Notices by CelloMom On Cars (cellomomoncars@mastodon.social)

How the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ positions US energy to be more costly for consumers and the climate

"The 1,100-page bill would slash incentives for green technologies such as solar, wind, batteries, electric cars and heat pumps while subsidizing existing nuclear power plants and biofuels. That would leave the country and its people burning more fossil fuels despite strong popular and scientific support for a rapid shift to renewable energy."

https://theconversation.com/how-the-big-beautiful-bill-positions-us-energy-to-be-more-costly-for-consumers-and-the-climate-257783

The question is always:
WHO gains, and
WHO loses from a rule change?

E.g. Zeldin "stressed alleged economic benefits: $20 billion over the next 20 years in reduced costs to the power plant industry.

But even the EPA’s own figures show $130 billion in increased public health costs. These include premature death, heart and lung disease, asthma attacks and increased hospitalizations due to air pollutants like fine particulate matter and ozone."

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12062025/clean-energy-rollbacks-will-cost-trillion-by-2035/

"In a week when the Trump administration moved forward on multiple fronts to repeal U.S. climate policies, a new analysis quantified the potential costs for public health, households and the economy—including a stunning $1.1 trillion reduction in U.S. gross domestic product by 2035."

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12062025/clean-energy-rollbacks-will-cost-trillion-by-2035/

"Overall, average U.S. household energy costs would increase by a total of between $1,000 and $3,000 over the next 10 years if House Republicans’ budget bill passes. And because it also includes the repeal of the IRA’s incentives to make homes more energy efficient and install rooftop solar and battery systems, fewer Americans would be able to avoid these rising energy costs."

Also: "it contains a hidden gas tax."

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/06/10-ways-that-trumps-tax-bill-would-undermine-his-energy-promises/

Big Tech’s bid to rewrite the rules on #NetZero

"These tech giants are poised to become some of the biggest energy users of the future as they race to develop power-hungry artificial intelligence, potentially threatening their commitments to net zero. Ahead of that, they are working behind the scenes to shape a once-in-a-decade rewrite of the rules governing how pollution from power use is disclosed."

https://www.ft.com/content/2d6fc319-2165-42fb-8de1-0edf1d765be3

"In Grant County, #DataCenters grew to consume more power than any other category of ratepayer, including other industrial customers, residents, farm irrigation, local food processors and commercial businesses, according to utility officials.

Data centers in 2022 accounted for nearly 40% of total demand, or about as much as 190,000 U.S. households, according to utility and state data."

https://www.propublica.org/article/data-centers-clean-energy-washington-state
#WashingtonState

"#Nvidia Blackwell is nothing short of a doomsday device

Huang said that in the future, he expects to see millions of these kinds of AI processors in use at data centers around the world.

One million Blackwell GPUs would suck down an astonishing 1.875 gigawatts of power. For context, a typical nuclear power plant only produces 1 gigawatt of power."

https://www.techradar.com/computing/i-watched-nvidias-computex-2024-keynote-and-it-made-my-blood-run-cold

Ireland’s datacentres overtake electricity use of all urban homes combined
"The rise in demand for data processing, driven by recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, could lead Ireland’s datacentres to consume about 31% of Ireland’s electricity within the next three years, according to the country’s National Energy and Climate Plan."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/23/ireland-datacentres-overtake-electricity-use-of-all-homes-combined-figures-show

A Political Battle Is Brewing Over Data Centers
An AI-related provision in the “Big Beautiful Bill” could restrict state-level legislation of energy-hungry data centers—and is raising bipartisan objections across the US.

https://www.wired.com/story/a-political-battle-is-brewing-over-data-centers/

One example of how a #DataCenter can benefit the local community:

"A Swiss data centre inaugurated this week will use recycled energy to generate heat for homes in the area.

The recycled power will be able to fuel the centralised heating network in the Canton of #Geneva and benefit around 6,000 households."

https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/01/30/genevas-homes-will-be-heated-by-recycled-energy-from-this-revolutionary-swiss-data-centre

Finally: someone is asking what data centers really DO for the local economy (or not).

