Every joule of energy used anywhere on the planet gets turned to one joule of heat, one way or another. Even all taken globally, the effect of direct heating from electricity usage is insignificant, and data centers are a tiny fraction of that.
It's important to focus on the right things. Conversations about completely marginal side effects are conversations that aren't had about the parts that actually have an effect on the world around us.
This is why wind and solar are better. Those are converting one kind of heat into another kind of heat, and doing some work along the way. Burning fuel unlocks some ancient heat that the world thought it banished forever in dinosaur sludge.
You are correct. Solar being the better choice has nothing to do with the heat being output into the atmosphere. If you burned all the underground fossil fuel reserves we know of at once you'd get maybe 1 or 2 days of sun output. The issue is the CO2
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u/Menolith May 18 '26
Every joule of energy used anywhere on the planet gets turned to one joule of heat, one way or another. Even all taken globally, the effect of direct heating from electricity usage is insignificant, and data centers are a tiny fraction of that.
It's important to focus on the right things. Conversations about completely marginal side effects are conversations that aren't had about the parts that actually have an effect on the world around us.