She quit Microsoft to expose their insane AI cover-up

Holly Alpine spent a decade at Microsoft, co-founding the company's 10,000-strong employee sustainability group and running programs for data center communities. Then she discovered something that made her leave: the company was signing contracts explicitly designed to help fossil fuel companies extract more oil and gas, faster and cheaper, using AI. Now she's leading one of the only campaigns in the world working to expose what she calls the most underestimated climate threat of the AI era.

——

The peer reviewed journal article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-026-00411-0

Enabled Emissions campaign website: https://www.enabledemissions.com/

Subscribe to the Climate Unf*cked podcast at https://climateunfucked.substack.com/

And connect with me on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/

——

Chapters

0:00 AI’s Climate Impact Isn’t What You Think 2:06 What Holly saw Inside Microsoft 5:13 The Emissions Nobody Is Counting 8:45 Why AI Helps Fossil Fuels Far More Than Renewables 12:16 Winning Sustainability Awards While Helping Exxon Drill More 16:10 What AI Actually Does Inside an Oil Well 19:34 The Undrillable Wells AI Made Viable 24:08 Why Fiduciary Duty Is Corporate Folklore 28:52 The Promises Microsoft Made and Didn't Keep 32:21 How Data Centers Became the Entire Climate Story 36:48 You're Only Looking at One Team's Points 40:33 The Biggest Loophole in Climate Accounting 43:36 The Climate Blind Spot Nobody Noticed for a Decade 47:42 Why Pension Funds Are Starting to Listen 52:00 The Coalition Forming Against AI Expansion 56:32 What Keeps Holly Going and What You Can Do