The carbon footprint of Amazon, Google and Facebook is growing

IN MARCH The Information reported that Microsoft is in talks with OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, to spend a whopping $100 billion on a massive data center in Wisconsin dedicated to running artificial intelligence software. Codenamed "Stargate," the data center would consume five gigawatts of electricity at full operation, enough to power 3.7 million homes. By comparison, that's roughly the same amount of energy produced by Plant Vogtle, a large nuclear power plant in Georgia that cost $30 billion to build. (Andrew Leonard, more at sierraclub.org)