And then I went to school

by Joe Suina

In this article called "And then I went to school" by Joe Suina, he shares his memories from when he went to school and what life was like growing up as a native kid in the early fifties. This article shares intense emotions from sorrow to that sense of warmth again. Suina starts off describing his home, where he lived, who he lived with and how he slept. As he starts talking about family gatherings he also mentions how comic books were finding their way into the pueblo homes. Then he starts discussing how the children and adults start to like them more. But as technology progresses and expands throughout the pueblo homes , the importance of evening gatherings and storytelling start to decrease. Suina being the only child , required him to do chores such as hauling in water and chopping firewood but in return he receives grandma's love, security, food and affection all to himself. He talks about how his grandma teaches him about appropriate behavior such as greeting someone or even sharing. He briefly explains how he feels like he has a place in the world. At age 6 is when he starts school, he then goes on to describe how strange the teacher and the inside of the school. He describes how horrible the teachers treated him such as smacking him hard with a ruler. 

(“And Then I Went to School - NowComment”)

In this reading "How place names impact the way we see landscape" written by B. Toastie, is mainly about how deep and important sacred landscapes are to indigenous people. She also mentions how different the westerns think. For example, they name dead people after streets or buildings because they established a stereo somewhere or had great power in the government . On the other hand, indigenous people use the suffix "yee" to represent that person has passed. She states "it's so they don't keep that person back or keep them from going on their journey into the afterlife" on page 4, paragraph 4. Throughout this article she mentions a lot of the differences between westerns and indigenous people in the way we think and perceive landscapes and that many of these landscapes have deep and important meanings behind them that'll never fade away as long as we continue to share the story for many future generations. 

---. “How Place Names Impact the Way We See Landscape.” High Country News, 24 Jan. 2024, www.hcn.org/issues/54-5/people-places-how-place-names-impact-the-way-we-see-landscape.

"Baja blast" October 25th, Authors personal collection

An article I chose to read is called " Evolution of IT from the first computer to AI" which gives lots of information between the years 1950 and the current age (2022). It addresses how AI has evolved from the very first computer systems like ENIAC and FORTRAN  to major developments like rapid advancements and having the ability to learn like a human and generate new things on the internet and such. This takes me back in time to learn how scientists and researchers laid the foundation for artificial intelligence to achieve great things such as advanced chatbots and machine learning.I skimmed throughout this article and it really spoke out to me. It's just enough information  I needed for this assignment. It gives me just enough information I needed to complete this assignment and understand how computers are linked to how artificial intelligence came together to be. 

This article written about AI and climate change is called "AI is Pushing Climate Goals Out of Reach, News Reports Say" by Jake Bolster. This essentially discusses how dangerous AI s getting also due to Trumps administration! There are goals for climate issues called the net zero carbon emissions. The other issue is that no countries are on track to follow these goals. Another factor contributing to this issue are Big Tech companies and leaders such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Tim Cook, etc. Database servers are also pivoting to fossil fuels. This is insane and important news that everyone should be learning and informed about just as much as makeup or any content on any social media platform. Earth is our one and only liveable planet that we know of. And AI data servers plus other factors are disrupting our planet, ecosystems, homes, families, animals, oceans, etc. That's why the U.S. and other countries need to follow these climate goals in order to make significant changes to save us, our ecosystems, our animals, our oceans and most important of all our planet. A neat thing John Fleming and Jean Su said is that data servers don't typically need to powered through electricity and water but through clean and renewable energy. Why is it that we cannot pivot to these reliable and safe resources instead of using up consumables that we desperately need? 

Bolster, By Jake. “AI Is Pushing Climate Goals Out of Reach, New Reports Say - Inside Climate News.” Inside Climate News, 29 Oct. 2025, 

An article I found online called MIT News: Responding to the climate impact of generative AI by Adam Zewe. This was a great read and perfect for my research logs. At first, reading this it really kicks off with a harsh truth that society really needs to reconsider about utilizing AI so often and its impacts on Earth and why it's usage needs to be stopped in order to maintain our liveable planet. Not to worry too much because researchers and engineers from MIT to all over the globe. They've all come together to tackle this predicament with many expressive and passionate ideas to reduce AI's carbon footprint, environmental issues, limited resources such as water, reduce emissions floating in the air, etc. It's a bit difficult because for example, a gas powered car driving for 5,000 miles produces 1 ton of carbon emissions. An AI database center has the ability to produce 220 million tons! That is a lot compared to a gas-powered motor vehicle. In order to help take down the enemy, researchers from MIT and Princeton University are developing a unique piece of software called "GenX". This is supposed to help determine the placement of database centers to minimize environmental impacts plus cost all while leaving AI reliable for companies and users. This is a great step into reducing AI's carbon footprint. This article also gave a piece of advice to reduce your usage of AI and it is simply just turning off the lights or dimming them down. It's not much but it helps. Researchers and engineers are doing the best to their abilities to save us, our wildlife, our ecosystems and humanity in a suitable way. By reading this article it can influence others in a way that the words just captivates your attention. It also has this feel to it like it makes you wanna start making small changes in your life. This is full of information and history. I even myself have started making small changes in my life from constantly seeing posts throughout multiple social media platforms. 

