Beyond Data Centers: AI’s Hidden Climate Impact
We’re all aware that data centers powering AI exact a toll on the environment. These centers demand immense amounts of electricity to run servers and meet intense processing needs, not to mention their enormous physical footprint. What’s been lost in the focus on data centers, though, is that the fossil fuel industry is using artificial intelligence, enabled by these data centers, to find, produce, and deliver more oil and gas more efficiently, with devastating effects on the planet’s climate. In this episode of Safeguarding Sound Science, our host Mat Kaplan talks with Holly Alpine, co-author of a paper in Nature that found, among other things, that AI-driven productivity gains for fossil fuel companies increase net global emissions by 0.47 to 1.8 gigatons of CO₂ annually. Alpine discusses the findings of the paper and her work as co-founder and director with her husband, Will Alpine, of the Enabled Emissions campaign, which aims to force Big Tech to acknowledge its role in the climate crisis. Holly and Will are also former Big Tech insiders — both worked at Microsoft, Holly as a sustainability lead and Will as a product manager involved with the company’s AI platform. Read the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-026-00411-0 Enabled Emissions: https://www.enabledemissions.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
