Environmental Burden of United States Data Centers in the Artificial Intelligence Era · HackerPapers discussionshttps://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2411.09786/Collected HN comments and submissions linking this paper.enMon, 02 Nov 2026 11:16:22 GMTEnvironmental Burden of United States Data Centers in the Artificial Intelligence Era — mentioned by Lerchttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44041680urn:hackerpapers:mention:2411.09786:44041680Tue, 20 May 2025 13:50:24 GMT<p>The point that stood out to me as concerning was &quot;The carbon intensity of electricity used by data centers was 48% higher than the US average.&quot; I&#x27;d be fine with as many data centers as they want if they stimulated production of clean energy to run them. But that quote links to another article by the same author. Which says &quot;Notably, the sources for all this power are particularly “dirty.” Since so many data centers are located in coal-producing regions, like Virginia, the “carbon intensity” of the energy they use is 48% higher than the national average. The paper, which was published on arXiv…</p><p><a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2411.09786/">Paper and discussion history</a>. A mention is not an endorsement.</p>cs.CY