In the 80s, kids all across the US and likely the Western World, kids like me, used to watch Captain Planet, a superhero who came into being when 5 teenage climate warriors aimed their laser rings at each other:
The co-op is working on a new project with Friends of the Earth, so we’ve been chatting about AI and thinking about its environmental footprint. I woke up this morning, got the Captain Planet theme song in my head and thought I write a quick post about the climate implications surrounding the production, deployment, and operation of AI.
Earth: where fossil fuels come from and where we store our trash
Training AI models is an energy suck and data centres use A LOT of electricity. A lot of grids, as we know, still contribute to greenhouse gas emissions because we silly humans are still burning coal, using gas and otherwise using fossil fuels to feed our power hungry world.
But there’s also likely an e-waste component – more tech, more e-waste, right?
Fire: It’s hot enough without the robot’s body heat
You know how sometimes after scrolling for three hours in a row because you can’t be bothered to interact with the world, your phone gets hot? Yeah, that’s because any sort of computing hardware generates heat as a byproduct of computing. If you compute at scale, the way a data centre does, the heat generated is enough to heat a town in Finland. Of course, dissipating that much energy, depending on how it’s done, can also lead to more emissions and resource use. (Not every data centre is built with climate in mind.)
Wind (aka Air): Emissions and the stuff in my lungs
With planned obsolescence and the fact that nowadays everything we spend money on is kind of a piece of shit, we’re extracting and processing loads of rare earth metals. Extraction means emissions, so every time we buy something new, we’re adding some more crap to the air. Carbon capture is a non-proven technology that Big Oil is relying on (e.g. it’s bullshit). As an aside, you knew that BP invented the entire concept of “carbon footprints”, right? Iz propaganda.
Water: What are bodies of largely made of
This was the discussion yesterday that set me off on this whole Captain Planet tear. It appears that,
“a simple conversation with ChatGPT consisting of 20 to 50 questions can cost up to a 500ml bottle of freshwater.” How AI consumes water
A half a litre of water, also known as what I chug around 4pm when I realise I haven’t had any water lately. It’s so, so much.
Last year I wrote an entire proposal to help people understand and prepare for a shortage in water supplies due to the climate emergency. There is a lot to improve in the transparency of processes around our water distribution and consumption. The proposal was for Saxony (my state), but it’s a complex ecological topic everywhere and could use educational initiatives to increase people’s “water literacy”.
Heart: Knowledge is power and the power is yours!
We are impacting the climate. Everyone knows and it is looking grim. Like everything, technology and AI are having significant impacts, but the genie is not going to get put back in the box. So, the best we can do is try.
- Reuse, reduce, recycle: Fix your stuff, use it as long as possible.
- Choose energy-efficient hardware: Try to buy things that consume less power and pay a little extra for renewable energy if you can.
- Think about and adjust your digital habits: Turn stuff off, use sleep modes, use scheduling to turn off or close things automagically. Delete cloud stored documents, photos, videos, etc that you do not need to save. Delete accounts you’re not using. Clean up your own data.
- Support sustainable tech stuff: Look for cloud services that offer carbon offsetting or renewable energy options. Use companies prioritizing green infrastructure and cooling systems in their operations.
- Keep learning about AI: Instead of just using ChatGPT with no abandon, learn more about AI and offers out there. Look into local models and tools and pay attention to climate organisations who are giving advice here.