Guardian Life & Style (US) • Jan. 6, 2026, 11:44 a.m.

<p>Defenders say AI can do good to fight the climate crisis. But spiralling energy and water costs leave experts worried</p><p>During a golden sunset in Memphis in May, Sharon Wilson pointed a thermal imaging camera at Elon Musk’s flagship datacentre to reveal a planetary threat her eyes could not.

Free from pollution controls, the gas-fired turbines that power the world’s biggest AI supercomputer were pumping invisible fumes into the Tennessee sky.</p><p>“It was jaw-dropping,” said Wilson, a former oil and gas worker from Texas who has documented methane releases for more than a decade and estimates xAI’s Colossus datacentre was spewing more of the planet-heating gas than a large power plant.

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