovs
