> The US Beef industry alone far outpaces the impact of AI.
Beef has the benefit of seeing an end, though. Populations are stabilizing, and people are only ever going to eat so much. As methane has a 12 year life, in a stable environment the methane emissions today simply replace the emissions from 12 years ago. The carbon lifecycle of animals is neutral, so that is immaterial. It is also easy to fix if we really have to go to extremes: Cull all the cattle and in 12 years it is all gone!
Whereas AI, even once stabilized, theoretically has no end to its emissions. Emissions that are essentially permanent, so even if you shut down all AI when you have to take extreme measures, the effects will remain "forever". There is always hope that we'll use technology to avoid that fate, but you know how that usually goes...
Beef has the benefit of seeing an end, though. Populations are stabilizing, and people are only ever going to eat so much. As methane has a 12 year life, in a stable environment the methane emissions today simply replace the emissions from 12 years ago. The carbon lifecycle of animals is neutral, so that is immaterial. It is also easy to fix if we really have to go to extremes: Cull all the cattle and in 12 years it is all gone!
Whereas AI, even once stabilized, theoretically has no end to its emissions. Emissions that are essentially permanent, so even if you shut down all AI when you have to take extreme measures, the effects will remain "forever". There is always hope that we'll use technology to avoid that fate, but you know how that usually goes...