欢迎来到《Power Play》的最新一期！从现在到中期选举，高级撰稿人莫莉·塔夫特将在本周日分享她对这场政治季节中最热门话题——数据中心的看法。我们欢迎读者的评论，并将在未来的版本中回答评论区的问题。
Welcome to the latest edition of Power Play! From now until the midterms, senior writer Molly Taft will be sharing their thoughts every Sunday on this political season’s hottest issue: data centers. We welcome reader comments, and will be answering questions from the comments section in future editions.
“我们还能继续依赖水力压裂气体的想法是谎言！”他在安全人员将他制服时大声疾呼。
“The idea that we can keep running on fracked gas is a lie!” he exclaimed as security tackled him.
面板主持人试图在请出抗议者后恢复会议——但很快又被打断，因为另一个人站了起来。这就是接下来10分钟的情况，来自“ extinction rebellion NYC”的抗议者们轮番打断，大声朝舞台上的扬声器喊着人工智能的各种危害，而舞台上的嘉宾们尽力继续他们的对话。
The panel tried to get back to business after the protester was removed—only to be interrupted again when another person stood up. That’s how things proceeded for the next 10 minutes as protesters with the group Extinction Rebellion NYC staggered interruptions, yelling about various harms of AI over the speakers onstage, who tried valiantly to continue their conversation.
近十年来，“extinction rebellion”组织一直利用公共抗议来吸引人们对气候危机的注意，通过在像气候周这样的企业友好活动中进行干扰。通常，这种干扰会从面板嘉宾那里引来礼貌的沉默或轻蔑的眼神，等待他们停止。
For nearly a decade, Extinction Rebellion groups have used public protest to draw attention to the climate emergency, staging disruptions at corporate-friendly events like this one at Climate Week. Usually, these types of interruptions draw polite silences or subtle eyerolls from panelists waiting for them to stop.
但这次经历似乎让这些面板嘉宾感到特别沮丧。克鲁索数据中心基础设施公司的联合创始人兼总裔克利·卡维斯向本次会议的主持人坦诚，说他在安全人员带走最后一位抗议者后，仍然在思考这次干扰。
But this experience seemed particularly frustrating to these panelists. Cully Cavness, the cofounder and president of data center infrastructure company Crusoe, confessed to the session’s moderator that he was still thinking about the interruption several minutes after security had taken the last protester out.
我理解他们为什么如此紧张。面板上的抗议是数据中心支持者这几个月来艰难时期的一个缩影，公众舆论处于历史最低点，各州纷纷宣布禁令。科技人士感到紧张也是可以理解的。
I get why they were on edge. The protest at the panel was a microcosm of the tough couple of months for data center defenders, with public opinion at rock-bottom levels and moratoriums popping up in red and blue states. It’s understandable why tech folks would be tense.
卡夫内斯曾表示，他认为大多数抗议者可能甚至不住在数据中心附近，也不了解数据中心能为当地税收带来的好处。埃玛尔德人工智能公司的瓦伦·西瓦拉姆继续讲述数据中心如何能够成为“好公民”，在电网上工作以降低账单并为清洁能源上网做出贡献。
Cavness, at one point, said that he assumed most of the protesters probably didn’t even live near a data center and didn’t understand the benefits they could bring to the local tax base. Emerald AI’s Varun Sivaram forged ahead talking about how data centers could become “good citizens,” to work on the grid to lower bills and bring more clean energy online.
“小心你们所祈求的”，西瓦拉姆在会议快结束时提醒已离开的抗议者，警告说，如果剥夺社区的数据中心，就可能会剥夺他们那些有意帮助改造电网的好人。
“Careful what you wish for,” Sivaram cautioned the now-absent protesters near the end of the session, warning that depriving communities of data centers could deprive them of good actors to help transform the grid.
很多人可能会趁机——就像抗议者那样——冲着数据中心高管喊叫。但与《绝灭叛军》纽约市成员不同，气候变化几乎肯定不是他们心头的首要关注事项。数据中心在气候周上确实是一个热门话题，但这也是一个自愿参与的活动，参与者都关心某个特定问题。
Lots of folks might take the opportunity, as the protesters did, to yell at a data center executive if given the chance. But unlike the Extinction Rebellion NYC members, climate change almost certainly wouldn’t be the first thing on their minds. Data centers were a hot topic at Climate Week, but it’s also a self-selecting event where people care about one particular issue.
