Good reasons to choose real intelligence over the artificial kind

It’s hard to do anything online without being bombarded with invitations to use AI, or artificial intelligence.  Do a Google search, and the top hit is now AI generated.  Use Zoom, and Zoom’s AI Companion can take meeting notes.  Use Microsoft and you’re invited to try Copilot.  Chat GPT has changed how we work, as have platforms that can instantly produce professional-looking custom graphics.

It’s all pretty amazing – except that artificial intelligence has a significant dark side: it uses a massive amount of energy, and produces enormous amounts of emissions.

Consider:

• Artificial intelligence is the product of massive installations of specialized computers in (typically enormous) facilities called data centers
• Data centers are the backbone of the internet so they’ve been around for a while.  However, they’ve only really taken off in the past two decades, largely thanks to the growth of internet giants like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Spotify and Facebook/Meta, and more recently to the explosion of artificial intelligence and the enormous computing power it requires.
• Data centers today use about 1.5% of global electricity consumption, or about two-thirds as much electricity as all of Canada combined.  That is expected to double by 2030.
• Globally, much of the electricity that powers data centers comes from coal, which results in enormous amounts of emissions.  A French study concluded that the digital industry is responsible for 3.4 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.  That’s more than any country in the world except China, the US, India and Russia.
• Data centers are one of the main reasons global emissions have not yet declined significantly.  Renewables like wind and solar are growing at a record pace, but they’re barely keeping up with new demand for electricity, much of which is driven by data centers.
• Data centers use so much power that they can disrupt local power grids, and new ones often are planned with new dedicated power plants next door (usually natural gas-fired, but nuclear is also on the radar) to power them.

The carbon footprint of an AI search is hard to pin down exactly; the internet is full of guesstimates (like ’10 times the energy of a regular search’), and data is scarce.  Plus data centers are used for a lot more than our Google and Chat GPT queries, so not all their emissions point back to our activities.  Still, it’s probably good advice to us all to try to use it less.

How?  Here are a few suggestions to reduce your digital emissions:

• Probably most importantly: if you’re doing a regular Google search and don’t need the help of AI, prevent it from automatically happening by adding ‘-ai’ to your search string.
• Resort to AI queries, whether on Google, Edge, ChatGPT or any other platform, only when necessary.  In other words, let your real brain remain your default source of intelligence, and rely on it instead of a faraway computer to discern hits and compile info.
• Limit your use of AI-generated graphics, video and audio, all of which use more computer power than a text search.
• Consider using an alternate search engine like Ecosia, a non-profit that uses the revenue it generates to plants trees (alas, their platform now has an AI search option too…)
• Stream less, whether movies, videos or music; because streaming is also a major reason for the growth of data centers.  Download anything you plan to use more than once so you don’t have to stream it again.
• Use lower resolution options when possible; smaller files mean less computer energy to send them.

One final note: all internet searches are governed by the acronyms of the search engine used, and therefore potentially vulnerable to manipulation (IE based on the politics of the day).  As well, it’s wise to remember that fraudsters and other unsavoury characters can be pretty skilled with computers too.  Both further reasons for caution online.

Generated as always without artificial intelligence.

The easiest way EVER to reduce emissions!

Don’t idle your engine, EVER!

Of all the actions that could reduce emissions and help prevent the worst of climate change, surely there is none easier than this one simple habit: don’t idle your engine, EVER. 

Alas, you only need to look around most parking lots to see that ‘the idling disease’ continues to flourish.  So here are five good reasons that I hope can help cure it!

