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 WillisonOct 18, 2024
@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
Show threadDalan Mendonca
@simon @scott You can't solve widespread social issues by forcing ONE person to act virtuously.
Oct 18, 2024 at 11:04pmWeb
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