当地居民的关注——斯里瓦拉姆和卡夫内斯似乎正回应的那种——主导了关于数据中心反对问题的更广泛的国家对话。一项又一项民调显示，气候问题在许多选民心目中排在数据中心相关环境问题的最后一类，仅次于水资源、能源使用（及其对账单的影响）以及当地的空气和噪声污染。甚至有些气候问题的关注者——尤其是投资者——将大气状况视为次要问题。
Local concerns—the kind Sivaram and Cavness seemed to be responding to—have dominated the larger national conversation around data center dissent. Poll after poll show that climate is one of the last data center-related environmental concerns on the list for many voters behind water, energy use (and its impact on bills), and local air and noise pollution. Even some climate folks—notably investors—see the state of the atmosphere as a backseat issue.
沃洛地球的一位联合创始人兼管理合伙人告诉《华尔街日报》：“气候周基本上可以称为‘人工智能和数据中心周’。这一切都与能源有关，我们这些气候投资者，包括我自己，在能源系统上更加专注。”
“Climate Week could basically be ‘AI and data center week,” cofounder and managing partner at VoLo Earth told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s all about energy, and most of us as climate investors, myself included, are focused on the energy system.”
在气候周期间，我也会见了威廉·劳伦斯，他目前正在密歇根州第7国会选区的激烈竞选中。劳伦斯非常了解气候危机——他是气候激进团体“黎明运动”的创始成员之一。他还将数据中心反对和人工智能反对作为向选民展示的核心立场，这帮助他赢得了一场艰难的民主党初选。
During Climate Week, I also caught up with William Lawrence, who is currently locked in a tight race for Michigan’s 7th congressional district. Lawrence knows the climate crisis well—he’s one of the original founders of the Sunrise Movement climate activist group. He’s also made data center opposition, as well as opposition to AI, a cornerstone of his pitch to voters, which helped him win a tough Democratic primary.
劳伦斯表示，他的选区至少有三家超大规模云服务提供商正在建设项目，并且他刚刚发布了一份广泛的平台，旨在阻止人工智能的发展。这份平台称数据中心“威胁我们的空气、水和生活质量”，但并未提及气候变化。当我询问他关于这一遗漏时，他表示，有密歇根州居民向他反映了关于数据中心的气候问题，尽管水资源问题和能源账单往往排名更靠前。他表示，总的来说，存在一种强烈的“环境意识”在推动数据中心运动——这可能包括气候问题，但并不总是仅以排放担忧的形式表达出来。
Lawrence says there are at least three hyperscalers building projects in his district, and he just released a wide-ranging platform to stop AI development. The platform says that data centers “threaten our air, water and quality of life,” but makes no mention of climate change. When I ask him about the omission, he says that there are Michiganders coming to him with climate concerns about data centers, although water concerns and energy bills tend to rank higher. He says that in general, there’s a strong “environmental consciousness” animating the data center movementt—which may include climate, but isn’t always expressed exclusively in terms of worries about emissions.
“我们有少数富豪和政治内部人士，他们让人们无法对未来感到 confident，”他说。“他们破坏了我们的生态系统。他们破坏了政治秩序。”西瓦拉姆指出，数据中心带来的大量电力需求有助于改善我们的电力部门，这一观点是正确的。遗憾的是，事实并非如此。在实地情况中，数据中心正在推动一场远比预期更快的化石燃料扩张。
“We have a small amount of billionaires and political insiders who have made it impossible to feel confident about the future,” he says. “They’ve destabilized our ecological system. They’ve destabilized the political order.”Sivaram’s point that the massive influx of electricity demand from data centers could help to transform our electricity sector for the better is true. Unfortunately, that’s not what’s happening on the ground, where data centers are facilitating a massive fossil fuel buildout that’s happening faster than expected.
在面板讨论的前一天，在一次不同的简报会上，我看到彭博新能源财经（BloombergNEF）的分析师们讨论了该机构对未来几年化石燃料发电需求将出现大幅新增长的预测，这主要归因于数据中心的需求增长。根据 BNEF 的分析，到 2035 年，数据中心可能占全球电力需求的 5% 以上，将其当前的需求量翻番。其中大部分需求将由新的和现有的天然气发电厂来满足，这可能会在不到 10 年的时间内将电力部门的排放量提高 6%。
A day before the panel, at a different briefing, I watched BloombergNEF analysts talk about the group’s projections of a massive new influx of demand for fossil fuel power over the coming years, driven primarily by data centers. Data centers, according to BNEF’s analysis, will likely comprise more than 5 percent of global electricity demand by 2035, tripling their needs now. The majority of that demand will be met by new and existing natural gas plants, and could raise the power sector’s emissions by 6 percent in less than 10 years.
