IGNORE CLIMATE CHANGE & AI AT OUR PERIL

by Larry Powell

Chat GPT generated this image, representing AI. No humans are present. Author: Alenoach.

I see terrifying parallels between today's debate over AI & yesteryear's over climate change. More and more credible voices are coming forward to sound the alarm over what AI will very likely do to us. They SHOULD be taken seriously, especially coming as they are from the industry itself! But will they be? After all, alarms over climate change from our best scientists, sounded worldwide way back in the eighties were - with criminal negligence and malice aforethought - ignored. And look what we've ended up with! We've already passed the point of being able to stay within the Paris target of 1.5 degree C warming. I never thought I'd be saying this. But at least the AI moguls are warning us against the potential dangers of their own product. Oil industry execs on the other hand, being the devious cowards they are, lied and covered up theirs. (And continue to do so.) Could the price of ignoring these new ones be even worse? With monstrous, brainless idiots like Trump in charge (and also thanks to Canada's milk toast stance on the topic) no guardrails are in sight. So where does all this leave us? Guinea pigs in one gargantuan, twisted, grotesque "clinical trial," looks like, with "Big Brother" holding us in the palm of his hand.

A Must-See, in-Depth Video That Tells the Truth About Climate Change. PLEASE WATCH

 

Climate change past the point of no return, UN says, as worst impacts are now unavoidable

CBC  News

Global warming guaranteed to exceed 1.5 C limit and stay that way for 'many, many decades.' 

      The Thunderhill Lake Complex fire near the town of Flin Flon, Manitoba
last year.The town was evacuated & several
buildings nearby were destroyed.

Story here.

New Meta data centre could add up to $460 a year to Albertans’ electricity bills due to government policy

New Meta data centre could add up to $460 a year to Albertans' 

electricity bills due to government policy. Story here.

Alberta moves to stop data centres from using renewable energy

 Canada’s National Observer

Global Switch Data Centre at Canary Wharf, UK. Photo by 

Devokewater

Data centre developers in Alberta likely won't be able to use renewable energy like solar or wind to power their facilities — even if they want to. Story here. 

Lights! Camera! Action! Roll the Data Centre Sell Job!

The Tyee

Alberta Premier, Danielle Smith.

Notes on Premier Smith’s video attempt to reassure Albertans that AI tycoons are everybody’s friends. Story here.

Are Farming Practices Harming Farmers, too?

 by Larry Powell

A PinP image.

    Producers of cereal crops (wheat, oats and barley) are once again being plagued with serious fungal diseases. And the effects are being felt, not only in their fields, but in their wallets, too. 

    The headline in The Manitoba Co-Operator reads; "Western Canadian farmers fight heavy disease threat as harvest approaches. Cashflow reported to be a struggle as fungicide means extra expenses amid tight margins."

    This should come as no surprise. Norimitsu Onishi, The Times’s correspondent in Montreal, traveled to Umiujaq, Quebec, to report on the migration of beavers into Canada’s sub-Arctic. Drawn by a warming climate,Canada’s furry national symbols are colonizing new territory, evading Inuit hunters and reshaping the world they find. A study done in Saskatchewan by an international team of scientists (and published in 2009 in the European Journal of Agronomy) found "a persistent link" between the heavy use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the popular herbicide, Roundup, and the serious, widespread and costly fungal disease, fusarium head blight (FHB) in cereals. 

    It should be noted that heavy rains this summer may well have played a role, as well. However the study's main author, Don Huber, Prof. emeritus at Perdue University (Indiana) believes, without glyphosate, the outbreaks would still not be as severe.    

    FHB is a significant disease, probably costing producers billions globally. It often slashes their revenues by downgrading their crops to "feed-grade"only. And it can be toxic to both livestock and humans. (The human form, known as fusariosis, is known as "an emerging infection that's difficult to treat.") 

    But the harm glyphosate probably does, does not end there. 

    A study by Italy's renowned Ramazzini Institute just a year or so ago, finds lab rats became riddled with cancers in multiple organs, even when fed glyphosate at levels considered safe by the European Union! 

    "These results provide robust evidence," the study concludes, "supporting the conclusion of the International Association for Research into Cancer (a branch of the World Health Organization) that there's sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity [of glyphosate] in experimental animals”.

    I believe world leaders need to immediately launch publicly funded, independent research to determine, once and for all, whether these findings are accurate, or not - then take immediate and appropriate action to protect the public. To do otherwise would mean they remain culpable for perhaps millions of deaths into the future.