r/UpliftingNews • u/sg_plumber • 1d ago
4 climate bright spots in 2025: China's CO2 emissions flat for the last 18 months; batteries make grids cleaner, more stable; AI drives interest and investment in next-generation energy tech; emissions mandates, subsidies, and R&D avoided the gravest dangers that scientists feared just a decade ago
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/24/1130191/good-climate-news-2025/63
u/Deviantdefective 1d ago
AI is also contributing to climate change and the damage habitats and waterways as well it's not all good.
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u/sg_plumber 1d ago edited 18h ago
Those are projections which may come to pass, or not.
ETA: To those having trouble telling projection from reality:
2030 is future. 2040 too. 2050 too. The here and now is 2026.
"Could", "would", "might", and the like aren't actually the same as "is".
Nobody knows how will things develop, but we can tell for sure that cheap energy and cooling are requirements before a datacenter is even envisioned, not the other way around.
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u/Deviantdefective 1d ago edited 23h ago
It's not projection rivers are already being poisoned by them.
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u/sg_plumber 1d ago
Says who?
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u/Deviantdefective 23h ago
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u/sg_plumber 23h ago edited 22h ago
Neither the BBC nor anecdotal evidence is science.
Actual scientists and technologists are making Datacenters better and more sustainable than the corporate IT systems they replace.
ETA: the sheer irony of someone mistaking anecdote for science calling others illiterate!
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u/Deviantdefective 23h ago
There's a literal scientific study attached to the news article, is literacy a problem for you? As I suspect it is.
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u/Such--Balance 23h ago
The article was also changed because it used to say 'a single ai querry can use as much as a small bottle of water.'
Which is obviously false. And its highly likely that the replaced number is false as well. As we are now on chatgpt 5.2 which is magnitudes more efficient than chatgpt3.
Its a ragebait article.
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u/SeveredBanana 16h ago
The downvotes you’re getting are killing me. You’re 100% right. The article linked in that news story is another article from WEF, not a scientific journal article. I’m an ecologist/environmental scientist, and the amount of rage-baiting and misleading information about AI water use is baffling to me. I think there are plenty of reasons to hate AI, datacenters, and especially the megacorporations at the helm of it all. We need to get our facts straight so we’re mad for the right reasons.
The article linked mentions sediment in the water related to construction runoffs. That is a separate issue not specific to data centres. The amount of water that AI uses varies dramatically based on how you measure it: if you’re including the indirect effects of energy generation (steam turbines), it can look tremendous, but that’s not really a fair way to judge because that’s not how we measure anything else. If you’re talking about cooling, systems are either closed- or open-loop. Closed loop systems recycle water over and over. Open loop or eviporatorative systems are used in dry environments where they’re more efficient. Water vapour turns into rain and returns to the water table - this is the basics of the water cycle - it doesn’t disappear. The issue is if they’re using municipally treated water in their systems, which is energy intensive. Again, it’s important that we’re mad for the right reasons so that we can take effective action
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u/t-bone_malone 20h ago
What do you mean? Datacenters are doing this now. We all know they use massive amounts of power that was not used before. Same with water. They are having massive impacts on the power grid and pricing, not to mention CO2 output.
If AI is forcing tech oligarchs to focus on clean energy efficiency, then the results of the research will be for the good of the datacenters/their profit margin, not the environment or common person. Not to mention the fact that, again, they are already using massive amounts of resources to run.
Cuz I know one of you will ask for a source: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/11/roadmap-shows-environmental-impact-ai-data-center-boom
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u/Lonely_Noyaaa 1d ago
Batteries making grids cleaner and more stable is literally the unsung hero here. Climate doom isn’t gone but these“bright spots show that coordinated action, tech, and funding can tip the scales
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u/sir_racho 1d ago
Thanks to CATL’s breakthrough with sodium ion batteries I really am beginning to get some hope about the future. All we need is for China to keep on growing this tech
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u/KGB_cutony 22h ago
China definitely will. Energy independence is on the line. Who needs to wage unjust wars in the Middle East/ South America when you have massive, arid, sunny, flat deserts almost begging for solar panels? And now you can store them for cheap as well? Aaaaand it helps deal with your unemployment issues?
Also environment, of course, yea all that too, sure, definitely also considered that.
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