AI’s Dirty Environmental Impact

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What’s the Big Deal?

I hadn’t given a second thought to AI’s dirty environmental impact until I listened to the episode “Starve the Machine” on the “Sustainable Minimalist “ podcast.  Talk about an eye opener, I had no idea just how far the environmental impact of AI extends. But then, as usual, my skeptical self stepped in and insisted on digging in and fact-checking: Is the environmental impact of AI really as harmful as what I’m hearing? I dug in and here are my findings.

How does AI Impact the Environment?

You may wonder how a quick AI search harms the environment or what’s so bad about having AI summarize your email threads? Did creating that AI image really consume KWH of energy or a bottle of water?

Every time you press submit on a search that includes an AI response, an AI image generation, or AI query, the host company’s servers run thousands of calculations to deliver you an answer. Operating these servers consumes vast amounts of resources, as detailed below.

Land Consumption

You’ve probably heard that multitudes of data centers are being constructed to house the computer systems for this blossoming technology.  Currently, there are over 4200 data centers in the US and over 11,000 worldwide. With the average data center covering 100,000 sq ft and newer construction covering up to 10 million square feet, a whole lot of acreage is consumed for data center construction, and most of the land being gobbled up is rural land, much of which is prime agricultural farmland. The demand for data centers is expected to TRIPLE by 2030. You can count on a lot of acres being used for data centers.

Energy Usage and Carbon Emissions

It’s common knowledge that data centers consume a lot of energy, but just how much energy do they consume, and for how much output? This is a question that is surprisingly hard to answer. I see examples of “a text search is equivalent to 8 seconds of heating food in the microwave, while a 5-second video might power a microwave for over an hour”.  OK, but this doesn’t answer the question: After all, microwave wattages vary; let’s see if we can be more precise.

A main reason for the vagueness is that big tech companies have been reluctant to release figures on how much energy AI processes consume. In 2025, Google released data showing how much energy its Gemini Chatbot consumes. The table below summarizes energy and carbon emissions by search type as published by Google:

Search Type	Electricity Consumed (KWH)	Carbon Emissions (gm)
Average Gemini Chatbot	0.0024	0.03
Normal Google Search	0.0003	0.2

But wait, isn’t this saying that Gemini uses more electricity but has fewer carbon emissions? How can that be? Further research shows that carbon offsets have reduced the emission figure for Gemini Chatbot, so in reality, this isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. Despite this anomaly, one can clearly see AI queries consume approximately 10X more energy than a standard search engine search.

It is predicted that global data center power usage will increase to 219 GW over the next five years, enough to power roughly 180 million US homes.

Water Consumption

As erratic effects of climate change caused by greenhouse emissions become more apparent, concerns about water use have escalated. This is where AI gets particularly ugly. The computer systems housed in data centers generate a lot of heat. Vast quantities of water are used to cool these systems via evaporative cooling.

Per Google, an average Gemini search uses about 0.26 mm of water (about 5 drops). This doesn’t seem so bad until you consider that every day, Google processes roughly 16.5 billion searches, and of these searches, somewhere between 15-25% are AI searches. Doing the math, 16.5 billion x 20% x 5 drops would be 16.5 billion drops of water daily, which equates to 825,000 litres of water  (for US readers, that’s 217,942 gallons a day). On an annual basis, that’s over 3 million litres or more than 79 million gallons of water.

This is just the consumption by Google AI searches; ChatGPT consumption is said to be even higher, and then there are all the other AI players like Microsoft, Meta, Deepseek, Claude, etc.

Per a University of Tulsa report,  Google stated that its total water consumption was 5.6 billion gallons and projected to increase, whilst Meta’s water usage for the same period was 1.2 billion gallons.

And the worst thing? This figure is direct water consumption and doesn’t factor in water used to produce the electricity that runs the systems, nor water used in facility construction, which is rumored to have even more of an impact than direct water consumption.

In 2023, indirect water consumption by data centers was estimated to be 800 billion liters (211 billion gallons). And sadly, many data centers are located and being built in the US Midwest where water is already scarce. (Reference Washington Post Article 2023)

Staggering Numbers

There shouldn’t be much argument that the exponential growth of AI presents a huge problem for the environment. Much of the US is facing severe drought conditions, yet more and more data centers are being built, and many of these are in drought-stricken areas.

Are you going to choose AI or drinking water?

How Can Individuals Slow Down AI Growth and Lessen Its Impact on the Environment

There are many ways that we as individuals can slow the growth of AI and lessen its impact on the environment. Here are 3 suggestions that can truly have an impact:

1. Oppose New Data Center Construction;
2. Minimize the Use of AI
3. Share knowledge

Oppose New Data Center Construction

How does one oppose new data center construction? 

