Business
Google Falling Short Of Important Climate Target, Cites Electricity Needs Of AI
Three years ago, Google announced an ambitious aim to combat climate change by becoming “net zero,” which means emitting no more climate-changing gases into the atmosphere than it removes by 2030.
However, a study released by the corporation on Tuesday showed that it needs to fulfill that target.
Rather than dropping, emissions increased by 13% in 2023 compared to the previous year. Emissions have increased by 48% from 2019, the baseline year.
Google | PixaBay Image
Google Falling Short Of Important Climate Target, Cites Electricity Needs Of AI
Google attributed last year’s spike to artificial intelligence and the increased demand for data centers, which consume vast amounts of electricity.
Burning coal or natural gas to produce electricity creates greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide and methane, which warm the globe and cause more extreme weather.
The corporation has made one of the most significant climate commitments in the sector and is recognized as a leader.
Lisa Sachs, director of the Columbia Center for Sustainable Investment, believes Google could do more to work with cleaner industries and invest in the electricity infrastructure.
“The reality is that we are far behind what we could already be doing now with the technology that we have, with the resources that we have, in terms of advancing the transition,” according to her.
Google Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt told The Associated Press that reaching net zero by 2030 is a tremendously ambitious target.
“We know this is not going to be easy and that our approach will need to continue to evolve,” says Brandt, “and it will require us to navigate a lot of uncertainty, including this uncertainty around the future of AI’s environmental impacts.”
According to some scientists, the fast-rising data centers required to power AI endanger the transition to clean electricity, which is critical for combating climate change. That’s because a new data center can either delay the closing of a fossil-fuel power plant or drive the construction of a new one. Data centers are not only energy-intensive, but they also require high-voltage transmission cables and large volumes of water to stay cool. They’re also noisy.
They are frequently developed where electricity is cheapest, rather than where renewables like wind and solar are a major energy source.
The International Energy Agency estimates that global data center and AI electricity usage will triple by 2026.
The growth of data centers is also putting pressure on the sustainability strategies of other large technology companies. According to an environmental sustainability report released in May, Microsoft’s emissions increased by 29% above the 2020 baseline.
Tech businesses argue that artificial intelligence, including tools like ChatGPT, is not just contributing to climate change but also helping to mitigate it.
In Google’s case, this may mean analyzing data to forecast future flooding or improving traffic flow to conserve gas.
Amanda Smith, senior scientist at the environment NGO Project Drawdown, stated that anyone who uses AI — whether huge corporations or individuals simply creating memes — must do so ethically, which means utilizing energy only when it helps society.
Google | PixaBay Image
Google Falling Short Of Important Climate Target, Cites Electricity Needs Of AI
“It’s up to us as humans to watch what we’re doing with it and to question why we’re doing that,” according to Smith. “When it’s worth it, we can make sure that those demands are going to be met by clean sources of power.”
Google’s emissions increased last year, partly because the corporation used more energy: 25,910 gigawatt-hours more, up from the previous year and more than doubling the hours consumed just four years before. A gigawatt-hour is equivalent to the amount of electricity produced by a power plant servicing hundreds of thousands of households in one hour.
On the plus side, as Google’s usage increased, so did its use of renewable energy.
In 2020, the corporation stated that by 2030, it would meet its vast electricity demand entirely with clean energy. Last year, Google reported an average of 64% carbon-free energy for its data centers and offices worldwide. The corporation’s data centers are 1.8 times more energy efficient than the industry average.
Sachs, at Columbia University, complimented Google for its ambition and honesty, but said she hoped “that Google would join us in a more rigorous conversation about how to accelerate” renewable energy under the climate crisis, “so that it doesn’t get much worse before it starts getting better.”
SOURCE – AP
Microsoft’s online gaming and digital media network, Xbox Live, experienced a massive outage Tuesday, and thousands of customers reported issues accessing it.
According to monitoring site Downdetector, user-reported Xbox Live difficulties began to surge at 2:15 p.m. ET Tuesday. At 2:25 p.m., the site had received over 23,000 outage reports, with more than three-fourths indicating login troubles. Some Xbox Live customers reported getting an error message indicating that the service was undergoing “scheduled maintenance.”
Xbox | XBox Image
Xbox Live Goes Down In Nearly Seven-Hour Outage
Other Microsoft-operated services, such as Minecraft and the Microsoft Store, also received many user issue reports on Downdetector.
The official Xbox Support account on X stated at 2:55 p.m. ET, “We are aware that some users have been disconnected from Xbox Live. We are conducting an investigation!” The notice led visitors to the Xbox status page, which was later modified to indicate that a serious outage of the “Account & Profile” service was reported at 2:07 p.m. ET.
Xbox
Xbox Live Goes Down In Nearly Seven-Hour Outage
“You may be unable to sign in to your Xbox profile, disconnected while signed in, or experiencing other related issues,” the statement on the Xbox status website read. “Features that require sign-in like most games, apps and social activity won’t be available.”
To play online games and access additional experiences on the Xbox console, Windows PC, and Xbox mobile apps, users must first create an Xbox Live account (which is free).
SOURCE – Variety
(CTN News) – General Access Solutions, the company that owns the patent, has been ordered to collect $847 million from Verizon, a major telecommunications carrier in the United States.
According to the information that was provided by The Register, a federal jury in East Texas ordered Verizon to pay General Access the money that was owing to it.
This was stated in the material. The reason for this was that General Access had broken two patents, which led to this situation. As a consequence of this change.
For General Access, Verizon is now responsible for making payments.
According to the decision that was handed down by the court a week ago, the total amount is comprised of a “reasonable royalty” of $583 million for infringing on US Patent No. 7,230,931 (the ‘931) patent, as well as an additional $264 million for infringing on the other patent, which is 9,426,794 (‘794).
