Climate Change and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

As a center focused on climate change and sustainability, CASC is concerned about environmental resource use and injustices incurred by the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) such as Chat GPT and Copilot. While companies which produce AI products do not share specific data on carbon-based energy and water use for their applications, the most accepted data point for now is the example of an AI application using 10x the amount of energy as a simple Google search for the same query.

Until more is known about the environmental and social costs of AI usage, we encourage you to consider employing AI only when it is essential for the task at hand. There is a learning curve to using AI properly, therefore we suggest you learn what AI can and cannot do in order to determine if it should be used. We encourage everyone to follow these guidelines as a means of reducing the overall environmental and social impacts AI:

- For gathering information and other simple requests, use an internet search engine, not AI. Unfortunately, Google automatically generates AI responses, even when you have not asked it to do so. Here are two options:
- Add to your Chrome/Google browser which blocks AI answers on Google.
- Try using alternative search engines such as , , or for AI-free searches with the benefit of additional privacy.
- If using ChatGPT or other GenAI, prepare your prompt with as much detail as possible, taking the time to refine it before entering and submitting it. A good prompt will include specific information about the content and intended audience, length, and purpose you want in the result. You can also tell it what you do not want it to do as a means of avoiding an excessive reply.
- While AI has become increasingly common for everyday tasks like grocery lists and personal affirmations, AI dependency is accelerating, putting further pressure on the energy grid and therefore driving climate change and regional ecological decline. Please consider only using AI tools where needed for specific workflows.

Below is a list of resources for students to use before turning to AI for help:

- are available 24/7 to help you with research.
- Check out all of the tools already available to you as a student on the university’s Student Resources and Services website.
- For help with personal, academic, financial or other challenges, Cougar Care Network provides additional information, resources, advocacy, and other support.
- If you are in need of counseling or mental health support on campus, please contact Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS).
- �� also hosts countless student clubs and organizations where students share experiences, make friends, form study groups, plan community service projects, and develop professional skills.

Lastly, please talk to your friends, colleagues, and students about limiting their use of AI.

For more information and research studies about the concerns surrounding AI, please select from the links below.

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AI and Climate Change
Since the public version of ChatGPT arrived in 2023, educators and administrators across the country have been scrambling to understand and prepare for the impacts of Generative AI on education and society. Since then, we’ve seen a host of new Generative AI (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Midjourney, Google Gemini, and NRP Nautilus. The discourse on these tools has generally focused on how faculty and students might ethically implement them, while a wider discussion on the social, global, environmental, and economic costs of processing all the data associated with these tools has more recently emerged.

Here at the �� Climate Action and Sustainability Center, we are concerned with the macro-environmental impacts of GenAI tools, specifically the potential for these technologies to accelerate climate change and therefore drive already aggrieved communities into further precarity and dislocation. We ask: What are the global impacts of AI on the climate? Which communities tend to bear the brunt of crises resulting from climate change? What are the social, political, and economic conditions resulting from these crises? And what can we do to prevent and/or mitigate them?

In asking these questions, we also seek to understand the compounded costs of AI from labor devaluation and mass surveillance to source bias and disinformation to increased resource consumption and large-scale climate disasters like heat waves, fires, monsoons, and flooding. For instance: what is the relationship between Generative AI, climate change, and public policy? Can AI help us solve some of the world’s most pressing climate issues and prepare for the downstream effects of those solutions? Or are the promised (but not yet realized) benefits of AI worth its costs? What are those costs? If AI can be said to “pollute” the planet, does it also pollute, as some of the below sources suggest, the internet with disinformation; does it pollute human social and political relations with bias and private interest? How do these social and political discourses effect approaches to climate change and climate justice? What policies and practices can we implement to avoid these consequences? What can individual AI users do to reduce harm?

In the following collection of essays and journal articles, scholars and journalists begin to address these questions on the intersections of AI, climate, and society. This is a quickly developing field of interest and the literature continues to expand, so we will continue to develop it as new material and findings become available.

