Mastodawn

AI data centres can warm surrounding areas by up to 9.1°C (48 F)

Data centres built to power AIs produce so much heat that they can raise the surface temperature of the land around them by several degrees – creating so-called data centre heat islands that may already be affecting up to 340 million people.

#environment #climatechange #water #pollution #datacenters #technology #tech

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2521256-ai-data-centres-can-warm-surrounding-areas-by-up-to-9-1c/

AI data centres can warm surrounding areas by up to 9.1°C

Hundreds of millions of people live close enough to data centres used to power AI to feel warmer average temperatures in their local area

New Scientist

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Josh

5d ago

@gtbarry @Binder your temperature conversion there is wrong. That 9.1° C is an absolute measure, not relative to freezing, as weather measurements are. So it’s actually about 16° F.

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TerryB

@josh0 @gtbarry @Binder Correct. When converting C to F (so that Americans can understand) the factor is 9/5 (or double it and subtract 10% if that’s easier to do in your head). If it’s weather we have to add 32. If it’s degrees of change we don’t. Because the F scale pins Freezing at 32 rather than 0 degrees. In effect there’s a conversion factor 9/5 which holds here. And an adjustment to zero, which does not.