Op-Ed: How AI is destroying us

Climate change is warming our ocean, damaging the coral reefs. Not only that, but climate change is taking away polar bears' homes. The polar bear population is decreasing every year. The “Rulers of the Arctic,” as we call them, are now struggling to survive. 

What can we do? What solutions are already in action? We are not powerless—there is still time to make a difference, small or big. Our world is literally melting away. We are not just observers; our choices, big and small, play a role in this issue. Take, for example, the growth of AI usage since 2020. Whether it's ChatGPT or Google’s “AI overview,” every digital convenience has some impact on our planet.

Training and running AI models, particularly large language models, requires enormous amounts of energy, often obtained from fossil fuels. This contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Training these AI models produces around 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to nearly 5 times the life of the average car. 

Some species are being relocated or face extinction as their habitats change. The Hawaiian monk seal, some salmon trout populations, Pacific leatherback turtles, arctic foxes, bees.. The list goes on. If you can look at animals losing their homes and shrug it off, you need to look again. One day, that will be us. The more forests that burn, the more AI used for stupid assignments, the more greenhouse gases released, the more our population is at risk. The animals, the sea life — it is all a warning sign of what will happen to us. 

As AI continues to grow, it is crucial to understand its environmental impact, as highlighted by NASA's findings on global warming. In an article, NASA addressed the difference between climate change and global warming. “Global temperature shows a well-documented rise since the early 20th century and most notably since the late 1970s. Worldwide since 1880, the average surface temperature has risen about 1°C (about 2°F) relative to the mid-20th century baseline (of 1951-1980). This is on top of about an additional 0.15°C of warming from between 1750 and 1880.” I added this quote because, frankly, humans cause both. Both are damaging the world we walk on.

“Climate change” encompasses global warming, but refers to the broader range of changes that are happening to our planet. These include rising sea levels; shrinking mountain glaciers; accelerating ice melt in Greenland, Antarctica and the Arctic; and shifts in flower/plant blooming times. These are all consequences of warming, which is caused mainly by people burning fossil fuels and putting out heat-trapping gases into the air.”

As we can see, they’re both affecting the world pretty badly. 

Use this as a reminder. Don’t use AI on that test that will take you 30 minutes to study for, because it has an impact. If you don’t do it for humans, do it for animals. 

Do it for the Earth.