这还不包括为服务于数据中心而建设的离网天然气发电厂。 BNEF 对 99 座拟建的现场天然气发电厂进行的另一项分析发现，如果全部建成，这些设施可能会将美国电力部门的排放量提高 20% 至 33%，构成重大的气候威胁。由于煤电厂的退役带来的排放减少将被新的天然气排放所抵消，更多的煤电厂得以维持运行，部分原因也在于新兴的需求。
That doesn’t even account for gas power plants being built off the grid to service data centers. A separate BNEF analysis of 99 proposed on-site gas power plants found that they could increase US power sector emissions by 20 to 33 percent if they’re all built, posing a major climate threat. Declines in emissions from coal plant retirements will be more than offset by new gas emissions, and more coal plants are staying online thanks to the new demand.
即使数据中心能够实现年度最佳的公关 turnaround，并缓解人们对用水和电费的担忧，化石燃料的扩张仍然是其发展过程中可能带来的最大后果之一。极可能，末日启示派（Extinction Rebellion）最终是对的：所有这些额外的排放意味着，即使我们不住在数据中心附近，也将最终感受到它们的影响。
Even if data centers pull off the PR turnaround of the century and ease concerns about water use and energy bills, the fossil fuel buildout still looms as one of the biggest consequences of their buildout. Extinction Rebellion may, at the end of the day, be right: all those added emissions mean that even those of us who aren’t living near data centers will end up feeling their impacts.
气候周午后举行的以人工智能和数据中心为主题的科技高管面板讨论刚刚开始一分钟左右，便有一名男子在观众席前几排站起来大喊起来。
The post-lunchtime Climate Week panel featuring tech executives working on AI and data centers was only about a minute into the discussion when a man stood up a few rows over from me in the audience and started yelling.
我们正在撰写的文章如果数据中心天然气快速发展下去，气候急需所有可能的帮助。本周，我报道了一家新创公司的启动，该公司旨在利用超临界二氧化碳技术提高数据中心脏气体涡轮机的效率。这一技术数十年来一直被研究为潜在的能源解决方案，但尚未成功商业化。创始人希望那些资金充足且渴求更多电力的数据中心运营商会投资这项技术，以满足部分能源需求并降低成本。最终，他们希望将这项技术扩展应用于清洁能源，如核能。
What We’re Writing If the data center gas buildout keeps raring ahead, the climate is going to need all the help it can get. This week, I covered the launch of a new startup that aims to use supercritical CO2 technology to make dirty data center gas turbines more efficient. It’s been studied for decades as a potential energy solution, but it’s yet to be successfully commercialized. The founders hope that deep-pocketed data center operators that are also hungry for power will bet on the tech to meet some of their energy needs and help bring down costs. Eventually, they want to expand the use of the technology to supercharge clean energy sources, like nuclear.
我们正在阅读的文章谷歌将于下周发射一颗实验卫星，搭载计算机芯片以测试数据中心在太空中的性能表现。据《纽约时报》报道，该卫星将在轨运行一年，其设备将处理"简单查询"。
What We’re Reading Google will launch an experimental satellite next week outfitted with computer chips to test how data centers may perform in space. The company says the satellite will stay in orbit for a year; its equipment will answer "simple queries," the New York Times reports.
甲骨文已发送不可抗力通知书，这可能允许其延迟支付给新墨西哥州数据中心项目开发商的款项。该项目一直面临多项当地环境挑战和许可问题。彭博社率先报道了这一消息。
Oracle has sent a force majeure notice, which could allow it to delay payments to the developer of its data center project in New Mexico, which has been plagued by multiple local environmental challenges and permitting issues. Bloomberg broke the story.
美国原住民部落是否应该支持数据中心发展？这一问题在全国范围内引发了候选人和领导人的分歧。《时代》杂志对此进行了报道。
Should Native American tribes support data center development? It's an issue splitting candidates and leaders all over the country; TIME has the story.