List of Sources

A few resources to keep track of GenAI and energy use as the literature develops:
- ArsTechnica:
- California Energy Commission:
- Forbes:
- International Energy Association:
- MarketWatch:
- MIT News:
- MIT Technology Review:
- Nature:
- Pew Research Center:
- Science:
- Tech Policy:
IMPACT on CLIMATE and ECOLOGY
What resources are required to train GenAI? What resources are required to prompt GenAI? What impact does the increased extraction and consumption have on the global climate? How much land do AI data centers require? What other resources do AI data centers require? Can GenAI help solve the climate crisis? Do use cases on AI solutions to climate change stack up to the literature on AI’s potential to solve the climate crisis? How does GenAI influence climate change discourse?
- “How ChatGPT is impacting the environment,” The Standard
- “Generative AI exacerbates the climate crisis, Science
- “How Does AI Use Water and Energy? Unpacking the Negative Impact of Chatbots,” Green Matters
- “ChatGPT produces the same amount of CO2 emissions as 260 flights from New York City to London each month, study finds,” Fortune
- “The True Cost of Data Centers,” Business Insider
- “ChatGPT Is Everywhere — Why Aren't We Talking About Its Environmental Costs?,” Teen Vogue
- “AI's climate impact is still a black box,” Axios
- “Generative AI and Social Media May Exacerbate the Climate Crisis,” MIT News
- “Generative AI tools can enhance climate literacy but must be checked for biases and inaccuracies,” Nature
- “Tackling AI's Climate Change Problem,” MIT Sloan Management Review
- “The globalization of artificial intelligence: consequences for the politics of environmentalism,” Globalizations
- “Artificial Intelligence in the Colonial Matrix of Power,” Philosophy & Technology
- “Explained: Generative AI’s environmental impact,” MIT News
- “AI ethics: A framework for measuring embodied carbon in AI systems,” AI & Ethics
- “Artificial intelligence and climate change: ethical issues,” Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society”
- “Challenges of Artificial Intelligence Development in the Context of Energy Consumption and Impact on Climate Change,” Energies
- “Artificial Intelligence and Climate Change,” Yale Journal on Regulation
ENERGY USE
How much energy does AI use? What are the environmental costs of AI energy use?
- “We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard,” MIT Technology Review
- “AI is revitalizing the fossil fuels industry, and big tech has nothing to say for itself,” Blood in the Machine (Substack)
- “AI’s Dirty Secret: Why Policymakers Need to Wake Up to Its Energy Footprint,” Tech Policy
- “AI's Dirty Secret: Artificial Intelligence Is Fueling a Global Energy Crisis, Says IEA,” Tech Times
- “The research note that’s raising eyebrows: Microsoft reportedly is canceling data-center leases,” MarketWatch
WATER USE
How much water does AI use? How much of that comes from prompts to Generative AI?
- “AI Is Accelerating the Loss of Our Scarcest Natural Resource: Water,” Forbes
- “California wildfires raise alarm on water-guzzling AI like ChatGPT,” Forbes
- “How Much Water and Energy Does ChatGPT Use? Sam Altman Breaks Down the Numbers,” Tech Times
- “How Much Water Does ChatGPT Consume?,” InsideTechWorld
- “How Much Water Does AI Use? Too Much,” Techopedia
- “Water Consumption of AI: How Tech Giants are Draining the Planet 2024,” Hyscaler
CLIMATE JUSTICE
What effect does AI have on the narratives and outcomes of climate change, from extreme weather and algae blooms to inland gentrification and displacement/dispossession? Which communities are most effected? How have they responded? What policies are in place? How does climate justice differ from environmental justice?
- “In the end, the story of climate change was one of hope and redemption”: ChatGPT’s narrative on global warming,” Ambio
- Towards the Sustainability of AI; Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Investigate the Hidden Costs of AI, Directory of Open Access Books
- “‘Hold Developed States to Account for Climate Justice', U.N. Secretary-General Urges in Remarks to Group of 77 Plus China Summit,” Targeted News Service
- Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions, Ramanathan et. al.