Washington Governor Orders Team to Study Data Centers’ Impact on Energy Use, Job Creation and Tax Revenue

"The order follows a Seattle Times-ProPublica investigation last year into the clean-energy and economic impacts of the state’s power-guzzling #DataCenter industry, the backbone of the modern internet."

https://www.propublica.org/article/washington-data-centers-study-bob-ferguson

Back in the 1800s, women all over the world had, on average, 6 babies.

European women were the first to start having fewer babies.
Why?
The Industrial Revolution started in Europe.

This graph shows that as each region developed, women in that region have fewer babies. Today, highly developed nations have low total fertility rates: 1.4 in Europe, 1.8 in the US, even 0.8 in South Korea. Regions that have a higher birth rate simply started developing later.

https://www.gapminder.org/topics/babies-per-woman/

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the "population bomb" was a Thing.
Now, not so much.

Yes, the world population is still growing. But the *rate* of growth is decreasing fast, and most demographers predict a population peak this century.

One of the best places for a reality check is this #OurWorldInData page:
https://ourworldindata.org/population-growth

Includes a link to visualisations, some interactive.

https://ourworldindata.org/population-growth-over-time

"Uncertainty about the future and concerns about the ecological impact of the growing human #population were key factors also identified by research.

But concerns also differed in different parts of the world, Dillarstone said. “There was a concern that came out only in Zambia and Ethiopia, which was about a family’s ability to subsist and acquire resources,” she said."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/09/more-people-not-having-children-due-to-climate-breakdown-fears-finds-research

I learned about population, growth, and total fertility rate from this TED talk by the late Hans Rosling, a scientist with an irrepressible way of talking about statistics as not only interesting but exciting and funny.

It's from 2006 but the trends in population growth have continued since then.

https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen?language=en

Population growth varies across the planet. You can look it up for a specific place by searching for #TotalFertilityRate (the average number of babies per woman) for that place.

The graph below shows that TFR is
1.64 United States
1.40 Canada
1.28 China

For a stable population, TFR = 2.1. Meaning, the US population is growing slightly only because of immigration.

In South Korea, TFR = 0.84.

With development comes women's empowerment, and lower child death rates. Women started having fewer babies.

This is illustrated by how the birth rate dropped in the four "Asian Tigers" as they rapidly developed between the 1950s and the 1970s; today, these countries have total fertility rates less than 1.

Vietnam followed about 15 years later. It introduced a 2-child policy in 1988, but by then the birth rate had already fallen by nearly half. Because development.

https://ourworldindata.org/global-decline-fertility-rate

"Generally, to replace and maintain current populations, a birth rate of 2.1 children per woman is required.

According to a 2024 US Central Intelligence Agency publication comparing fertility rates around the world, in India, the 1950 #BirthRate of 6.2 has plummeted to just above 2; it is projected to fall to 1.29 by 2050 and just 1.04 by 2100. The fertility rate in Nepal is now just 1.85; in Bangladesh, 2.07."

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/10/13/choosing-to-be-child-free-in-an-apocalyptic-south-asia

Global Population Crash Isn't Sci-Fi Anymore

"The European Commission’s Centre of Expertise on #Population and Migration projects that the global population will peak at 9.8 billion in the 2070s.

It is simply because, all over the world, the #TotalFertilityRate (TFR) — the number of live children the average woman bears in her lifetime — has been falling since the 1970s. In one country after another, it has dropped under the 2.1 value of the 'replacement rate'."

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-03-10/global-population-collapse-isn-t-sci-fi-anymore-niall-ferguson

#Kabul at risk of becoming first modern city to run out of #water, report warns

"Water levels within Kabul’s aquifers have dropped by up to 30 metres over the past decade owing to rapid urbanisation and climate breakdown, according to a report by the NGO Mercy Corps.

Meanwhile, almost half of the city’s boreholes – the primary source of drinking water for Kabul residents – have dried out."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/07/kabul-could-become-first-modern-city-to-run-out-of-water-report-warns