It is just over 40 years since a US political journalist wrote something about scandals that should have been mandatory reading in school classrooms from then on.
“The scandal isn’t what’s illegal, the scandal is what’s legal,” wrote Michael Kinsley. He was talking about the way rules are written to let powerful insiders, from Wall Street to Washington, get away with unfair but lawful behaviour.
People say Kinsley’s adage is outdated in the age of President Donald Trump. They are wrong. Look no further than the gathering environmental misery AI barons are foisting on us as they race to build more data centres.
Data hubs already devour more electricity globally than all but 10 countries. About 448 terawatt hours last year if you’re interested. The AI boom means that amount is on track to roughly double within four years.
This would be less of a problem if all the new electricity were green. It won’t be because so many countries still get most of their power from fossil fuels. That includes the US and China, the two largest data centre markets by far.
