The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😜
Here is a new feature for this blog, which I will add daily. This is the latest inciteful Green News Report from my friends Desi Doyen and Brad Friedman at Progressive Voices. Hit ‘continue reading,’ listen, then hit return to see my daily topics:
Dear Diary. I must confess that I have been using artificial intelligence recently for my climate work, which involves calculations that would have taken me months to do prior to this relatively new technology. I was able to complete a new set of stats in one afternoon, something that would have taken months as stated. Still, I know that such an effort supports AI, which uses a tremendous amount of electricity to run it from its various datacenters popping up all over the planet. Yes, I feel guilty about AI usage.
Here is a novel idea that probably won’t fly due to the influence of billionaires, but here goes. Have governments require all AI companies to invest in solar and wind to offset their tremendous energy usage. Actually, such a proposal has already been made in Australia. For more on that, here is a new Guardian article:
Datacentres should be forced to invest in wind and solar energy, all states agree – except Queensland
State and federal energy ministers say investments in new renewable energy and storage should ‘fully offset’ new datacentres’ energy needs
The power needs of datacentres, like this one in Sydney, should be fully offset by renewable energy, most state ministers agreed. Photograph: Steven Markham/AAP
State and federal energy ministers say investments in new renewable energy and storage should ‘fully offset’ new datacentres’ energy needs
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Graham Readfearn Environment and climate correspondentTue 12 May 2026 01.16 EDTShare
Power hungry datacentres that are growing to meet the demands of artificial intelligence could be forced to invest in enough new solar and wind generation to completely cover their electricity needs.
State and federal energy ministers agreed at a meeting last week that datacentres across the country should “fully offset” their electricity demand through investments in new renewable generation and energy storage.
The push, backed by all ministers except Queensland’s, also said datacentres should provide “demand flexibility services” – steps that allow a datacentre to control the amount of electricity being drawn from the network.
There is growing opposition to the boom in large datacentres, in particular where they are being built in residential areas.
As well as requiring large amounts of electricity, the centres will also put pressure on water supplies for cooling.Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email
At the energy and climate change ministerial council meeting, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) was also asked to advise ministers by July on ways to implement their calls to manage the electricity needs of datacentres.
The federal energy minister, Chris Bowen, said datacentres were one of the biggest drivers of new energy demand and ministers wanted “to make them an asset to the energy grid, not a strain”.
He said: “If datacentres want to benefit from Australia’s energy grid, we think they should do their bit to strengthen it – and it’s clear that the overwhelming majority of states agree.”
Queensland’s energy minister, David Janetzki, who is also the state’s treasurer, said: “Queensland’s continued commitment is to affordability and reliability as the foundation of our energy system and that means we expect to see details on costs, benefits, and risks before agreeing to any national proposal that impacts Queensland’s energy system and Queenslanders’ electricity bills.
“Further work is needed before imposing underdeveloped national proposals to advance other policy objectives and I look forward to considering [Australian Energy regulator] and AEMC advice which is expected to be completed later this year.”
In March, the government released a set of “expectations” on datacentres that said they should support the country’s transition to renewable energy, use water sustainably and support the national interest.
Data from peak body Data Centres Australia says the country’s 162 datacentres currently have an operational capacity of 1.4 gigawatts that is expected to more than double to 3.2GW by 2030.
The Australian Energy Market Operator forecasts a tripling in the amount of electricity used by datacentres by 2030. AEMO says datacentres currently use about 2% of the main east coast market’s electricity.
The chief executive of Data Centres Australia, Belinda Dennett, said it was “unclear” how the federal government’s expectations would be considered when states assess proposals.
“Any policy uncertainty creates investment risk,” she said.
“Datacentre operators and their customers are already supporting Australia’s energy system and are catalysts for the energy transition, offsetting 70% of their energy use through signing long-term off-take agreements with renewable energy projects and through free-market large generation certificates.
“There is a strong ambition to offset 100% of energy use, however that requires the availability of viable renewable energy projects.”
Research commissioned by the group suggests the industry invested $3.1bn, between 2020 and 2025, on energy infrastructure, with a further $7.2bn expected by 2030.
More:
Here are some “ETs” recorded from around the U.S. the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is More Climate News from Tuesday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)