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Environmental Concerns

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I use Claude Code and Gemini Code Assist extensively for both my day job and my programming hobby.

It is critically important to note that carbon footprints are notoriously a scam, like to the point where I had considered not engaging with the topic. There are no individual solutions for systemic problems, which is why the people who benefit from systemic problems are so keen on convincing you that there are!

However, I do like to know things, so I did the research anyway! Go figure.

Here is the math I've done.

  • electricity generation varies widely by type:
    • wind produces 5 grams of CO2 equivalent (CO2E) emissions per kilowatt hour (kWh) of usage
    • natural gas produces 500 g of CO2E emissions per kWh; I'm using this for my baseline in future estimates.
    • coal produces 1.2 kg; only an actively insane society would continue to use this for power generation.
  • electricity usage is measured in tokens per kWh, and is pretty widely guessed from 5-10m tokens per.
  • It looks like my heavy Claude Code usage clocks in at 80-100k tokens per hour, let's round up and call that a million a day.

Combined, this would put my consumption at anywhere from 1.0 - 2.5 kg of CO2E per week.

A gas-powered car produces 400g of CO2E per mile driven, so I'm "driving" Claude Code 2.5-~6 miles a week.