Next 10 in the News

In the high-stakes race to power artificial intelligence’s explosive growth, data centers are devouring energy and spewing pollution at unprecedented rates.

esearchers from the University of California, Riverside, found that health impacts from pollution associated with California’s computer processing data centers tripled from 2019 to 2023 — and could rise by another 72% by 2028 unless mitigation policies are enacted.

Researchers say California’s growing data centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water, contributing to pollution and health issues like respiratory and cardiac problems. UC Riverside and USC professors warn that diesel generators and limited transparency worsen the problem.

The impact of data centers: Electricity use and carbon emissions by power-hungry California data centers nearly doubled between 2019 and 2023, a new report says.

In a recent study conducted by researchers at UC Riverside, the authors found that in just the past few years, data centers in California have seen sharp increases in resource use, with both energy consumption and climate warming emissions nearly doubling, and water use rising even faster.

California is a major hub for data centers — the facilities that store and transmit much of the internet. But just how much these power-hungry operations affect the state’s energy use, climate and public health remains an open question for researchers.

Authors say guardrails and a cleaner grid can mitigate data center carbon emissions, diesel pollution and water use