- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Don’t mind this glaring bastion of land use mismanagement
You must log in or # to comment.
Not the same people.
Politicians ban straws.
Politicians allow data centers.
Not the same politicians
It is the same politicians. What happened was that climate scientist went on them for a bit so they decided to just do something token. So they banned plastic drinking straws, but then the AI tech bros came along and they forgot about all of climate change and then now are super duper in favour of AI data centres because that’s who’s paying them.
The plastic drinking straw lobby didn’t have quite the same funds as the AI data centre lobby.
Politicians: Signs Paris Agreement to help curb global warming and climate change, invest in cleaner renewables to give the words a fighting chance.
Other “politicians”: Leaves agreement, cuts all renewables funding, gives massive tax breaks and subsidies to oil industry, allows data centers to poison local water supply and let locals pay the electric bill
Yes the same politicians. Jared Polis signed the plastic pollution reduction act. He also signed the Colorado artificial intelligence act.
All politicians are more than happy to do anything but cost rich people money. Some politicians want to win pro-environmental votes with useless dickery.
But what if China builds a terminator? We have to have our own terminator just in case /s
I don’t think that matters. The result is two contradictory laws.
I always liked how the best argument against wind farms they could come up with was they’re an eyesore, even though they’re not really that different from windmills, which nobody objects to. But yeah a massive grey cube that drains all the fresh water out of everything in a 10-mile radius is just fine.
Perhaps we can develop wind turbines that look like those old dutch windmills, without losing too much cost performance?
Nope, no matter how I think about it that’s not happening. Maybe we can make them look like pinwheels though?
I think wind farms look kinda cool…
2020…the electrical grid cannot handle EVs, what happens when they all plugin at the same time? Stupid libtards!
2026…plug in all the datacentres sucking megawatts 24/7
Removed by mod
And yeah get the compensation money from the people
This isn’t a 2020 vs. 2026 thing. It’s a corporate thing. What corporations do is pour money into anything that makes pollution primarily the fault of the average person’s choices.
“The reason the environment is bad is that you don’t choose to recycle properly.”
It works best for corporations when the thing requires permanent vigilance from the average person. That way, when John down the street accidentally puts a soda can in the trash, an environmentally focused person who has bought the corporate propaganda can have their bile focused on John, and will forget all about the company down the street that pollutes every day the amount that John pollutes in a decade.
The truth is that, while individual responsibility makes a difference, what really makes a difference is legislation regulating corporations. That packaging that you have to figure out how to recycle? That’s not really your fault. It’s the fault of the company that packaged it that way. If they had legislation to force them to do environmentally friendly packaging, they would do that. But it’s so much more convenient for them if they can do the irresponsible thing and still make you feel like it’s your fault.
Plastic straws can be cast as the consumer’s fault. Data centers are corporate. That’s the difference.
This right here. It’s the same in just about every sphere. If there’s money to be made, the environment takes a back seat, and the psyop gets to work
Awesome summary.
👆
It is a pretty good contrasting example of the hypocrisy and ridiculousness though.
Yeah, my state government is like “pwease limit showers to 5 minutes (0.3 kiloseconds) and keep your thermostat at 75° (24°C) 🥺” while they take kickbacks for approving more of the damned things
Gotta preserve resources for the data centers.
Corporations are blasting bombs, burning cities, drying rivers, fracking forests and then they tell you how you eating 3 times a day is what’s bad for the environment
When the economy takes a downward turn
Corporations: You should have planned better for this, have a solid savings plans with with emergency funds just in case. Government handouts are socialism. It’s really your fault for not being prepared.
Also corporations: There’s been a minor disruption to our income stream, where’s our billion dollar bailouts we can use to pay out executive bonuses and buy a new corporate jet
OK, derailing slightly. There is nothing I hate more than going to a restaurant and getting a cardboard straw for a plastic cup with a plastic lid.
It’s almost as infuriating as seeing people who still somehow wear masks incorrectly.
They are not AI data centers, that is just the marketing. They will be Surveillance Data Centers.
Note that it’s not the same voices saying these two things.
The stupid part is that it 100% is. The plastic straw thing was to shift blame onto consumers so we’d blame ourselves instead of the big energy companies. The “AI data centres are cool” people are the same ones as before, now telling everyone how we need to give up more of our meager existence to serve the rich. Energy companies also love it because they can check prices to the fucking moon.
Why is everyone so angry about straws? You all acting like we made you put down your dog. Nobody said it’d solve all issues. Besides, wasn’t it about marine life and not carbon?
I feel like I’m one of the few people that never really minded the paper straws.
The Sun Life chip bags that were super loud was funny to me though.
I mean the paper straws suck, and 100% of my straws here in Finland were going into recycling or the incinerator rather than the Pacific Ocean, so it feels like I’m putting up with terrible straws for literally no reason.
People here care about those? I’ve never had any issue with them even in movies where they lay in the drink for a long time. What issues do you have?
They taste and feel gross in the mouth and get soggy. Maybe the ones you’ve had have thicker plastic coating (ironic when you think about it) than the ones in my neck of the woods. I can barely finish a burger before the straw in the drink starts getting soggy.
Oh, I don’t mind them at all, and people who do are weird for that. There’s a use case for plastic straws for people with certain disabilities but it’s rare. The important thing is that I still understand what that push was trying to do. I can be ok with the results while not being blind to the true motivations.
2027: “Your wasteful token over-use is destroying the planet, smh”
Good. GOOD.
The planet is going nowhere good, I want to at least make sure it dies so fast, that they die too.
It was just performative corporate “wokism”. They’d do anything to appear attractive to their customers as long as it doesn’t hurt their bottom line. Plastic straws, sure! Actually reduce the amount of waste generated? Absolutely not. How much of the great Pacific garbage patch is made up of straws?
After learning that most of our plastic waste is sold to other countries for disposal, instead of being recycled, I stopped separating my trash and it all goes in one bag now. I spent so much of my life washing and separating that waste to do my part for the planet only to find out it meant nothing. If the trash man is going to ship my waste overseas, then he can fucking separate it and wash it.
Side note, the paper straws may be better for the environment, but they are likely just as bad for us as plastic straws. Glues are used to keep the paper straws stiff, and they will break down and leach out while you drink. Not all glues are safe for human consumption. Now I just take the lid off the beverage and drink straight from the cup like a savage.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0045653521007074#abs0020
Side side note, fuck AI and data centers.
Please at least recycle your aluminum!
I would if I had any. I stopped buying soda ages ago to reduce waste, and now I just drink lose leaf teas.
Side side note, fuck AI and data centers.
I should start adding a footnote to all (longer) comments:
Ceterum censeo centra datorum esse delenda
Or maybe more concisely:
Centra Datorum delenda sunt
(Strictly speaking, this leaves out the “AI” part, but that would bloat the sentence even more)
Plastic straws never had much to do with climate change though? That was mostly about plastic pollution.
Plastic straws are the least of our issues. As long as the 1% are using private jets and super yahts, it makes zero difference.
