Simon WillisonOct 18, 2024

The environmental comparison I'd be interested in seeing is between a year of heavy personal usage of LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini etc) compared to the CO2 emissions from a single passenger flight

Can I do my own personal carbon offsetting by skipping one trip a year?

Does that question even make sense?

Show threadScott 🏴😷Oct 18, 2024
@simon ecological damage in one area doesn't undo it in another. You shouldn't do either thing.
Show threadSimon Willison
@scott the problem I have with that model is that, taken to its logical conclusion, I shouldn't travel by car or bus or train, or purchase manufactured goods, or turn on the heating, or - you know - live
Oct 18, 2024 at 8:11pmWeb
Show threadSimon WillisonOct 18, 2024
@scott if I'm going to do stuff that emits carbon I need to have some kind of framework for deciding what things I do and what things I don't
Show threadGasper ZejnOct 18, 2024

@simon @scott
1. Avoid visiting gas stations.
2. Travel slow and near.
3. Avoid food from ruminants.
4. Repair.

Does this make sense?

Show threadDalan MendoncaOct 18, 2024
@simon @scott You can't solve widespread social issues by forcing ONE person to act virtuously.
Show threadDalan MendoncaOct 18, 2024

@simon @scott I encourage this line of enquiry. We as consumers should know the non-financial costs of our consumption.

This article is a good example where grocery items are priced with environmental impact in mind. Need more of this! https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/19/climate/food-costs-protein-environment.html

The Hidden Environmental Costs of Food

Damage to the natural world isn’t factored into the price of food. But some governments are experimenting with a new way of exposing the larger costs of what we eat.

The New York Times
Show threadchebraOct 19, 2024
@simon @scott But if living like that needs 2.5 Earths of resources, then it doesn't matter how many imaginary flights we skip. All it's doing is providing false rationalization, the feeling that we've "done enough". But we haven't. So it's part of the problem.
Show threadScott 🏴😷Oct 19, 2024

@simon yes, if it is at all afforded to you by your society, you should avoid doing things that consume energy up until the point where we've balanced our energy use budget with the earths resources. If you do not personally have that ability, it's very understandable: collective energy use requires collective efforts to reduce usage. Change must be pressed for at the societal level.

That said, it is absurd and ridiculous to compare the necessity to heat your home to the vanity of consuming that power in the form of a fancy lying-to-you machine is so ridiculous I can't believe I actually have to say it. I have never used one of these products and I'm still alive and well.

Show threadSimon WillisonOct 19, 2024

@scott "I have never used one of these products and I'm still alive and well"

Then it's understandable that you wouldn't see why I value them more than an international flight!

I use them for a lot of things, some of it dumb but most of it genuinely useful https://simonwillison.net/series/using-llms/

Simon Willison: How I use LLMs and ChatGPT

Simon Willison’s Weblog