I increasingly think that tech companies, specifically, should be subject to a punitive carbon tax. If you want to build inaccurate plagiarism machines, fine, but you should be strongly discouraged from warming the planet as a result. No one *needs* this extra fossil fuel use - ThreadSky

jjaron.bsky.social • 77 days ago

I increasingly think that tech companies, specifically, should be subject to a punitive carbon tax. If you want to build inaccurate plagiarism machines, fine, but you should be strongly discouraged from warming the planet as a result. No one *needs* this extra fossil fuel use

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simon-brooke.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy•74 days ago

@jjaron.bsky.social I think every industry and every person should be subject to a strongly deterrent carbon tax. It's the only way we're going to clean up our act. Yes, the tech industry is being profligate with energy, but they are not by any means alone.

#ClimateEmergency

drsurekhadavies.bsky.social•75 days ago

This is the most extraordinary part of the plagiarism-ecocide machine industry. They want to pretend that we need this - and that it makes the world better?! I can't even.

piano4tay.bsky.social•77 days ago

Good idea; would it be possible to apply it also to crypto ‘mining’?

jjaron.bsky.social•77 days ago

Perhaps, though enforcement much more difficult

harry-is-human.bsky.social•75 days ago

Just tax all fuel consumption. Every producer of oil, coal and gas to pay $50 (rising to $100 by 2030) for every TCO2e of product they ship.

Calculate citizens median footprint and issue a rebate of that multiplied by the tax to each citizen to offset any consumer cost.

harry-is-human.bsky.social•75 days ago

Lower income people will be better off as they have a footprint well below the national average, people who've invested in being car free, or using EVs and heat pumps will be as well, Google has to work out if its AI searches really make economic sense...

harry-is-human.bsky.social•75 days ago

You can add in a wasteful emissions tax - I'd start with satellite monitored methane tracking from oil wells at 500$ a tonne as a major emissions source with no even theoretical benefit to humanity.

an.org•75 days ago

I guess the same applies to all excessive polluting activities, like driving a car that consumes more than less consuming ones, or maybe buying new clothes while 2nd hand ones would be also available. I mean many such things are also not necessary in a quite similar way. Let’s discourage those too?

onlightfr.bsky.social•75 days ago

Maybe carbon capture should be included in the price. You need energy. Fine. Here's what it costs to capture now.
That would also greatly boost the capture industry, lower capture cost & benefit climate as a whole

jjaron.bsky.social•77 days ago

I wrote a leader on this topic last year and continue to wish we lived in the net zero AI paradise universe https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26034603-000-how-to-balance-energy-hungry-ai-with-the-drive-towards-decarbonisation/

komadori.bsky.social•75 days ago

This is one of many negative externalities that tech companies and "platforms" rely on to be profitable, and I agree: the costs should be fed back to them. #PolluterShouldPay

gerbil-horde.bsky.social•77 days ago

The numbers quoted for energy consumption for the world’s data centres, and even just the LLM models is a real eye-opener 😳 An IEA report predicts 1000TWh by the end of next year 🙈 It’s around 2% or all world energy right now and rising to a predicted 4% by the end of the decade.

#🐹

mgreenaw.bsky.social•75 days ago

When you also have the bitcoin and shitcoin ecosystem also consuming far-from-trivial amounts (equivalent to the Netherlands last I looked it up) it is increasingly apparent that we are actively hastening our own demise as a species

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