Sustainable Living & Climate Action

Have you used ChatGPT?

It sure can be helpful. But where do the answers come from? There are 2.5 billion queries sent to ChatGPT daily! In addition to ChatGPT, there’s also Claude, Grok, Gemini, Deep Seek, and many more, all using artificial intelligence (AI). AI uses enormous amounts of data it has been trained on to give you an answer. The vast infrastructure behind all of AI’s computing power is stored in huge data centers.

As you may have heard, AI’s data center infrastructure comes at a huge environmental cost:

• Electricity. Each query uses an estimated 0.34 watt-hours of electricity — roughly the energy needed to run a standard LED lightbulb for two minutes. Over a day, that adds up to about 6.8 watt-hours per person. At 100 million users, the number jumps to 680,000 kilowatt-hours daily, comparable to the electricity consumption of more than 22,000 households. According to the International Energy Agency, a request made on ChatGPT consumes almost 10x the amount of electricity compared to a standard search. While renewable energy capacity is expanding, much of the U.S. grid still relies on fossil fuels. As a result, increased electricity use by data centers often corresponds directly with higher greenhouse gas emissions.
• Water. Data centers rely on water-based cooling systems to prevent servers from overheating. Generating the electricity for a single AI-heavy household’s daily energy use can require the equivalent of an entire person’s daily drinking water — just to keep servers cool. Some data centers exist in places where drinking water is already in short supply.

There are currently 4088 data centers in over 50 states in the U.S. These sites are concentrated in Virginia, Texas, and California. In Virginia, data centers consume more than a quarter of the state’s total electricity. Days after pulling us out of the Paris climate treaty, Trump announced plans to build sprawling AI data centers across the country – a 500 billion investment and the largest infrastructure project in history.

Some solutions have been proposed. One practical idea is to build data centers in colder climates to lessen the energy used for cooling. Someday, we might even have space-based data centers. The heat generated from data centers could have various applications. Fengqi You, a professor in Energy Systems Engineering at Cornell, said: “There isn’t a silver bullet…[appropriate] siting, grid decarbonization and efficient operations work together – that’s how you get reductions on the order of roughly 73% for carbon and 86% for water”. But even with these solutions, can we decarbonize the grid faster than the demand for AI grows? Many solutions will depend on regulations. Regulations require the political will to do the right thing, making sure there are guardrails in place so that we can use every advantage AI offers, while still keeping our planet habitable for life.

AI can identify cancer cells, analyze research data, write computer code, explain a medical report, help students learn, write an essay for you, and on and on. While some applications are beneficial, many are not. Either way, AI is here to stay. Could AI help solve the climate crisis even though it’s part of the problem?

Tip: If you’re looking for a browser that doesn’t default to using AI in search results, try Ecosia.

Sources: https://www.earthday.org/the-true-price-of-every-chatgpt-prompt/

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/11/roadmap-shows-environmental-impact-ai-data-center-boom

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