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tgv 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That doesn't make the slightest difference for two reasons:

1. Natural gas still produces CO2, which is a climate change driver. (And, since burning more of it will only increase global temperatures, the data center will have more trouble losing its excess heat.

2. Even if a data centre uses a totally clean energy source, it's still excess usage. That clean energy could have been used elsewhere. Until all energy is clean, usage by unnecessary sources is a net negative.

	▲	metalsiliconYT 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
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platevoltage 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If only there were energy sources that didn't involve burning anything. Perhaps that nuclear reaction in the sky that wakes us up every day?

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ck2 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

how about the non-stop methane burnoff for months ("flare") from all the oil fracking fields in the US that can be seen from SPACE for the past DECADE

* https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/10/20/ameri...

* https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/gas-drillin...

that's already raising the local area temps, why not put that wasted fuel to work instead?

build the datacenters literally next to the fracking fields, absolutely no-one there to complain, they all moved away already from the toxic air/water and there's already unlimited fuel

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ipsum2 3 hours ago | parent [-]

You described the company Crusoe. They've been building datacenters that do exactly what you said.

https://www.crusoe.ai/resources/blog/understanding-the-probl...

> Crusoe has built their business around turning flaring from an operational and regulatory risk for oil and gas companies, as well as an existential risk for our planet, into a multi-solve solution. Crusoe doesn’t just mitigate flaring emissions. They capture the gas, convert it into energy, and use it to power computing infrastructure.

Edit: Crusoe sold its bitcoin-mining operation including the Digital Flare Mitigation business to NYDIG in 2025, so the above may be inaccurate.

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ck2 2 hours ago | parent [-]

wow Crusoe deserves more press if everything they are saying checks out

flaring has upset me for a decade, even if it was just used for bitcoin mining it would have at least done something vaguely beneficial compared to just raising earth temperature

but if it can help solve the "AI" energy demand boom that would be huge

because it's not like this country is ever going to stop fracking at $80-$100 a barrel now

	▲	hedgehog 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Methane has a stronger greenhouse effect than CO2 (until it decays into CO2) so it's probably better to burn it and do no work than just vent it, and better still to leave it in the ground.