CLIMATE ONE: AI’s Power Demands: Do We Really Have the Energy for This?

04/04/25 • 59 min

In a previous Climate One episode, we discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly impacts of artificial intelligence. But AI isn’t going away. Humans rarely give up a nifty new tool unless something better comes along. AI’s share of energy consumption is enormous, and the Department of Energy estimates that data center energy demands will double or even triple in just the next three years. Demand on fresh water is at least as big and isn’t talked about nearly enough. So, what can we do to reduce AI’s impact?

Plenty of researchers have ideas — from site selection to energy efficiency to using zero-carbon sources of energy. But what will incentivize the AI corporations to take any of those actions?

This episode is supported by Climate One Steward Noel Perry and Next 10.

Episode Guests:

KeShaun Pearson, Executive Director, Memphis Community Against Pollution

Kate Brandt, Chief Sustainability Officer, Google

Irina Raicu, Director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University

Climate One is once again hosting a series of live conversations as part of SF Climate Week 2025! Tickets for all four of our events, featuring leaders such as Jenny Odell, San José Mayor Matt Mahan, Rep. Jared Huffman, Abby Reyes, Margaret Gordon and two of this year's Goldman Prize winners are on sale now through the official SF Climate Week event calendar.

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Plenty of researchers have ideas — from site selection to energy efficiency to using zero-carbon sources of energy. But what will incentivize the AI corporations to take any of those actions?

This episode is supported by Climate One Steward Noel Perry and Next 10.

Episode Guests:

KeShaun Pearson, Executive Director, Memphis Community Against Pollution

Kate Brandt, Chief Sustainability Officer, Google

Irina Raicu, Director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

The Energy Transition Challenge

The energy transition is a monumental task, still in its early stages, with only about 10 percent of the necessary low-emissions technologies deployed to meet 2050 targets, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.

As the world strives to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while meeting growing global energy demand, significant challenges lie ahead. Join us as we explore the complexities of transforming the global energy infrastructure, and also the opportunities for innovation that lie ahead.

Industry leaders will share insights on the progress being made and the critical steps needed to scale low-emission technologies while ensuring energy access and equity worldwide. Don’t miss this forward-looking discussion on the physical, technical and financial hurdles that must be overcome to achieve a sustainable energy future.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Next Episode

Michael Joseph Gross with Guy Raz: The Untold Story of Muscle In Our Lives

Join us for a richly informative exploration of the central role of muscle in human life and health. Michael Joseph Gross, author of the new book Stronger, will share his urgent call for each of us to recognize muscle as “the vital, inextricable and effective partner of the soul.”

Gross draws on everything from the battlefields of the Trojan War in Homer’s Iliad, where muscles enter the scene of world literature; to the all-but-forgotten Victorian-era gyms on both sides of the Atlantic, where women build strength and muscle by lifting heavy weights; to a retirement home in Boston, where a young doctor makes the astonishing discovery that frail 90-year-olds can experience the same relative gains of strength and muscle as 30-year-olds if they lift weights.

These surprising tales play out against a background of clashing worldviews, an age-old competition between athletic trainers and medical doctors to define our understanding and experience of muscle. In this conflict, muscle got typecast: Simplistic binaries of brain-versus-brawn created a persistent prejudice against muscle, and against weight training, the type of exercise that best builds muscular strength and power.

Come hear how Gross looks at muscle and weight training in a whole new light. He’ll be in conversation with Guy Raz for a discussion about how all of us, from elite powerlifters to people who have never played sports at all, can learn to lift weights in ways that yield life's ultimate prize: the ability to act upon the world in the ways that we wish.

If you have symptoms of illness (coughing, fever, etc.), we ask that you either stay home or wear a mask. Our front desk has complimentary masks for members and guests who would like one.

Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming.

In Association with Wonderfest.

Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices