Environment + AI: A Double-Edged Sword in the Climate Crisis
As the climate crisis becomes more severe and imminent, it’s more important than ever that we consider the environmental consequences of using AI. There are both positives and negatives with regards to how AI impacts the planet, and it’s important to be aware of these impacts so that we can make informed decisions when using AI and help reduce our individual carbon footprints.
How can AI be good for the environment?
AI can be used in a number of ways which help address and mitigate some of the impacts of climate change and other environmental issues. Some of these include:
- Track Melting Icebergs — this is especially useful because AI can monitor these changes more accurately and at a much faster rate than humans can. Monitoring changes allows us to be able to make the appropriate changes needed to manage this, such as putting measures in place to reduce the impact of rising sea levels.
- Map Deforestation — AI in space can help us identify the main areas where deforestation is a major problem.
- Improve Recycling — AI can help facilities track items passing through recycling (and therefore to remove items which can’t be recycled). This helps make recycling more efficient.
- Predicting Natural Disasters — As climate change brings more extreme weather, AI could help to reduce the immediate and long-term impacts of natural disasters by predicting when and where natural disasters may occur. This means that people have time to prepare themselves and their families (eg. by evacuating, meaning there could be fewer people affected in the area when the natural disaster does occur), as well as their homes, reducing the extent of damage and the cost of rebuilding.
These are just some of the ways that AI could be useful in tackling environmental degradation. Particularly from a scientific analytical standpoint, AI could be used to make more accurate measurements, predictions and to monitor changes, so that we can focus on taking action.
What are some of the negatives of AI?
However, AI isn’t entirely good for the planet. One of the main issues with AI with regards to the environment is that the fundamentals of AI is based on repeatedly processing huge amounts of code to try to improve the accuracy of the code by tiny amounts (often by less than 1%). This code is processed hundreds of times through massive computers called ‘servers’ which get really hot over time. To counter this, these servers are often placed either in huge rooms with Air Conditioning on (which uses a lot of electricity, usually from burning fossil fuels — this contributes to global warming, further damaging the planet) or by placing these servers somewhere on the Arctic. Here, the cool air from the Arctic blows over the servers and cools them, but then the air itself gets warmed by coming into contact with the servers. The warm air means the environment of the Arctic changes, and warmer temperatures lead to ice caps melting, which leads to sea levels rising, which can increase flood risk on a global scale
Since AI needs a lot of data storage, there are many environmental implications of this (eg. maintaining and keeping the overheating data storage cool). Furthermore, many AI programmes must be run over long periods of time to work (often days or weeks just to train the AI models) and this uses huge amounts of energy to run. Where this energy isn’t sourced via renewable methods, AI increases carbon emissions by a huge amount. AI can also lead to an increase in Electronic Waste since AI requires more technology and computers to be running than usual which eventually creates waste disposal issues of all this tech.
What can you do to help?
In conclusion, AI can massively impact the environment, both in good and bad ways. AI hugely increases your carbon footprint, and so it’s important to not use it unnecessarily. Think about the planet next time you use ChatGPT and try to avoid using it regularly. Let’s protect our planet before it’s too late.
This article was written by Parnika Parulkar.
If you would like to contact her, reach out to her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parnika-p-a16815299/
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