1. It’s better for your engine: according to JD Power (those same folks often cited in car and truck ads), “when cars are left running for extended periods of time, the idling causes premature wear… generally, the less amount of time left idling the better.”  (The reasons for that wear: poor oil and coolant circulation; improper operating temperature; extra running of fans and pumps.)
2. It’s better for your wallet: according to Natural Resources Canada, “if drivers of light-duty vehicles avoided idling by just three minutes a day, over the year Canadians would collectively save 630 million litres of fuel.”  Assuming $1.40/litre, that’s nearly $900 million per year that could be spent on more important things in the midst of this affordability crisis.  A medium-sized engine burns about $2.50 worth of fuel for every hour idled.
3. It’s better for the planet: every litre of gasoline burned generates 2.3 KG of carbon dioxide, the main human-produced greenhouse gas; so every 40 litres you put into your gas tank will generate about 100 KG of emissions.  (Plus add another 20-50% for the emissions generated by the extraction, refining and transportation of that gasoline.)
4. It’s better for your lungs: one of the common excuses for idling is the need for air conditioning.  But on anything less than the very hottest of days, why not first try rolling down a window or two, and enjoying free, healthy, fresh air instead of the sometimes-stinky stuff that blows out of your AC?  Seeking a shady parking space helps too!
5. It’s better for everyone else: perhaps you’ve noticed those ‘please don’t idle’ signs near ventilation intakes of buildings.  The logic that exhaust fumes are harmful to the people inside the building also applies to the impacts on people outside the building, including yourself!

And here’s a quiz that dispels common myths about idling.  (Perhaps the best rebuttal to the common belief that frequent restarting is bad for an engine is the fact that many new vehicles come equipped with stop-start technology that automatically turns off engines to reduce idling.  Manufacturers wouldn’t offer the feature if they weren’t 100% confident about it; Natural Resources Canada suggests it can help drivers save 4-10% in city driving.)

So what to do?

• Idling more than 10 seconds uses more fuel than is required to restart an engine, so why not use that as your guide and turn off your engine if you’ll be stopped for more than 10 seconds?  You can stretch it a bit if you’re uncomfortable about so short an interval, but there’s never a need to go beyond 60 seconds, not even in the coldest winter weather.
• If you’d like to be a gentle changemaker in your sphere of influence, why not put up a ‘Please don’t idle’ sign?  They work!  You can find numerous designs online or in some stores.

Together, let’s eradicate ‘the idling disease’ – because there’s no easier way to reduce emissions and save money!

How the internet is heating the planet

Good reasons to think before you click

Billions of people use the internet every day, so perhaps the info in this graphic shouldn’t come as a complete surprise.  But it sure knocked me off my chair when I discovered it recently:

The energy use of data centers – like the ones that power Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook (Meta) and the rest of the internet – has exploded.  Globally, data centers now use more energy annually than many countries, and more energy than entire industries like global aviation.  Some big companies like Google have announced ambitious plans for their data centers to run on 100% renewable energy – but the growth of data centers has eclipsed their transition to renewables so they are actually falling behind and generating more emissions than ever.  No wonder the internet has been called “the largest coal-powered machine in the world”.

As users of the internet, you and I own part of its enormous carbon footprint – yet we can’t really do without it either.

So what to do?  Here are a few ideas:

• Swear off of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, because creating and using them takes an enormous amount of electricity, much of which comes from fossil fuels.  (Cryptocurrencies are complicated, but here’s the simplest explanation I’ve come across of how they work and why they consume so much energy.)
• Minimize streaming by selecting lower resolution for audio or video; choosing to stream less; downloading content you’ll be viewing more than once; and turning off auto-play.  Tempting as it is, avoid using YouTube to play background music.
• Email wisely: resist the temptation to reply to all, or to reply at all when it’s not necessary; minimize attachments and attachment sizes (sharing links to online sources is much less energy-intensive); delete old emails periodically; and unsubscribe to emails that don’t give you value (hopefully not this one!!)
• Limit use of Artificial Intelligence as it requires considerable computing power and energy.  It’s estimated that one query on ChatGPT takes 10 times the energy of a search on Google.
• Minimize cloud storage, as the servers where such storage happens need to run 24/7.  Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta are the four largest data center companies in the world.
• Declutter your computer regularly, as unused files and apps take energy to maintain.  Importantly, delete any unused files (including emails) that may be backing up regularly to cloud storage in the background.
• When replacing devices, make energy efficiency a priority.  Look for ENERGY STAR certified products for best-in-class efficiency.

The internet is a vital part of our modern world, but an enormous source of emissions.  So let’s use it as sparingly as possible.

Thanks to subscriber Diane Gauthier for suggesting this Green Idea, plus this resource, “Cliquer c’est polluer,” for French young readers.