- “Bending the Curve: Climate Solutions Education for All,” Ramanathan Lab (UCSD)
ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM and ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Which communities are most impacted by data center infrastructure? What are the localized environmental impacts of data centers? What effect do data centers have on climate policies?
- “‘A Black Hole of Energy Use’: Meta's Massive AI Data Center Is Stressing Out a Louisiana Community,” 404 Media
- “Elon Musk’s xAI threatened with lawsuit over air pollution from Memphis data center,” NAACP
- “How we can create the global agreement on generative AI bias: lessons from climate justice,” AI & Society
- “Racial Formation, Environmental Racism, and the Emergence of Silicon Valley,” Ethnicities
- “Fossil fuel racism in the United States: How phasing out coal, oil, and gas can protect communities,” Energy Research & Social Science
- “California dreaming: Why environmental justice is integral to the success of climate change policy,” PNAS
- “Tracing the ‘cloud’: Emergent political geographies of global data centres,” Political Geography
- “The Spatial and Energy Impact of Data Centers on the Territories,” ADEME (French Agency for Ecological Transition)
EFFICIENCY and SUSTAINABILITY
What is the decay rate of AI digital data compared to printed materials? What practices and policies will help curb AI energy and water consumption? How can we mitigate the environmental and geographic impact of data centers? Can AI be used to improve water treatment, distribution, etc.? Can AI help with the climate crisis?
- “Making AI Efficient — is it possible?,” University of Sydney
- “The future of AI is analogue,” IAI News
- “The EU AI Act and environmental protection: the case for a missed opportunity,” Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (a German political foundation)
- “When Online Content Disappears,” Pew Research Center
- “AI models are devouring energy. Tools to reduce consumption are here, if data centers will adopt,” MIT
- “Geography for AI sustainability and sustainability for GeoAI,” Cartography and Geographic Information Science
- “Green and intelligent: the role of AI in the climate transition,” Nature
- “The AI gambit: leveraging artificial intelligence to combat climate change—opportunities, challenges, and recommendations,” AI & Soc
- “Artificial intelligence-based solutions for climate change: a review,” Environ Chem Lett
- “Artificial intelligence-driven sustainability: Enhancing carbon capture for sustainable development goals– A review,” Sustainable Development
- “Artificial intelligence for sustainability: Challenges, opportunities, and a research agenda,” International Journal of Information Management
- “Artificial intelligence in the water domain: Opportunities for responsible use,” Science of the Total Environment
LOCAL ENERGY USE
Where does Southern California get energy? How much do we use? What are the environmental effects? What communities are impacted? Are there any efforts to improve efficiency and quality of energy in California?
- �� Energy Sources
  - /energy/dashboard.html
- “California's Pollution Problem: A State Of Emergency,” Shun Waste
- “California Releases World’s First Plan to Achieve Net Zero Carbon Pollution,” Governor Gavin Newsom’s office
- “What Are The Top Energy Sources in California?,” Electricrate
- “California Energy Profile,” US Energy Information Administration (EIA)
- “California Power Generation and Power Sources,” California Energy Commission
- “Energy Maps and Spatial Data,” California Energy Commission
OUTPUTS
Are AI outputs reliable? How much effort does it require to verify that they are? Are they original? How many prompts and revisions does it take to create a viable AI-enabled essay? To what degree is that essay original work? To what degree does it represent student effort or thinking? Who owns material created using GenAI?
- “‘Model collapse’: Scientists warn against letting AI eat its own tail,” TechCrunch
- “ChatGPT Has Already Polluted the Internet So Badly That It's Hobbling Future AI Development,” Furturism
- “We need to stop pretending AI is intelligent – here’s how,” The Conversation
- “AI is Dead,” Texas Observer
- “Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art”
