Google’s exponential path to climate-wrecking digital bloat
Google’s exponential path to climate-wrecking digital bloat
谷歌通往气候灾难的指数级数字膨胀之路
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from Google’s latest climate report, but holy hell, I did not expect this. The company’s total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025. This is very easily the biggest increase in their electricity consumption ever, and it puts them way ahead of Microsoft. 我原本并不确定对谷歌最新的气候报告有何期待，但天哪，我万万没想到会是这样。该公司的总用电量从 2024 年的 31 太瓦时（TWh）跃升至 2025 年的 43 太瓦时。这无疑是他们有史以来用电量增幅最大的一次，使其远远超过了微软。
It is almost certainly a reflection of the obscene energy hunger of their ever-expanding bloated generative AI systems, and a vindication of the warnings we’ve been raising for several years now. I’ve updated all the report figures in my data tracking page, here. For the first time, I’ve compiled Google’s electricity consumption back to 2011, to give a historical view of what is happening here, because my description does not do this justice. 这几乎可以肯定地反映了他们不断膨胀的生成式 AI 系统对能源的贪婪需求，也印证了我们几年来一直发出的警告。我已经在此处的数据追踪页面更新了所有报告数据。我首次整理了谷歌自 2011 年以来的用电量，以提供一个历史视角来看待正在发生的事情，因为仅凭我的描述还不足以说明问题的严重性。
Google’s power consumption rose by 7 TWh between 2023 and 2024. That was bad. But it rose by a whopping 12 TWh between 2024 and 2025, almost double last year’s increase. Google’s power consumption isn’t just growing – the rate at which it is growing is growing. We have a word for this: exponential growth. Every time I look at this chart I have to go and double check every single Google number, because it just looks so ridiculous. 2023 年至 2024 年间，谷歌的用电量增加了 7 太瓦时。这已经很糟糕了。但 2024 年至 2025 年间，这一数字竟激增了 12 太瓦时，几乎是去年增幅的两倍。谷歌的用电量不仅在增长，而且增长的速度本身也在加快。我们有一个词来形容这种现象：指数级增长。每次看到这张图表，我都不得不去反复核对谷歌的每一个数字，因为它看起来实在太荒谬了。
The power grids that Google’s data centres are plugged into have to increase generation to match this new demand – and that includes rising use of coal and gas, and as a consequence, worse climate disasters like deadly heatwaves. Google’s consumption is rising way faster than the grids are being cleaned up with renewables, and that means their emissions number is going up fast, too. 谷歌数据中心所接入的电网必须增加发电量以满足这一新需求——这包括增加对煤炭和天然气的使用，随之而来的后果就是更严重的气候灾难，例如致命的热浪。谷歌的能源消耗增长速度远超电网利用可再生能源进行清洁化的速度，这意味着他们的排放量也在迅速上升。
Read Google’s report, and they sort of mumble through this problem: “While we remain deeply committed to sustainability, reaching our climate moonshot is getting harder. Growing our data center footprint to build out the infrastructure needed to make AI as helpful as possible to everyone requires energy and resources.” 阅读谷歌的报告，你会发现他们对这个问题含糊其辞：“虽然我们仍然坚定地致力于可持续发展，但实现我们的气候‘登月计划’正变得越来越困难。为了构建基础设施，使 AI 能尽可能地为每个人提供帮助，扩大我们的数据中心规模需要消耗能源和资源。”
“While the path to achieving our climate ambitions will not be linear—given our AI infrastructure buildout is currently accelerating faster than the grid is decarbonizing—we remain focused on scaling abundant and affordable clean power globally and progressing technological innovations that drive down emissions across our operations and the broader industry.” “虽然实现我们气候目标的道路不会是线性的——鉴于我们 AI 基础设施的建设速度目前快于电网的脱碳速度——但我们仍专注于在全球范围内推广充足且负担得起的清洁能源，并推进技术创新，以降低我们自身运营及整个行业的排放。”
They’re not wrong here. The path to ‘achieving their climate ambitions’ is not linear. It is looking more like an exponential, going in the exact wrong direction. 他们在这里说得没错。实现其“气候目标”的道路确实不是线性的。它看起来更像是一个指数曲线，而且正朝着完全错误的方向发展。
