{"id":195690,"date":"2026-03-13T19:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T23:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/the-environmental-cost-of-datacentres-is-rising-is-it-time-to-quit-ai-ai-artificial-intelligence\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T19:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T23:10:10","slug":"the-environmental-cost-of-datacentres-is-rising-is-it-time-to-quit-ai-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/the-environmental-cost-of-datacentres-is-rising-is-it-time-to-quit-ai-ai-artificial-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"The environmental cost of datacentres is rising. Is it time to quit AI? | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2026\/mar\/13\/ai-datacentres-environmental-impacts\">The environmental cost of datacentres is rising. Is it time to quit AI? | AI (artificial intelligence)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2026\/mar\/13\/ai-datacentres-environmental-impacts\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2026\/mar\/13\/ai-datacentres-environmental-impacts<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-03-13 19:02:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.theguardian.com\">www.theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here is a summary of the article highlighting the key points using an unordered list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Rapid Growth of Datacentres<\/strong>: The demand for datacentre power is increasing exponentially, growing four times faster than all other sectors, projected to exceed Japan&#8217;s total electricity use by 2030.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Environmental Concerns<\/strong>: Generative AI models are significantly more energy-intensive compared to traditional computing, with estimates suggesting it could be five times or even more energy-demanding.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Transparency Issues<\/strong>: Lack of openness from tech companies about the environmental impacts of AI and datacentres, including energy usage, water consumption, and emissions.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Local and Global Impacts<\/strong>: The increase in datacentres impacts both local communities with noise and lighting, and global environments by significantly increasing CO2 emissions and water use.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Consumer Involvement<\/strong>: While AI tools are increasingly embedded in daily life, consumers still have a role in shaping AI use through individual actions like opting out of unnecessary AI platforms or services.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Community Resistance<\/strong>: Some communities are rising against datacentres proposed in their areas, advocating for responsible use of renewable energy and water conservation.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Impact on Energy Transition<\/strong>: The influx of AI datacentres is forecasted to hinder the energy transition in Australia, increasing emissions and power costs.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Collective Action<\/strong>: Opting out can be a form of resistance against the corrosive impacts of the AI industry, though challenges exist in the effectiveness of actions like the QuitGPT movement.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The environmental cost of datacentres is rising. Is it time to quit AI? | AI&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":195691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/c594cc35e842c7ea09915de16b5654aeaec3e3bc\/0_0_2500_2000\/master\/2500.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=007a45795df718998651553918a8697d","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20,19],"class_list":["post-195690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-generative-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195692,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195690\/revisions\/195692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}