Welcome to Net Zero Day: Where Carbon Meets Code
The next crisis won’t pick a lane. Neither do we.
A record-breaking heatwave pushed the U.S. power grid to the brink last month. Hospitals and data centers scrambled to stay online as temperatures hit 110°F and grid operators warned of rolling blackouts. At the same time, cyber threat actors are always circling, scanning for weak points in systems already strained past their limits.
This isn’t theory. It’s happening right now.
And the pressure isn’t just coming from the heat. It’s coming from AI.
The same data centers that run our emergency systems are now powering energy-hungry generative AI models. In 2022, Dominion Energy warned that cloud and AI infrastructure in northern Virginia was already consuming so much electricity that the grid might not keep up. That strain hasn’t eased. By 2030, AI server farms could consume up to 12 percent of U.S. electricity, reshaping not only the energy landscape, but also the attack surface and stability of our critical systems. (see recent NERC report.)
That demand doesn’t just increase emissions. It creates new chokepoints in physical and digital infrastructure. And adversaries know it. The more power we concentrate in a handful of AI-heavy regions, the more devastating a well-timed cyberattack becomes.
As I wrote recently in Command Line with Camille, geopolitical tensions including increased Iranian cyber activity, are making this convergence even more dangerous. Climate shocks destabilize infrastructure. Cyber actors exploit the chaos. When the two collide, cascading failure becomes more than likely. It becomes imminent.
A heatwave isn’t just a climate event. A zero-day isn’t just a software flaw. Together, they threaten the foundations of daily life: electricity, clean water, communications, public health, and the algorithms quietly shaping how the world functions.
I’m Camille Stewart Gloster, a strategist who’s built AI security programs at the White House, Google, CrowdStrike (and more). Alongside me is Dr. Newton Campbell Jr., a NASA computer scientist who’s turned satellite data into hyperlocal flood forecasts. Together, we’ve watched supply chains unravel under extreme weather, seen floodwaters short critical fiber links, and discovered that AI models trained on yesterday’s world can’t keep pace with tomorrow’s.
Here’s the deeper truth no one wants to say out loud: climate shocks and cyberattacks amplify each other. A single breach in a smart-grid controller can trigger blackouts during a heatwave, cutting power to cooling systems when hospital patients need them most. Wildfires can vaporize cell towers and take entire data archives with them. AI-powered disinformation campaigns prey on disaster-fatigued populations, further destabilizing response systems.
As temperatures rise, so do the stakes—for businesses that can't afford downtime, for infrastructure operators trying to hold the line, and for communities facing migration, failure, and increasingly irreversible change.
This isn’t niche. It’s existential.
Investors are already pricing in “climate-cyber risk” when funding energy projects. Regulators are demanding disaster recovery plans that account for both firewall failures and flash floods. Citizens expect leaders to anticipate the next digital blackout or cyber-enabled supply chain collapse.
If you thought climate policy was a job for environmentalists and cyber defense belonged to the IT team, it’s time to rethink.
Net Zero Day is your field guide to the crossroads of climate, technology, and security. Each week, we cut through the noise with concise takeaways, compelling visuals, sharp analysis, and curated resources. You’ll get the insight and tools to navigate converging risks and uncover emerging opportunities.
Our planet’s thermostat is rising. So is the volume on cyber threats.
If you care about your organization’s resilience, your community’s safety, or just staying one step ahead of the next disaster, subscribe now. Because tomorrow’s catastrophe won’t wait for you to update your risk register.
It starts at zero, every single day.
If this made you think differently about the risks ahead, or confirmed what you’ve been seeing on the ground, share this post with someone who needs to connect the dots between climate, cyber, and AI.
We’d also love to hear from you. What intersections are you seeing in your work or community? Drop a comment below and let’s build the conversation together.