Carbon Conundrums
This week, we bring you articles about private jet travel and a 1,350-horsepower hypercar, while also gearing up for our Techonomy Climate West 2024 conference on April 3 in Silicon Valley. And we’re aware of the irony.
For context, the private aviation story explores how the industry continues to innovate to limit its carbon footprint. It has concrete plans to achieve zero emissions through a combination of non-petroleum sustainable aviation fuel and carbon offsets. The hybrid supercar mixes a smallish V8 engine with big electric propulsion.?
This have+eat cake model has been the formula for conscious individuals to reconcile concern for humanity with the very human desire to progress and indulge. Don’t change your lifestyle: Just change the engineering. Replace dirty with clean energy, substitute sustainable natural materials for synthetics, and recycle.
There have been reasons for optimism in innovative green tech. For instance, power demand in the U.S. has been flat for the past decade as we learned to produce more goods and services without consuming more energy. At the same time, renewables have boomed while coal has slumped.
But recent developments have been sobering. Demand for electric cars has slowed, as has development of wind and solar energy; and fossil energy production is on the verge of a new boom. Bloomberg recently reported that the growth rate forecast for energy demand in the next five years has increased 81%. A major driver: the explosion of large AI models and the data centers required to run them. If all that new power were to be renewable, it might be a win-win, with all the benefits of AI coming at no ecological cost.?
But that won’t be the case. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that natural gas consumption hit a record high in January and expects continued growth. Several utilities are announcing plans for massive new gas plants. What’s more, energy companies say that AI will help them find even more fossil-fuel reserves.?
Recent setbacks to the low-carbon transition aren’t an excuse to be defeatist. But the response can’t be pollyannaish techno-utopianism, either.?
Against this fraught, messy backdrop, next week’s Techonomy conference will engage the latest science, policy, economics, and philosophies on combating climate change. Expert sessions by leading thinkers will probe topics such as AI’s carbon footprint, how to clean up energy-hogging data centers, tackling methane emissions, the slump in electric vehicle growth, and equity in how the ecological impacts of green technologies (think minerals for batteries) are distributed.
At our Techonomy Climate NYC conference last year, venture capitalist Raj Kapoor eloquently laid out some of the dilemmas. There’s a lot of interest in green investment, and technology (especially AI) has great potential to help find solutions. But no one is hitting their targets, and making sense of esoteric data to make smart decisions is really hard. Kapoor retakes the stage next week, along with about 20 other leading thinkers. It’s worth revisiting his last discussion to set the stage.
—Seán Captain, executive editor
This Week on Techonomy
Venture capitalist and Climactic cofounder Raj Kapoor discussed three innovative ideas that leverage AI to combat climate change.?
Though berated for its climate impact, the private aviation industry is pioneering technologies and programs to limit emissions all the way to zero.
Additive manufacturing is Czinger’s secret weapon in electric vehicle (EV) hyper-car innovation.?
领英推荐
Stanford environmental engineering professor Mark Z. Jacobson believes that wind, water, and solar power are enough to save the climate—if our leaders are willing to use them.
If you have a 401(k) or an individual retirement account, it may be funding Big Oil. (Via Yale Climate Connections)
Author and digital media expert Douglas Rushkoff believes that technology can’t fix climate change—but rekindling relationships with our communities might.
Worth Events
Years of technological, business, and funding efforts may still fall far short of arresting greenhouse emissions, especially as we sail past 1.5 C global warming. Meet top visionaries tackling the new reality at the Techonomy Climate West 2024 conference on April 3 in Silicon Valley, where innovation meets urgency.
Worth honors innovators in tech, business, education, health, sports, the arts, and more on May 9 in New York City. Come meet the leaders who have overcome historic barriers and prejudices—and are uplifting future generations of girls and women throughout society and around the world.
We embrace worth beyond wealth. And in an era where the intersection of wealth, social responsibility, and environmental stewardship is increasingly paramount, we look to further our understanding of individuals in realms such as impact investing and philanthropy. Please take our quick survey to help.
What We’re Reading
Brett Christophers explains why capitalism can’t solve climate change (Time)
Reuters charts the oil industry boom under President Biden
The Energy Information Agency predicts growth in gas demand for 2024