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Big Tech’s Data Centres Could Cost Public Health Billions
Research reveals emissions from the energy-hungry data centres of Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon & more have generated US$5.4bn in US healthcare expensesThe environmental and public health implications of artificial intelligence infrastructure are becoming increasingly apparent as major technology firms continue to expand their investments in this sector.
Recent research from UC Riverside and Caltech indicates that pollution from data centres has resulted in more than US$5.4bn in healthcare expenses across the United States over the past five years.
Google leads technology companies in public health impact costs
The research identifies Google as the primary contributor to these healthcare costs, accounting for US$2.6bn during the five-year period studied.
Microsoft and Meta follow as the next largest contributors, with the collective impact of technology companies growing significantly year-on-year.
Healthcare costs attributed to data centre pollution reached US$1.5bn in 2023 alone, representing a 20% increase from the previous year.
Data centres require substantial electrical power to function, with much of this energy derived from fossil fuel sources that produce greenhouse gas emissions.
These emissions have established links to respiratory diseases, cancer and other health conditions affecting communities near these facilities.
"Unlike carbon emissions, the health impacts caused by a data centre in one region cannot be offset by cleaner air elsewhere," says Shaolei Ren, an Associate Professor at UC Riverside.
Microsoft nuclear energy agreement aims to reduce carbon footprint
Technology companies are implementing various strategies to address their environmental impact.
Microsoft has entered into an agreement with Constellation Energy to restart a nuclear power unit at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island, seeking to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.
"To achieve our goal of becoming carbon negative by 2030, we will need a broad range of innovative carbon-free energy solutions," says Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer of Microsoft.
"Advanced nuclear energy and fusion energy are included in our multi-technology approach to reaching this target."
The International Energy Agency warns that data centre electricity consumption could double by 2026, with AI applications requiring significantly more power than traditional computing tasks.
A single ChatGPT query consumes nearly ten times the electricity of a standard Google search, illustrating the increased energy intensity of AI operations.
Tech investment projections show Microsoft, Google leading AI infrastructure spending
Investment in AI infrastructure continues to accelerate, with Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta projected to spend a combined US$320bn on AI infrastructure in 2025, more than double the US$151bn spent in 2023.
Additionally, Open AI and SoftBank have announced plans for a US$500bn investment in AI development.
That's almost one trillion dollars of investment from just six companies.
Goldman Sachs estimates that AI-driven energy demand could result in data centres consuming 10% of all US electricity by 2030, up from 4% in 2023.
European countries face similar challenges, with projections indicating a 40 to 50% increase in power demand over the next decade due to data centre expansion.
The environmental impact extends beyond carbon emissions.
Water usage for cooling systems represents another significant concern.
According to Google's 2024 Environment Report, its data centre water consumption has increased by nearly 88% since 2019.
This trend is particularly problematic in regions experiencing water scarcity, such as California.
The location of data centres often corresponds with areas having lower land costs and reduced regulatory requirements, including regions of West Virginia and Ohio.
These locations typically have lower-income populations who experience disproportionate exposure to the resulting air and water pollution.
While technology companies utilise renewable energy credits to offset their carbon emissions, critics argue this approach fails to address local pollution issues affecting specific communities.
"There are so many issues around carbon credits from an ecological perspective," says Sebastián Lehuedé, an Assistant Professor at King's College London.
"If you consume water somewhere to the point where it affects biodiversity in one area, that cannot be offset by having a nice project elsewhere.
You're going to cause irreversible damage if you keep to that logic."
Public resistance to data centre expansion has emerged in multiple countries, including the United States, Ireland and Mexico.
Local opposition centres on concerns regarding water shortages, pollution and energy costs, with calls for increased oversight of the technology sector.
"We are going to reach a tipping point where the increasing cost of data and hence, AI, is not just environmentally expensive but also socially expensive," says Revathi Kollegala, a Digital Strategist at CIFOR-ICRAF.
"This will undermine the logic that AI can democratise access to knowledge and reduce inequity.
"We may have reached that point already or will very soon."
Source:https://technologymagazine.com/arti...paign=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Newsletter
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