cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/12092872
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AI technology and the smart economy are growing quickly in China. The country had 60 AI data centres operating or under construction by the end of 2023. This year, the figure is 250. Local governments and companies see underwater data centres as a new and more sustainable approach. But experts warn it is too early to say if they really are a green solution, voicing concerns over their impacts on nearby organisms.
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More data centres going up has led to concerns over land use and the consumption of energy and water. China’s smart economy needs to tackle this as a matter of urgency. By 2030, data centres will be behind 4.8 per cent of the nation’s electricity use, as predicted by the Beijing Institute of Technology in 2025 research.
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This isn’t HiCloud’s first underwater data centre. In 2023, sister company Shenzhen HiCloud Data Center Technology set up a commercial example, with servers in three sealed capsules, placed on the seabed of Qingshui Bay, Hainan. The company says it plans to eventually build 100 of these capsules at a total cost of CNY 5.6 billion (US$830 million), without specifying the location.
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Local governments have high hopes for the new technology, but there’s little understanding of how it might affect ecosystems. HiCloud’s data centres in Shanghai pump seawater into a heat exchanger, where it absorbs heat from inside the facility and is pumped back out, now warmer.
Stephen Watson, senior ecosystem services researcher at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, said: “The heat given off by underwater data centres may have behavioural or biological effects on species living in the immediate vicinity, particularly those which are unable to move away.”
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According to Hu Zhenyu, environmental impact assessments for underwater data centres currently focus on the construction phase. The longer-term impacts of operation and decommissioning aren’t studied enough. More monitoring of the consequences of warmer temperatures for marine life is needed, he said.
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Transparency in the data centre industry has long been a problem. Eric Masanet is professor in emerging technologies and sustainable development at the University of California Santa Barbara. He said: “Most data centre operators don’t report on specific data centres or projects. This includes Amazon and Microsoft.”
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It’s not just China. Singapore, Korea and the US are among the countries looking at using seawater to cool data centres. In April this year, Korea’s ocean ministry announced a pilot project in the waters off the country’s industrial powerhouse, Ulsan.
Hu Zhenyu says underwater data centres are a new undertaking. The idea is still being explored and tested, and there are various questions to be answered before commerciality is achieved. However, those risks are played down in corporate communications, he says.
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They’re already overfishing and now also forcibly invading fish habitat.
Soon, they’ll cry foul as they intrude on other territories to catch fish.
How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans - Yale E360
China has a big overfishing problem - Greenpeace East Asia
As opposed to Americans, right? They would never slaughter a species like Bison to near extinction, right?
Sinophobic trash.
Whataboutism.
It’s called a comparison. The only morons who say “whataboutism” are those allergic to debate. Ecologically-speaking, look no further than the imperialist nations for their complete disregard for the sanctity of life, human or otherwise.
No, what you showed in your reply was an old act of the Americans that you are using to justify the current actions of China. Two wrongs don’t make a right, the core of ‘Whataboutism’.
I have a feeling about China and Russia not being on that list.
If you really want to compare overfishing and show that it’s not just a China issue, bring in sources showing that it’s not just China it’s everyone. You could easily do that.
I didn’t see any justification.
They called the original comment “Sinophobic trash”, dismissing criticism of China’s actions as simply racism, therefore justifying their actions in the linked articles.
This is the logic racists use to spew their bigotries. T r a s h.
I’m sure you have lots of feelings that you construe as reality. But obviously China isnt on that list, the country is governed by a party that serves its workers. Russia is a capitalist country that has absolutely done imperialist actions. But again, compared to the imperialism of the US, Russia is basically a choir boy.
Anyway, look at the pile of bison skulls I just posted. Are you blind? Are you obsessed with fish? That’s an example of the US slaughtering a massive megafauna until near extinction. Why is China fishing in their own oceans on your radar? Oh, yeah, the sinophobia.
“the country is governed by a party that serves its workers” Occupied Mainland Taiwan has never done such thing.
Feeble agitprop: denied.
true nevertheless
Taiwan number 1
Taiwan, which is part of China, is pretty cool in some ways. Of course, their politics and aspirations of being a US vassal state are not among those cool things.
I hate that term, it belongs back on Reddit with the Birkenstocked man buns. It’s used to circumnavigate hypocrisy fueled by ignorance.
Do you think ‘Whataboutism’ is a word without meaning? What, in your opinion, is the meaning of that word?