Jill Mc
LightNews LightNews
banner
jillmcardle.bsky.social
Jill Mc
@jillmcardle.bsky.social
190 followers 250 following 12 posts
Campaigner @beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social. Talk to me about data centres, AI & energy + corporate accounting ⚡🤖

🇮🇪 in 🇧🇪

*NEW REPORT* https://beyondfossilfuels.org/2025/02/10/system-overload-how-new-data-centres-could-throw-europ
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Jill Mc
arteesetica.bsky.social
Muchas comunidades que viven cerca de los Centros de Datos se quedan sin acceso a agua o energía porque se la llevan estas instalaciones. «Es el momento para Europa de dejar de complacer a las Big Tech y comenzar a regular los Centros de Datos» @jillmcardle.bsky.social @beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social
Tu Nube Seca Mi Río Los Europeos están preocupados por la expansión de los Centros de Datos https://tunubesecamirio.com/2025/10/27/los-europeos-estan-preocupados-por-la-expansion-de-los-centros-de-datos/ https://beyondfossilfuels.org/2025/10/27/europeans-agree-time-to-put-limits-on-big-tech-data-centres/
October 28, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
ketanjoshi.co
After all the dismissiveness and misleading presentation of growth rates, there's basically no escaping the fact that US data centre growth is a globally significant story that is directly incentivising new fossil fuel use and infrastructure growth

Feeling pretty vindicated, given last year's WEO
Higher electricity generation growth: The 2025 STEPS projects over 44 000 TWh of electricity generation worldwide in 2035, which is around 4% more than in the 2024 STEPS version. The outlook for electricity demand to serve data centres in the United States and elsewhere are higher than in the WEO-2024, and higher demand for air conditioning in the Middle East and North Africa also makes a large contribution to the overall increase in electricity demand in the 2025 STEPS. Emerging grid integration challenges in China and other major markets also help to explain the differences in the generation mix between the two editions of STEPS. Most of the upward revision in generation is coal-fired power in China.  Increased natural gas consumption: The 2025 STEPS projects 350 bcm more natural gas consumption in 2035 compared with the 2024 STEPS version. Three-quarters of this is for electricity generation, mainly in the United States, Japan and the Middle East, and reflects higher electricity demand and slower progress in adding renewables to the generation mix than projected in the WEO-2024. There is also faster growth in the use of gas for transport, notably for compressed natural gas vehicles in China and LNG for shipping, and for industry in emerging market and developing economies.
November 12, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
kostyack.bsky.social
I had a wonderful week reconnecting w old friends and meeting new ones at #ClimateWeek in NYC. AI and data centers dominated many of the conversations, and my mind reels at the vast discrepancies among the "expert takes" on where we are headed.
September 26, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
julietphillips.bsky.social
In the US, capacity auction prices - paid via costs passed on to consumers by utilities - are set to soar off the back of rocketing energy demand from data centres.

Hardly seems fair that household energy bills will be used to help line the pockets of tech giants.
www.reuters.com/business/ene...
Soaring US power auction prices set to spur new projects
Price jumps in several U.S. capacity markets signal greater revenue opportunities for power plant developers as AI demand squeezes the market and increases energy costs for consumers.
www.reuters.com
September 10, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social
Big Tech CEOs are hungry for power, but that can’t come at the expense of the planet.
All new data centres must run on renewable energy, and their growth needs to align with planetary boundaries.
👀 @jillmcardle.bsky.social @re-publica.com 👉
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fmz...
re:publica 25: AI's insatiable appetite: How Big Tech’s energy demands endanger climate goals
YouTube video by re:publica
www.youtube.com
July 15, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
amzn4climate.bsky.social
When it IS clean energy that powers the data centers, it’s nearly always taken from an existing pool that already had customers, so those customers now have to use dirty power.

www.propublica.org/article/data...
Washington Is Giving Tax Breaks to Data Centers That Threaten the State’s Green Energy Push
In 2019, Washington adopted legislation requiring electric utilities to go carbon-neutral in a decade. Yet lawmakers continued to promote the growth of energy-guzzling data centers with generous tax i...
www.propublica.org
July 16, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
amzn4climate.bsky.social
Most of this power is fossil-fueled, which means that emissions have skyrocketed. Bloomberg reported in 2024 that without the shell game of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), “Amazon could be forced to admit that its 2022 emissions are.. three times what the company disclosed.”

archive.is/lBf5H
archive.is
July 16, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
amzn4climate.bsky.social
Today Amazon released its “Sustainability” report. Predictably, what it leaves out is vastly more important than what it says.

