Google Is Full Of It On ‘Climate Action’

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My media outlet has expended no shortage of bandwidth excoriating Google for its hypocrisy on environmental issues. The company – which breathlessly touts the eco-radical agenda – has been at the heart of a major misinformation campaign in South Carolina aimed at shutting down any new non-renewable energy source.

Google’s campaign has not only ignored the pressing need for more power generation in the Palmetto State in the wake of explosive population growth … it has ignored reality.

It has also ignored transparency – as evidenced by the secret subsidization of a massive digital, mail and television campaign purportedly run under the auspices of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina (CVSC).

This week, Google’s hypocrisy on environmental issues was laid bare in an annual environmental report issued by the company. According to the document, Google is “on an ambitious journey to help build a more sustainable future,” one that seeks to “drive positive environmental change.” The company has also repeatedly touted its goal of “net zero” carbon emissions by 2030 – just five-and-a-half years from now.

How is it faring on that goal? Atrociously …

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According to its own report, emissions soared by 13 percent in 2023 from the previous year and are up 48 percent over the past five years.

That’s “climate action,” alright. In the wrong direction.

Driving these increases? The insatiable energy demand of Google’s data centers in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) – demand the company refuses to enumerate.

“Predicting the future environmental impact of AI is complex and evolving,” the report noted.

That characterization prompted a rebuke from Devin Coldewey of TechCrunch.

Does anyone actually believe Google doesn’t know, down to the penny, how much AI training and inference have added to its energy costs?” Coldeway wrote. “Isn’t being able to break down those figures so precisely part of the company’s core competency in cloud computing and data center management?”

Exactly …

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RELATED | ECO-RADICAL DISINFORMATION

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“They know,” a former company employee told this media outlet. “They are lying and diverting.”

Coldewey added that “Google has every incentive to downplay and obfuscate these figures, which even in its reduced, highly efficient state, can hardly be good.”

Ben Inskeep, a climate activist in Indiana, assailed the company’s environmental record in the aftermath of the report’s release.

“Google, a $2.3 trillion company, has increased its climate pollution 48 percent over the past five years,” Inskeep wrote on X. “Its emissions will likely sharply increase this decade because it cares more about increasing profits for shareholders with AI than a livable climate for us.”

“It is sobering to contemplate how AI data centers from trillionaires like Google and Microsoft could completely throw away all climate progress,” Inskeep added.

All while shamelessly lecturing the rest of us on “climate action …”

My media outlet has taken a far dimmer view of “climate science” than the mainstream media, which tout it as gospel. But to the extent you believe it, you should probably consider taking anything Google – or its mouthpiece, the CVSC – has to say on the subject with the proverbial ocean of salt.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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