Environment
fromTheregister
1 week agoDatacenter boom keeps dirty coal plants alive in the US
Datacenter growth in the US is delaying coal plant retirements, worsening air pollution and hindering the transition to cleaner energy sources.
Each day, Kiran Kasbe drives a rickshaw taxi through his home neighbourhood of Mahul on Mumbai's eastern seafront, down streets lined with stalls selling tomatoes, bottle gourds and auberginesand, frequently, through thick smog. Earlier this year, doctors found three tumours in his 54-year-old mother's brain. It's not clear exactly what caused her cancer. But people who live near coal plants are much more likely to develop the illness, studies show, and the residents of Mahul live a few hundred metres down the road from one.
The clock is ticking on averting the worst impacts of the climate crisis and preserving a livable planet for humans and other species to thrive. Scientists agree this will require limiting global average temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and ideally 1.5C, as outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. To do so, countries need to reduce emissions 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.