It's July 2024, and I'm at home during the most intense heat wave the United States has ever seen. The actual human population of the country is 342 million, but if we consider all the artificial intelligence (AI) systems currently operating, we might have already surpassed China. Remember, AI requires power to function.

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Global warming is a reality. Identifying its causes is crucial. Carbon dioxide is a major contributor, but its impact on climate is quite intricate. It can dissolve in the ocean and combine with other greenhouse gases like methane, which can leak from pipelines or naturally occur in places like Siberia.

We've learned that black objects tend to heat up quickly. In Greece, houses built from limestone, which is white on the outside, inside, and even when broken, are designed to withstand heat. This suggests that global warming might be linked to the shift from green vegetation to black asphalt in urban areas.

However, we need to be practical. Any efforts to mitigate or reverse climate change must be as substantiated as the effects mentioned above. This is because every solar panel or nuclear plant we build costs money, which represents the resources we invest. If we make the wrong choices, our response to climate change won't be efficient.

Wars are a significant factor. For instance, Germany had to demolish entire villages to create new lignite mines for steel production. This could have been avoided if conflicts in Ukraine were prevented. Regardless of the number of solar panels installed in China, the impact will be minimal.

When choosing a car, consider the total cost of transportation. The price of a gasoline car should include a proportionate cost of the gas station where it's refueled every week, and a share of the cost of the tanker, pipelines, ships, and refineries where it's produced.

The carbon footprint of an electric vehicle (EV) should include the steel used for the power grid, power plant, and mining equipment for the coal that powers it. An EV might also have significant costs due to the materials in the battery and the battery swapping stations.

Carbon dioxide is still relatively scarce in the atmosphere, suggesting that it used to dissipate quickly. This is partly due to plants and algae, and partly due to dissolution in oceans. Interestingly, oceans are acidic. The accumulation of carbonic acid makes them even more acidic. This could present opportunities by using floating positive and negative electrodes that can generate electricity and light. The right material can capture calcium with salts that end up at the bottom of the ocean, like ordinary limestone. Carbon cleanup needs to be inexpensive and primarily use the energy it generates.

Recycling is a lesser issue. Consider all the items you accumulate in an average US house over ten years. The quantity and composition are fairly consistent. I recently attended a tech conference where scientists suggested that mining waste might be the next big thing. Extracting a small amount of lithium for batteries from a mountain requires a lot of effort. Mining existing waste only requires energy, as the right mix of elements is already present. Similarly, adding a bit of gold or silver to printed circuits doesn't significantly increase the cost, but it provides an incentive for recyclers to process it.