If “AI infrastructure buildout is currently accelerating faster than the grid is decarbonising” then Google shouldn’t be building AI infrastructure. If they are breaching the boundaries of safe operation on a planet that can only take so much, they should stop and consider whether all of this is worth it. Think about what Google’s AI services have done for you. Does it seem worth it? Are you getting a deadly heatwave’s worth of use, out of PDF summaries and AI overviews? 如果“AI 基础设施的建设速度目前快于电网的脱碳速度”，那么谷歌就不应该继续建设 AI 基础设施。如果他们正在突破这个星球所能承受的安全运行边界，他们就应该停下来思考这一切是否值得。想想谷歌的 AI 服务为你做了什么。这看起来值得吗？你从 PDF 摘要和 AI 概览中获得的使用价值，真的抵得上一次致命的热浪吗？
While Google have clearly toned down the “net benefit to AI” language we criticised in a report earlier this year, they’ve invented some absurd new AI ‘benefit ‘avoided emissions’ claims that don’t hold up to scrutiny. They’ve ramped up their ‘efficiency-washing’ a few notches: a tactic that badly downplays the real, absolute impact of their decisions. 虽然谷歌明显淡化了我们在今年早些时候的报告中批评过的“AI 净收益”措辞，但他们又发明了一些荒谬的、经不起推敲的 AI “避免排放”收益声明。他们将“效率洗绿”（efficiency-washing）手段升级了几个档次：这是一种极力淡化其决策所带来的真实、绝对影响的策略。
Despite this greenwashing bonanza, Google doesn’t even bother to pretend to be on track for its climate goals. Mix the foolish decision-making of FOMO-ridden executives with the most stunningly inefficient software tool big tech has ever created and you end up with a formerly efficient company turned into a blunt Bitcoin-style climate bomb, weirdly still convinced they’re saving the planet. 尽管有这场“洗绿”狂欢，谷歌甚至懒得假装自己还在实现气候目标的轨道上。将那些患有“错失恐惧症”（FOMO）的高管们的愚蠢决策，与大型科技公司有史以来创造的最令人震惊的低效软件工具结合起来，你最终得到的是一家曾经高效的公司，如今变成了一枚迟钝的、比特币式的气候炸弹，而他们竟然还奇怪地坚信自己是在拯救地球。
AI solutionism – toned down but still a problem. In ‘The AI Climate Hoax‘, we (a group of accountability, anti-disinformation and climate groups) told the story of how Google could not stop claiming that “AI” could reduce global emissions by 5 to 10% by 2030 (including in their 2024 sustainability report). That statement didn’t come from a study or an analysis, but from a consulting group’s sloppy guesstimate extrapolated from a random conversation. AI 解决方案主义——虽然有所收敛，但仍是个问题。在《AI 气候骗局》一文中，我们（一个由问责、反虚假信息和气候组织组成的团体）讲述了谷歌如何不断声称“AI”可以在 2030 年前将全球排放量减少 5% 到 10%（包括在他们的 2024 年可持续发展报告中）。这一声明并非来自任何研究或分析，而是来自一家咨询公司从一次随意谈话中推断出的草率猜测。
We also found Google was among many companies smooshing together old, low-energy forms of AI (like wind forecasting) with the generative slop tsunami: falsely coupling them to pretend you can’t have one without the other. Essentially, justifying their private jet sales because they also sold a bicycle. 我们还发现，谷歌和其他许多公司一样，将旧的、低能耗的 AI 形式（如风力预测）与生成式 AI 的垃圾浪潮混为一谈：错误地将它们捆绑在一起，假装没有前者就没有后者。本质上，这就像是因为卖了一辆自行车，就为他们销售私人飞机的行为辩护。
In this new report, Google have stopped claiming “AI” is destined to have a ‘net benefit’ to society, and notably, they stopped making the 5-10% claim after our report launched. But there is still a strong focus on tactically vague AI solutionism throughout the new report, trying to more subtly present non-generative AI as if it somehow neutralises or offsets the massive, unstoppable harm of generative AI. 在这份新报告中，谷歌不再声称“AI”注定会对社会产生“净收益”，值得注意的是，在我们的报告发布后，他们停止了 5-10% 的减排声明。但整份新报告仍然高度聚焦于策略性模糊的 AI 解决方案主义，试图更隐晦地展示非生成式 AI，仿佛它能以某种方式中和或抵消生成式 AI 巨大且不可阻挡的危害。