Have you recently felt anxious about the current climate crisis and wished there was something easy for you to do about it? The simple solution to this would be to stop using generative artificial intelligence (AI).
To be clear, this is not about the traditional AI that is embedded into social media and search engines. This is not about targeted advertisements or intuitive Google searches. This is about a dangerous tool that has no place in the hands of the impressionable public.
In basic terminology, when a computer server functions, a lot of heat is generated and that heat needs to be cooled by using an internal, water cooling system to lower the temperature so it remains stable. On that note, according to the AI Water Footprint Calculator created by Steven Wooding and Livia Catran Azaria, the water usage of just one person asking Chat-GPT roughly eight questions per day for one calendar year amounts to over 220 bottles of fresh water. And if all Algonquin students, roughly 1,200 kids, did this then it would amount to around 264,000 bottles of drinking water.
In a world where generative artificial intelligence is advancing at a terrifyingly rapid rate, we as a society must truly understand the impact that this tool has on our environment before its effects are irreversible.
A 2025 study at MIT estimated that the power necessities for generative AI data centers in North America had increased from 2,688 megawatts [a power unit equal to a million watts] in 2022 to 5,341 megawatts in 2023, which corresponds with the launch of Chat-GPT in Nov. 2022 and the wide-spread usage that followed. Globally, the data centers’ consumption of electricity went up to 460 terawatt-hours [a unit of measurement that calculates how much heat energy/electricity is used] in 2022. Researchers from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development explained that these data centers are the 11th largest consumer of electricity on the planet, with the entire nations of Saudi-Arabia being 10th and France being 12th.
In an Aug. 2025 article by the Associated Press, Noman Bashir, Computing and Climate Impact Fellow at MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) and a postdoc in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), explained that this use is not environmentally sustainable.
“The demand for new data centers cannot be met in a sustainable way,” Bashir said. “The pace at which companies are building new data centers means the bulk of the electricity to power them must come from fossil fuel-based power plants.”
Asking just one query to a generative AI program uses up to 23 times more energy than typing a question into a traditional search engine. It begs the question, why is everyone so careless with it?
Some people are not aware or only marginally aware of the damage it’s causing, but others are making the choice to be willfully ignorant; saying things like, ‘Oh but it’s just so convenient.’ They claim that its usefulness outweighs what they believe are minimal downsides. I acknowledge that it has helped people with things, like creating study schedules and test prep, and makes certain things in life easier. But the truth is that there are consequences that come with convenience and the repercussions are simply not worth it.
Generative AI isn’t necessary. You want an image of something specific? Make it yourself, photobash it or pay an actual artist. You have a spur of the moment question? Ask someone, Google it, research it or just let it go. You ‘need it’ for your school work? Go for extra help with your teachers, hire a tutor or just think for yourself.
No one truly needs generative AI, and as a society we are better off without it and all the harm it brings. It’s encouraging anti-social behavior, dulling brain function and causing cognitive atrophy, poisoning our already deteriorating planet and lining the pockets of apathetic tech billionaires who don’t care at all that any of these horrible things are happening. On just January 20th of this year, the U.N. declared that the world is officially entering a fresh water bankruptcy. And I haven’t even begun to talk about the jobs it’s taking from artists, musicians, writers and other creatives. In fact, according to a Harbinger survey of 135 students conducted via Google Forms from Jan. 13 to Jan. 15, 50% of respondents fear how quickly generative AI is advancing, and 37% worry about it replacing them in their future career.
I encourage everyone to halt their use of generative AI, both for the good of the planet and for the good of humanity. Be empathetic, and think about the world outside of yourself. Asking a chatbot what you should order at Starbucks is not worth all of this, also Starbucks utilizes child labor so you shouldn’t go there anyways.
If you care about anything other than yourself, you will stop using generative artificial intelligence, or at least pause and truly think about the consequences for yourself, other people and the planet before you do.