First of all, follow your city’s council meetings. Keep a tab on what is on the agenda. If you see something that concerns you, speak up. There are organizations like Community Action Works and MediaJustice that can assist citizens in asking the right questions and confronting legislators on proposed zoning alterations and permit issuance.

If the public uses its voice, it will ultimately be heard.

Minimize the Use of AI

Go to Chat GPT and Use This Prompt…

If you spend any time on Social Media, you’ve seen these viral threads: ”Go to Chat GPT and Use This Prompt (it may be Create a caricature of me with my pets, in the Old West, or whatever wild whim is the flavor of the day)”.

Sure, playing with these prompts may be fun, but at what cost? How many times do we need to create images that include odd flaws like dogs with 5 legs, or give us 6 fingers and no thumbs? Be a conscious consumer, and resist the urge to follow every Facebook prompt promoting AI. Instead, leave a comment, “No, I choose drinking water over AI”.

AI Doesn’t Ask For Permission

Surprisingly, minimizing the use of AI can be somewhat tough. The adage “Resistance is futile” comes to mind when dealing with AI.

You likely will be shocked to see how much AI is encroaching on your browser and email.  Take a close look. Search on Google, and you more than likely will find AI results, such as an AI overview, as your first search result. Open up your Gmail, and lo and behold, you may find Gemini summarizing your email thread.  And it’s not just Google; Bing, Microsoft Edge, and Safari also have their fair share of AI being thrown out at unsuspecting consumers.

AI doesn’t ask for permission; it’s embedded in most of our search engines and browsers. And opting out of it is no simple task. After I listened to the “Starve the Machine” podcast, I chose to opt out of the Google AI, which was appearing on all of my devices.

AI may have its place in the world, but it doesn’t need to be used for every search, every email, every photo. This is a blatant disregard for the toll it takes on our planet.

Not Just Everywhere, It’s Often Wrong

If you know even a little about a specific topic, I’m sure you’ve noticed how often the AI-generated browser overviews are just plain wrong or don’t make sense. Who wants to promulgate this garbage? Not I. I prefer to find my answers amongst the regular search engine queries that list the source of the answer along with a quick summary of the response.

Opting Out of AI

This suggestion sounds easy enough, but it is surprisingly difficult to do.  After a fair amount of digging, I found instructions on how to opt out of AI on my preferred browser, Chrome. I followed the instructions, but I’m sure Google is still using AI when I search with Google. When I do a Google search, I see an AI overview flash on my screen, and then it disappears, and the normal search loads. It is hiding the overview, but it is still being generated. Come on, Google, you can do better than this!

Meanwhile, I have switched my default search engine to Ecosia until I establish if I can totally turn off AI in my Google searches.

Here is a YouTube video link that will help you Turn Off All AI In Google Chrome

On my iPhone, using Google search has become even more annoying. I type a search, and the AI overview is initially the only result I see. I have to X out of that to see the actual standard Google results. Since I can’t find a way to opt out of AI on Google Chrome, I’ve switched back to using Safari as my main browser with Ecosia as my search engine. 

Share Knowledge

Now that you have informed yourself about the detrimental effects of AI on our natural resources, share the word. Knowledge is power. There is so much information at our fingertips.

Today I watched a YouTube video by Microsoft saying that “Microsoft works to cool our data centers with as little water as possible”. The video goes on to say that Microsoft uses outside air to cool as much as possible. Oddly, Microsoft has 15 data centers either in operation or planned in Phoenix, Arizona. I’m not sure how they plan on cooling with outside air in Phoenix, Arizona. And what about the Arizona water crisis? Why choose locations such as Phoenix which are already facing water shortages?

You have to use your own judgment when it comes to AI, and then share your knowledge with others who may still have the wool pulled over their eyes.

Inaction is Acquiescence

If we let the tech corporations inundate us with AI and don’t do anything about it, we are acquiescing to their actions and, in doing so, are saying we are OK with AI’s huge detrimental impact on our environment.

We need to let the mega corps like Google and Microsoft know that we won’t be little sheep.  We need to switch to other search engines and browsers that do give us the choice to opt out of AI.  Perhaps they’ll then take notice and make it easy to opt out of AI, and even better, invest in real answers to the environmental problems facing AI.  After all, nothing hits home to these corporations like slashing their bottom line.

What Action are You Going to Take?

Are you going to opt out of AI to lessen AI’s environmental impact? Are you going to share this post so others may be enlightened and make informed choices?

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