Responding to the climate impact of generative AI. (2025, September 30). MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://news.mit.edu/2025/responding-to-generative-ai-climate-impact-0930

An article I read online called “The Two Tales of AI: A global assessment of the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence from a multidimensional policy perspective” written and published by Ibrahim Alnafrah in September 2025. This article was a great read with very well structured sentences and paragraphs with big words to make all this information about both the pros and cons of artificial intelligence's AI carbon footprint and solutions flow. Discussing the pros about AI is that they can offer solutions in areas such as energy optimization, resource management, etc. Even with all these AI advancements and the opportunities it has brought to many businesses and governments like productivity, improved efficiency, economic growth, etc. But because AI models are constantly advancing with deeper learning techniques, they require a larger amount of increased energy demand, introducing environmental challenges and complexities within the AI industry that are raising concerns among researchers. A lot of AI activity comes from using up natural resources such as fossil fuels, water, energy, copper, etc. which plummets carbon emissions into the atmosphere resulting in negative consequences for us and the environment specifically like resource depletion, e-waste, rising energy consumption, etc. Since AI poses various pros and cons in different areas this makes it difficult even challenging for researchers, policy makers, business leaders and society. Also important that we try to attempt to integrate technological progress so that it aligns with environmental goals. Many scientists and researchers from all over the world come together and come up with solutions , here is an example. One of them illuminates the idea that we need to come up with ideas for AI to do more good than harm. A lot of researchers recommend that business leaders and governments should come up with strategies or rules so that technological progress aligns with environmental goals. It matters how we utilize AI on a daily basis on different levels of our lives. For example a country with strong governance and capability will have better positive environmental outcomes. Unfortunately a lot of existing studies often overlook the consequences of the systematic environmental activities that AI poses across various sectors and nations resulting in influencing the way AI environmental impact flows, resulting in a huge research gap. To fill that research gap, a study goes under an assessment to examine how AI activities impact economic structures, environmental policies and energy systems to keep and sustain positive environmental outcomes. This study will truly show if AI can support and benefit or degrade and hinder environmental sustainability. AI-environmental nexus refers to the intricate two way relationship between artificial intelligence and the natural environment. It can both be the driver of the environmental footprint of AI and also the potential for AI to serve as a tool for environmental sustainability. For the personal connection part, it’s for this reason, this isn’t just our planet to take for granted because this is their planet too. I’m talking about various species of animals, sea animals, their ecosystems are collapsing. It’s not a good feeling knowing that animals don’t have a voice when it comes to politics and whatnot. Due to database centers taking up resources and land that may force some animal species to lose their habitat and face extinction. Like they live on this planet too and this is the only planet we can really live on because there is no planet B. It truly just makes me and others sad. Which is why it’s important that we take action and exercise these solutions and apply them into our daily basis, organizations and governments so they can align with environmental goals. Even protesting is a great way to get yourself involved with helping us, our animals and  our planet. It would be good for yourselves to do little things and changes in your daily lives such as turning the water off when you brush your teeth or even turning the light off in a room that nobody is in. Try using natural light during the day. Small changes like this can be huge for the environment. 

In this article I read called "How Human Connection Drives Innovation in the AGe of AI" by Carrie Valoquiers. She discusses how important it is to have a healthy and social work environment. It's because 82% of employees say their job has more satisfaction to it when they socialize and have nice connections with their co-workers. not only is it good for our own health and wellbeing but it also benefits the company too! Healthy connections with their work environment + co-workers leads to better businesses. What Varoquiers talks about is genuinely so true because I see better work when I'm working with my friends on assignments. And I know educators can agree with this as well because why else would we have team projects in class? So we can have a better understanding of ourselves, the things we're passionate about and to improve the project with the help of each other. Alot of other people can definitely agree with this also because human connections is so important. That's why we need to preserve these connections so we don't become the people in Wall-e.  

Varoquiers, C. (2025b, August 15). How human connection drives innovation in the age of AI. Workday Blog. https://blog.workday.com/en-us/how-human-connection-drives-innovation-age-ai.html