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AI Runs on Electricity: Also on Cobalt, Copper, and Geopolitics
Artificial intelligence is often described in abstract terms: algorithms, models, and data. Yet behind every AI data center sits a vast physical infrastructure built from mined minerals, manufactured chips, and globally distributed supply chains. As AI data centers expand rapidly, sustainability discussions are shifting from electricity and water toward a deeper question: what material resources make this digital ecosystem possible, and how resilient and responsible are those supply chains?
The Obscured 42%: What a Decade of Hidden Emissions Reveals
Nearly half of the carbon footprint of our digital world has been hiding in plain sight. A landmark study published in January 2026 in Communications Sustainability, a Nature Portfolio journal, analyzed a full decade of global economic data and found that digital industries are responsible for 4.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, roughly 2,141 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2021. That's a significant number on its own. But here's what makes this finding especially consequential:
The Hidden Thirst of AI: The Water Risk Behind AI Data Centers
In the rush to build the next generation of artificial intelligence infrastructure, one resource has quietly slipped into the background: water. While much attention has focused on energy consumption and computing scale, data centers are
Digital Emissions Presents Fair Developer Score at ASE 2025 in Seoul
We're thrilled to share that the Digital Emissions team was featured at the ASE 2025 Intelligent Software Engineering Workshop in Seoul, South Korea. Our own Josh Rauvola took the stage to present groundbreaking research on the Fair Developer Score