The total amount in question is $583 million. The sum in dispute comprises a total of 583 million dollars. Five hundred and eighty-three million dollars is the entire amount that is under question.
According to the allegations, Verizon has committed a violation of the patents that General Access possesses which pertain to the technologies of 5G and hotspots. These patents are related to the technologies that are accessible to the general public without restriction.
General Access was the purchaser of the patents, which had been developed by Raze Technologies, the firm that had bought them. On the other hand, General Access said that some components of Verizon’s 5G wireless networks, smartphone hotspots, wireless home routers, and MiFi devices are in breach of the company’s intellectual property rights.
Raze Technologies was the company that successfully completed the acquisition of the patents offered by General Access.
2001 was the year that both patent applications were initially submitted to the appropriate authorities. The year in which everything began was the year in question.
In the initial complaint that the firm has submitted, it says that the base station technology that Verizon has been deploying is in violation of the 931 patent that it possesses.
This is stated in the complaint that the company has filed. As an additional point of disagreement, the business asserts that the wireless devices produced by Verizon that are capable of receiving 4G and 5G cell signals are in violation of its ‘794 patent. This is due to the fact that these devices route information to mobile stations by abusing 802.11 WiFi communications protocols. This is an additional contentious factor to consider.
In answer to a question that was posed about the patents, Verizon provided a statement in which it suggested that the patents were invalid due to the fact that there was either no written description or the patents were not “fully enabled.”
Verizon’s response to the inquiry is as follows:
According to the official response, this was the response. On the other hand, the members of the jury did not accept this line of thinking in any manner, shape, or form and refused to accept it in any way.
Verizon disclosed that the company will be appealing the verdict in a statement that was issued to DCD. The statement was sent to provide information about the case.
Despite the fact that we have a great deal of respect for the court system, we are unable to express our agreement with the verdict that was reached by this particular jury. As part of our efforts to reverse the verdict that was handed down today, we are going to file an appeal, and we are also going to continue searching for administrative remedies.
In line with a statement that was released by a spokesperson for Verizon, this does not imply the fact that the situation has been resolved.
According to Law 360, Ericsson, a Swedish component manufacturer, is also vehemently opposed to the verdict. The business has declared that it will support any challenge that Verizon takes forward, and it has stated that it will defend itself against any other challenge. The company Ericsson is widely recognized as a frontrunner in the business when it comes to the creation of components.
SEE ALSO:
To navigate the climate proposal, BlackRock employs a new voting policy.
Alibaba will discontinue its data center operations in India and Australia.
Google Falling Short Of Important Climate Target, Cites Electricity Needs Of AI
(VOR News) – The $10.5 trillion money BlackRock manager’s assets will vote differently on shareholder proposals than the funds that have specific climate change mandates. This is BlackRock’s most recent attempt to navigate the political rift over decarbonization.
The world’s biggest asset management said in a statement on Tuesday that clients of funds with a climate focus will now be allowed to voice their opinions aggressively in shareholder resolutions pertaining to decarbonization.
All of BlackRock’s funds are susceptible to climate risk.
Still, funds that follow its recently released “climate and decarbonization stewardship guidelines” will evaluate whether or not companies are really attempting to keep the rise in world average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.
The Paris Agreement, which over 200 nations joined, set this goal as the optimal threshold.
The head of BlackRock, Larry Fink, was a vocal early proponent of integrating sustainability into the investment process. In his letter to investors for the 2020 annual meeting, he raised the topic of climate change, but he has subsequently faced criticism from all sides.
With the new stewardship policy, BlackRock is attempting to reconcile US regulations compelling fund managers to focus on financial returns with the expectations of its clients in Europe and the US, who want the company to promote decarbonization.
In a letter to clients, Joud Abdel Majeid, Global Head of Stewardship at BlackRock, said that the policy will start to apply to 83 funds in the fourth quarter. $150 billion worth of assets are held by these funds, all of which are headquartered in Europe.
Conservatives in the US are starting to push back, denouncing the movement as “woke capitalism.” This is true even if a large number of progressives and investors in Europe favor advancing the effort to limit global warming as quickly as is practical.
The boards of directors of funds with a special responsibility for climate change in the United States and Asia will be asked if they would like to carry out the policy later this year. The climate-related option that BlackRock intends to offer will also be available to clients who invest through independently managed accounts.
“BlackRock will continue to undertake our stewardship responsibilities with a sole focus on advancing clients’ long-term financial returns in line with our benchmark policies,” Abdel Majeid stated.
“BlackRock will continue to handle all other funds.”
As a result, the climate-focused funds might adopt stances on business votes related to fossil fuels and other decarbonization-related issues that are completely at odds with those of the other funds in the group. They will follow BlackRock’s primary criteria for additional environmental, social, and governance considerations in all other cases.
Since the spike in energy prices that coincided with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, BlackRock has been the subject of intense political discourse. Conservatives have tried to limit or boycott the company’s offerings. Simultaneously, proponents of climate change expressed their annoyance at the company’s sharp drop in backing for shareholder resolutions related to the issue.
Since then, the asset manager has claimed that a large number of recently passed shareholder resolutions by businesses were unduly prescriptive and did not support customers’ financial interests.
BlackRock withdrew its support from Climate Action 100+, an investor group founded to motivate companies to combat global warming, at the beginning of this year. Instead of carrying on with global participation, it chose to move membership to its smaller foreign subsidiary.
BlackRock has also implemented a policy that gives institutional clients and some retail investors authority over how their shares are voted on proxy matters.
Investors may choose to entrust BlackRock with their vote or they can choose from over a dozen policies created by proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis through the “voting choice” scheme.
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Google Falling Short Of Important Climate Target, Cites Electricity Needs Of AI
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