Amazon is building a dirty energy empire, spending literally hundreds of billions on data centers that will rely primarily on new fossil fuel infrastructure.
PRESS RELEASE: Amazon Sustainability Report Hides Gas & Coal Empire Powering Company’s AI Ambitions
PRESS RELEASE July 16, 2025 Contact: [email protected] Amazon Sustainability Report Hides Gas & Coal Empire Powering Company’s AI Ambitions Nearly three-quarters of Amazon’s data cente...
docs.google.com
July 16, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
jamesmart1n.bsky.social
Sharing this via @jillmcardle.bsky.social on LinkedIn because it’s just PERFECT👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
May 28, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
cpdpconferences.bsky.social
The Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence: How Generative AI Threatens the Renewable Energy Transition

Organised by AlgorithmWatch with @spielkamp.bsky.social (moderator), @jillmcardle.bsky.social, Fanny Hidvégi, Claude Turmes, Boris Ruf

More info: cpdp.be/4117
#CPDP2025 #TheWorldisWatching
The Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence: how Generative AI Threatens the Renewable Energy Transition, and who Stands to Benefit from it You’ve read the news: A Three Mile Island reactor will be restarted to power Microsoft's AI operations (this was the site of a nuclear meltdown in 1979), Google’s emissions climbed nearly 50% over the last five years due to AI energy demand, and the only thing impressive about Amazon’s claim that it uses green energy is the chutzpah with which it lies about its creative accounting. Still, if you think you have a good idea of generative AI’s resource demands, think again. The snippets above only present the tip of the iceberg. To show what’s at stake, we will not only present the latest evidence on energy demand for the entire value chain of AI, including hardware production – we will also explain how it threatens the transition to renewable energy and the stability of the grid, aka critical infrastructure. Questions to be answered: - What do we know about resource consumption of generative AI? - What implications does the resource consumption have for the green transition? - What implications does the resource consumption have for the development path of Artificial Intelligence (what alternatives to “brute force” large models and Deep Learning based on very large datasets are on the table)? - What governance tools are needed and available to reconcile AI develpoment with planetary boundaries? Organised by AlgorithmWatch with Matthias Spielkamp (moderator), Jill McArdle, Fanny Hidvégi, Claude Turmes, Boris Ruf More information: https://cpdp.be/4117
May 1, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social
ICYMI 👀 New @greenpeaceeastasia.bsky.social video on the dark side of AI, featuring @jillmcardle.bsky.social on the risks posed by largely AI-driven data centre electricity consumption in Europe.
beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social Beyond Fossil Fuels @beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social · Apr 29
"The energy consumption of 🇪🇺 data centres is putting local energy transitions at risk, either by expanding gas infrastructure or forcing other sectors to rely on power from fossil fuels," says @jillmcardle.bsky.social in new @greenpeaceeastasia.bsky.social video.

👀 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySfh...
The Dark Side of AI
YouTube video by Greenpeace International
www.youtube.com
May 2, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social
"The energy consumption of 🇪🇺 data centres is putting local energy transitions at risk, either by expanding gas infrastructure or forcing other sectors to rely on power from fossil fuels," says @jillmcardle.bsky.social in new @greenpeaceeastasia.bsky.social video.

👀 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySfh...
The Dark Side of AI
YouTube video by Greenpeace International
www.youtube.com
April 29, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
ketanjoshi.co
Tech companies manufacture demand for chatbots and image generation, and then that in turn manufactures demand for coal and gas.

Blistering @desmog.bsky.social piece here detailing this new and disgusting symbiosis

www.desmog.com/2025/04/22/a...
AI Energy Demand Can Keep Fossil Fuels Alive, Tech Backers Promise World’s Two Biggest Oil Producers
An AI-fossil fuel axis is forming in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia as AI advocates pledge an endless need for energy — spelling disaster for the climate.
www.desmog.com
April 23, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
ketanjoshi.co
@jillmcardle.bsky.social points out here the IEA is basically adopting the logic of carbon offsetting into the world of AI and data centres

www.linkedin.com/posts/jillmc...
The IEA report on AI & Energy out today contains some eye-popping claims… | Jill McArdle PhD
The IEA report on AI & Energy out today contains some eye-popping claims 🤯 https://lnkd.in/ermMrGuA On the one hand, the report confirms what we have said (https://lnkd.in/eeiHpq2f), that the AI...
www.linkedin.com
April 10, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social
Today's report on #AI and energy by the @iea.org's largely confirms our analysis published earlier this year, data centre growth is rapidly increasing & leading to more emissions.
Read our report and learn about their impact on emissions & the energy transition.
beyondfossilfuels.org/2025/02/10/s...
April 10, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
ketanjoshi.co
Ireland is interesting. Being a nexus of data centre growth it's not surprising to see rising power demand. but much of it is being met by power imports, not new renewables, or fossil fuel output.

bsky.app/profile/keta...

CC @hannahdaly.ie @jillmcardle.bsky.social
Ireland power demand
April 8, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
taraconnolly.bsky.social
The headline you won't read today about the European Court of Auditors report on EU funding for NGOs is that the auditors found no wrong-doing by NGOs, nor any breach of EU values.

An invented scandal to justify cutting EU funding for NGOs and distract from genuine cases of corruption.
April 8, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
greenpeace.org
You can’t sue a rainbow 🌈

No matter what happens in any courtroom – our global intersectional climate movement will only keep growing stronger and louder 💚🌎

#WeWillNotBeSilenced
March 20, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
jksteinberger.bsky.social
As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity.

TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄
NO CHATGPT Or other artificial stupidity: motivation First, clarity on distinguishing AIs: Non-generative: grammar aid, translation, dictionary, text-to-audio (e.g. Natural Reader): no problem As long as you use the appropriate tools (least intensive in data and server energy use). Why? Because you provide the content. Your brain is doing the most important work Generative: ChatGPT & Co. You only supply the prompt, the AI supplies the content. Why is this delegation of work problematic? 3 domains: ethical, environmental, intellectual engagement. (Caveat: generative is probably ok for computer programming, where it can be useful and save time. Not relevant to this class.) 1) AI and ethics Mass theft of all and everything «learning» on books, articles, blogs, social media, images, music, cultural production, without permission of authors/creators, and leading to their mass joblessness. Profits are not reditributed to originators. Permanent destruction of the mental health of underpaid precarious tech workers in the Global South (Kenya, Philippines …): «correction» to avoid production of violent and pedophile contents etc, tech workers are obliged to watch and correct super violent contents for days on end, leading to extreme psychological suffering and trauma, from which recovery is doubtful. No or little compensation (certainly not at the level of the suffering inflicted). In short, an industry built on theft of real human creation and sacrifice of real human health, profiting a few megafortunes. 2) AI and (un)sustainability Massive consumption of electricity, water, server capacity for generative AI. Outcome: keep fossil fuel companies in business, using up new renewable capacity, without any satisfaction of basic human needs. Massive misappropriation of the finance necessary for climate and ecological action (renewable generation, efficiency and retrofit for buildings, public transit, infrastructures for cycling etc) towards AI industry. Overall: undermine climate action, reinforce fossil industry, waste resources necessary for human development. 3) AI and intellectual engagement First, what learning is (or should be) about: The goal should not (only) be the reproduction of «correct» knowledge, But mainly personal engagement and experience of thinking about topics of interest. Personal engagement = using one’s own brain. The most important activity for learning and intellectual engagement is the experience of making one’s own mistakes, by trial and error, corrections based on new ideas, starting over again. Learning to recognise nuances, knowledge gaps, better explanations This kind of learning is possible only through using your own brain, not AI. Also, Ais are not «intelligent». At all. They simply reproduce pre-existing patterns. They «bullshit», invent false references, false facts, false data, simply because those sound plausible. VERY DANGEROUS. If you learn how to NOT use AI, and how to research facts and data on your own, this will serve you and your communities for the rest of your life.
February 23, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social
"AI may exist in the virtual world, but it has real life consequences, and this (BFF) new research should be a wake-up call that sustainable and limitless AI growth is a fantasy," say @jillmcardle.bsky.social & Julia Pazos in latest The Green Fix post 👉
thegreenfix.substack.com/p/ai?utm%5C_...
February 26, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
pbresnihan.bsky.social
This headline sounds positive when in fact the regulator has just proposed that data centre growth can continue as long as energy demand is met by their own oil and gas generation. Any pretence to supporting renewable energy has been dropped.

www.irishtimes.com/business/202...
Data centres to supply electricity under proposed new rules
Energy industry regulators to publish decision on Tuesday
www.irishtimes.com
February 18, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social
🎭 A magician never reveals their secrets—but we just did. EPH’s “coal exit” looks like a ruse, shifting polluting assets to its sister company, but behind the scenes it's still turning dirty coal profits.
Read our new research in partnership with Re-set:
beyondfossilfuels.org/2025/02/12/b...
Behind the Mask: Investigating EPH's coal exit claims
This report looks at the relationship between the sister companies EPH and EP Energy Transition (EPETr), both of which are owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský. EPH was established in 2009 and ...
beyondfossilfuels.org
February 12, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social
"If the data centre growth relies on fossil gas, it will fuel the climate crisis. To prevent this, expansion must go hand in hand with the buildout of additional renewable energy," says @jillmcardle.bsky.social on the risks surging data centre electricity demand.
www.euronews.com/next/2025/02...
Data centres could strain Europe's power supply by 2030, report warns
The AI-driven data centre boom could strain the continent's energy supplies and octuple emissions by the end of the decade, according to a new report.
www.euronews.com
February 11, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Jill Mc
beyondfossilfuels.bsky.social
🧵1/ Between crypto, the cloud & AI, the digital world is growing fast.
Today’s #AIActionSummit is convening world leaders and industry executives to discuss its future.
We're calling on them to tackle one of the tech industry’s biggest threats: its soaring power demand.
👇
February 11, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Jill Mc
ketanjoshi.co
Two other possible outcomes - less likely but definitely worth fighting for, I reckon:

- Tech companies must only ever build new clean energy, but that clean energy must itself not be sucking the life from decarbonisation, electrification and energy transition

- DON'T BUILD SO MANY DATA CENTRES
February 10, 2025 at 5:24 PM