You’ll have heard various climate change fanatics call for lockdowns to be used to reduce carbon emissions – because they worked so well to curb the spread of COVID-19! Well, it’s starting. India’s Supreme Court is calling for a lockdown in New Delhi because of a “health emergency”. But the “emergency” is not due to COVID-19. It’s due to air pollution. NPR has more.
At a hearing Monday, justices ordered authorities to halt all nonessential travel on roads in the national capital region. They also told them to close offices in the area, shifting tens of millions of people to work from home.
It’s unclear if or when such a lockdown would take effect, or how long it might last. Delhi’s air quality appeared to ease slightly Monday. The AQI is now in the low 400s on a 500-point scale. Last week, it was off the charts in some areas.
Delhi’s Chief Minister has indicated his willingness to impose a pollution-related lockdown but has said it would have minimal effect without similar measures from neighbouring states. Officials from the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh plan to hold meetings Tuesday.
New Delhi’s schools are already closed this week because of air pollution that’s been about four times the safe limit. Construction sites are also on pause, which will ultimately slow the economy.
This is all because of toxic smog across much of northern India. It happens every winter as industrial and vehicular emissions mix with smoke from crop-burning after the harvest.
While farmers have often been blamed for exacerbating the pollution problem, government lawyers told the Supreme Court on Monday that crop-burning amounts to only about 10% of emissions. One justice responded by saying it might be even lower.
Some of the schools forced to shut this week had only just reopened for the first time in nearly 20 months, because of COVID-19.
Worth reading in full.
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I expect they will find a way to look like they have squared the circle. I doubt Starmer et al truly believe there is a “climate emergency”.
Maybe they’ll build a dedicated interconnect from Norway, and then claim it’s Norway’s emissions and not ours!
But just as likely it could be Qatar or UAE as the interconnect!
Plant some trees….somewhere.
They aren’t being honest about what they want with all this AI. I suspect they want a surveillance state. Why not build a nuclear power station right next to the data centre?
From my limited experience, “AI” tools might provide limited productivity gains in specific applications, provided it is used by people who know what they are doing. Other than that I suspect it will produce mediocre rubbish. But surveillance is probably something it could help with, especially if it didn’t need to be that accurate – after all, if you are trying to control people you don’t need to worry too much about pissing people off.
Oi! Keir! You’re an imbecile! And Edward Miliwat belongs in a lunatic asylum.
For an economy to grow it does not need AI but it does need…
…drum roll…
USABLE FORMS OF CHEAP ABUNDANT ENERGY!
(Hint hint, solar panels and windmills provide neither cheap nor abundant forms of energy)
Net Zero Will Never Add Up
My money are on the government will spend huge amounts on contracts with these companies (otherwise, why would they build these energy hungry data centres in the country that has the highest energy costs?) for solutions that are supposed to increase efficiency/productivity but will do so rather modestly and instead of getting rid of those that do sh*t all day or their jobs become obsolete, they’ll increase their numbers with “specialists” in using/managing the implemented solutions.
Since the environmental impact of granting planning for a new coal mine or oil well must now include the down-stream consequences of consuming the hydrocarbon output I presume there are planning consent challenges waiting in the wings claiming that the environmental impact of generating the necessary power for these datacentres has been overlooked? In particular on the basis that diverting ‘renewable’ power to these projects causes more hydrocarbon power to be demanded for existing industry and domestic use.
Easy solution: introduce power rationing for the general public, and tell them it’s their way of “doing their bit” to combat climate change. Plenty of sheeples will swallow it hook, line and sinker.
There is already one from Norway, which is just now delivering just over 1 GW, and it all depends how they do the sums to do things like cross balancing their use with the available import from wherever. Maybe it could take ownership of something else that qualifies to be net zero over a period of time – say Hinkley Point C if it runs short of cash.
Is this data cnre expected to have its own power station, or will it rely on the national grid?
delete
It will require the whole of Cornwall to become a solar panel.
“effort to drive economic growth with a surge of AI data centre developments” Could we just keep our old economy producing food, electricity and houses. The stuff that keeps us alive.
I’d rather have a steelworks.
I am deeply suspicious about the “need” for a hyperscale data centre in Blyth, or anywhere else.
What massive amount of data do they expect to be accumulating and for what purposes? I very much doubt that it will be of any benefit to Joe Public.
Sadly, the Uk has noone in office fighting for the rights of the taxpayer. You are in a hopeless situation.buckle up.
The trick of NetZero is the whole ludicrous illogical farcical sham show is to resoundingly demonstrate the infeasibility of the prospect whilst leaving the only ‘logical’ solution apparent: nuclear power generation. That is the obvious solution to the conundrum assuming you believe the core premise of CO2 emissions driving catastrophic global climate warming/change. The environmental lobby will demand it, switched about face, black is white, up is down. They’ll love their own servitude.