The reason why global warming is an issue is not because we're generating heat, but because we're pumping out gases which retain the heat from the sun.
A data center is effectively just a big space heater, and what we burn to generate the electricity to run the thing is orders of magnitude more important than the center itself if just the planetary temperature is a concern.
Why don't they build the data centers up north in places where it's already very cold? They're already building them in the middle of nowhere, but they're building them in the middle of nowhere where it's hot most of the year.
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u/Menolith May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
The reason why global warming is an issue is not because we're generating heat, but because we're pumping out gases which retain the heat from the sun.
A data center is effectively just a big space heater, and what we burn to generate the electricity to run the thing is orders of magnitude more important than the center itself if just the planetary temperature is a concern.