- “Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist,” 404 Media
- “Make America ChatGPT again: Experts say AI was used to create RFK Jr health report that cited false studies,” The Independent
- “DeepNudes: Undressing AI-Generated Intimate Image Abuse Material,” The White Hatter
INPUTS
Who trains Generative AI models? Are they reliable? Can they be manipulated? Where do they get all that data?
- “Grok blocked results saying Musk and Trump ‘spread misinformation,” The Verge
- “Musk’s Grok AI chatbot says it ‘appears that I was instructed’ to talk about ‘white genocide,’” CNBC
- “Elon Musk isn’t happy with his AI chatbot. Experts worry he’s trying to make Grok 4 in his image,” CNN
- “AI sceptic Emily Bender: ‘The emperor has no clothes,’” The Financial Times
- “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: A Q&A with Emily M. Bender,” Medium (Bender also has a book on the topic)
DATA SECURITY and COPYRIGHT
What data does Generative AI collect? What does it do with that data? Is it secure?
- “Researchers turn Microsoft 365 Copilot against users, leaking extremely sensitive data,” CyberNews
- “Wake up call for AI: computer-vision research increasingly used for surveillance,” Nature
- “OpenAI slams court order to save all ChatGPT logs, including deleted chats,” ArsTechnica
- “Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry,” The Verge
- “Anthropic destroyed millions of print books to build its AI models,” ArsTechnica
- “AI Companies Can Use Copyrighted Work Without Permission, Judge Rules,” Vice
LABOR and ECONOMY
What is the impact on labor and working conditions? Who profits? At what cost? Are Generative AI tools just plagiarism machines? What questions does this pose for academic integrity?
- “Is the AI Bubble About to Burst?,” Verso Books
- “Democratize AI or Make the AI Oligarchy an Inevitability,” Jacobin
- “The danger of relying on OpenAI’s Deep Research,” The Economist
- “OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Continues to Completely Miss the Point With AI Art,” ArtNews
- “Brian Merchant’s “Blood in the Machine,” Medium
- “How to Survive the A.I. Revolution,” The New Yorker
- “When do we go from here? Data center infrastructure labor, jobs, and work in economic development time and temporalities,” New Media
- “40% of Gen Z men are using AI to cheat at work,” Fast Company
SOCIAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL COSTS
Is AI “inevitable”? Who benefits? Who suffers? In what ways does AI reify existing power structures in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability? What are the long-term social, political, and cultural effects? What are the cognitive benefits or harms of consistent dependence on AI?
- “The New Artificial Intelligentsia,” LA Review of Books
- “A.I. Is Homogenizing Our Thoughts,” The New Yorker
- “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task,” MIT Media
- “How AI Companions Are Redefining Human Relationships in the Digital Age,” Forbes
- “Supportive? Addictive? Abusive? How AI companions affect our mental health,” Nature
- “Ethical AI,” Unwinnable
- “AI is ‘beating’ humans at empathy and creativity. But these games are rigged,” The Guardian
- “What happens the day after humanity creates AGI?,” Big Think
- “‘Empire of AI’ author on OpenAI’s cult of AGI and why Sam Altman tried to discredit her book,” Mashable
- “A Sea of Feces: Philosophical Musings From the Techno Feudalists,” CounterPunch
DETECTION SOFTWARE
Does it work? Does it also make use of AI (and all that implies in terms of energy and reliability)?
- ‘I received a first but it felt tainted and undeserved’: inside the university AI cheating crisis,” The Guardian
�� RESOURCES
- AI Commons
- Faculty Center
  - /fc/teaching/generative-ai-teaching.html
UNIVERSITY POLICIES AND POSITIONS
- Senate Statement: “The Possible Use of AI in Instruction”
- Senate Statement: “Urging Caution in the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence”
- CFA Response to CSU AI Initiative
- CFA Faculty Feature: “The Social Impact of Artificial Intelligence”
- CFA Files Charge: “Unfair Practice Charge on A.I. Initiative Filed Against CSU Admin”

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Climate Change and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

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