this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2026
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The vast data centers that power artificial intelligence are so energy hungry that they’re heating up their surroundings, according to new research. It’s an alarming finding given the number of data centers is predicted to explode over the next few years.

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[–] pharceface@retrolemmy.com 13 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Seeing this kind of news hurts. I’ve had a lifelong interest in computers and technology. I’ve made a career of it and live fairly comfortably because of it. But this makes me certain the positives don’t outweigh the negatives. And I wish we could go back to the 90s/2k when we’re certain this tech would lead to the betterment of the world. Sort of bearing my heart here but technology sucks now.

[–] MattMatt@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Same, this wave is smearing shit over the technical hobby turned career that I've loved since forever that I can remember. My recent desire to rewind and redo makes me feel old AF.

[–] itisileclerk@lemmy.world 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Why don't they build glass hydroponic vegetable gardens? The heating is free.

[–] thingAmaBob@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago

Sometimes I wish the Epstein class would just mass bomb all us poors already and get it over with. This slow, painful death thing is extremely annoying and stressful.

[–] xXSirDanglesXx@lemmy.world 25 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

I sometimes work in the building that's in the thumbnail of the article, that's crazy to see.

But that being said, data centers are definitely a negative for the environment and using them for bogus AI nonsense is horrible.

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 1 points 2 hours ago

You're absolutely right!

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)
[–] xXSirDanglesXx@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Ain't anything I can do for ya lol, contact IBEW.

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 hours ago

i don't know what this is

[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 2 points 14 hours ago

It's ok, Iran will save us!

[–] timeghost@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Heat death any way you look.

[–] DMCMNFIBFFF@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Strikingly, the impacts weren’t limited to a data center’s immediate surroundings; temperature increases affected areas up to 6.2 miles away, the research found, affecting more than 340 million people.

Huh?

[–] Vorticity@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (15 children)

Air and water move, especially when heated.

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[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 16 hours ago

Yea this makes the methodology super suspect.

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[–] cogitase@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 day ago

The graphs in the paper show the temperature 1 km away from the data center being 8°C higher and attribute that to heat emitted by the data center. That should start the alarm bells that something isn't right with this paper.

Here's a post going into the problems with it;

https://blog.andymasley.com/p/data-centers-heat-exhaust-is-not?open=false#%C2%A7my-core-claim-this-is-literally-just-measuring-hot-surfaces-of-new-buildings-and-the-soil-and-land-around-those-new-buildings-probably-hasnt-changed-temperature-at-all

[–] Kongar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 103 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Years ago, I was driving through NY city-ish. We pulled over in a rest area and I saw a sign about turning your engine off. I thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever seen, as did many other people apparently as their cars were idling. Then I got out of my car. I was wrong. The heat was insane. I couldn’t wrap my little head around it. I started doing the engineer math thing because it didn’t make sense.

Doesn’t surprise me at all these massive data centers are creating little heat domes. The cars were bad enough, and they are a fraction of the energy.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 58 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (9 children)

100% of electricity burned turns to heat save light that leaves earth. Gigawatt data center? That's ~650,000 1500w space heaters.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 68 points 1 day ago (13 children)

i work for a large power company, we have a data center customer that have as many equally sized cooling towers as one of our nuclear power plants.

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[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 30 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Coming to a neighborhood near you, bringing the noise, heat, and higher electric bills.

[–] jefferyjefferson@lemmy.org 2 points 16 hours ago

Funnily enough, it looks like most data centers are built near mini-mansion neighborhoods.

Kinda nice seeing the affluent class have to deal with infrastructure being built at their expense.

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[–] NoTagBacks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 71 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I'm not sure what you guys are worried about. All that extra heat will just dissipate into the atmosphere and eventually radiate into space. It's not like there's anything in the atmosphere that would interfere with this cycle... right?

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[–] Etterra@discuss.online 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

If that 16° in foreign ~~members~~ numbers or freedom units?

Edit: autocorrect error

[–] Trilogy3452@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lol I thought Celsius, would've been hell. It's in Farenheit

[–] tb_@lemmy.world 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

That's still ~9°C, which is a lot.

[–] Trilogy3452@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago
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