[ExI] benefits of climate change

Fri Aug 14 16:33:28 UTC 2026

From: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> 
…

>…If somebody has an idea better than mine I will abandon my competing idea and embrace the new one as my own because I feel absolutely no loyalty towards ideas…

OK cool.

>…AI in general and data centers in particular are far more unpopular in the US than in Europe or China….

China, hmmm, I don’t think popularity matters there the same way it does here.  Chairman Xi just does whatever the hell he wants and doesn’t appear concerned about protests.  One could argue he was the first (functional equivalent of a) trillionaire, long before Musk.

Europe is having power supply challenges as I understand it.  If one believes global warming will make Europe hotter, one would think they would be scrambling to build out the power infrastructure to support air conditioning, rather than discourage it.  I have a hard time understanding Europe Inc, perhaps as hard as it is for Europeans to understand yanks.

>… this could help with that provided that the power plant operating the data center isn't burning coal, because nobody in their right mind wants to be downwind of a coal burning power plant…

Note that the challenge of being downwind of a coal burner is because of sulfuric acid and carbon particulates.  Both could be scrubbed, given a water supply, which can even be seawater.  If additional investment is added, the only emissions from the coal burning plant are carbon dioxide and water.  The water out in western Nevada is a good thing.

> They could import coal from neighboring Utah or from Wyoming since there are huge reserves of bituminous coal out there, 

>…That coal is primarily subbituminous not bituminous, it's cleaner than the bituminous coal found in East coast places like Appalachia, but it only contains about 2/3 as much energy, and that is a severe economic disadvantage….

If it is running data centers, the power is worth a fortune.  With a ready steady already market right there, they could burn petrified dog turds and still make money (while simultaneously reducing the risk of power failure in Phoenix (and developing an AI which might destroy humanity (everybody wins (maybe.))))

> If I see a company buying up land along the 95 corridor north and west of Las Vegas, I will have a pretty good idea what they have in mind, and I will likely invest in that company.  …

>…You didn't mention solar or wind power but I think they could be important (if you have the room and in Arizona you do) especially when it comes to powering AI data centers….

It would be a perfect site and a perfect market to have coal, gas, nuclear, wind and solar, all working together.  There is almost nobody downwind, it doesn’t matter how much noise you make, there aren’t many environmentalists to stop your turbines (the bird people hate them) your solar farms (the tortoise people hate them) or your nukes (there is an inexhaustible supply of anti-nuke people.) There is so little out there, practically nothing downwind, nobody to complain about the noise.  We could create a raptor breeding facility and a tortoise breeding facility to make up for the few we run (trudge?) out of town or swat outta the air.

>…Normally they are at an economic disadvantage because they are intermittent so you need the factor in an expensive battery backup, but regardless of if your primary power source is coal, natural gas, oil or nuclear you're going to need a battery back up if it's powering a data center, so solar and wind's disadvantage factors out…

That part I don’t get.  Install the wind and solar, install a coal plant and a gas plant to fill in the shortage periods, start building a nuke, never mind the batteries.  Use the hell outta the renewables when the wind blows and the sun shines, use the other when the weather doesn’t cooperate, skip the batteries, but do let me point out that solar is extremely reliable in the desert southwest for most of the year: the latitude is low, the skies are clear most of the time, perfect.  Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona, perfect fit for this kind of fun.  

>  I do sincerely recommend a road trip across route 50 from Fallon to Ely Nevada

>…I don't remember the route number but I do remember that I was once driving down a well paved road in Arizona and suddenly realized that for the last hour I hadn't seen another car going in either direction, you could've landed a 747 on that road with no problem….

If Rt 50 is too crowded, since one sees another human about every hour or two, do let me suggest Nevada Rt 722 between Austin and Eastgate.  It was out there that I heard perfect silence for the first time in my life.  I went out there on a motorcycle when I was younger than I am now.  I pulled over and turned off the motor.  Under those conditions, and only those, a prole can hear his own heartbeat, his own lungs.  There was no sound of insects, no tire noise, no buzzing aircraft overhead anywhere, no birds, nothing but my heartbeat, hoping like hell my bike doesn’t break down and I don’t get a flat, for otherwise, it is adi-freaking-ose amigo, it’s been real.  Even the buzzards will take several weeks to find me, and they won’t tell anyone about their leathery feast once they do.

>… This was long before cell phones so I remember thinking that if my car broke down even my bones would never be found, that was nonsense of course but it was creepy.  Fortunately my car didn't break down. 

John K Clark

Fortunately my bike didn’t break down either, but if I ever go back out there, I will take my StarLink and a coupla backup batteries, along with my Garmin Inreach transmitter, and a cyanide pill in case those fail.

Note I am not specifically recommending anyone here go out to Rt 722 (too dangerous (or if so, go very well prepared.))  Do look at it on Google Earth, and try to imagine what it is like to hear your own heartbeat.  Then imagine that piece of road as the world’s AI center.

spike

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