By: Elle Shi, Grade 7
We’ve heard of AI impacting day-to-day life, both good and bad, but have you heard of its impact on our environment?
Artificial Intelligence is becoming an essential part of the new “modern” life, influencing all aspects of life from communication to healthcare and education. As AI continues to advance, its environmental impact is gaining attention, and while AI can be a powerful tool for creating ideas to help our environment, it also impacts our environment in ways that cannot be ignored.
However, AI can and has significantly improved our society and the workloads of workers, especially in this age of digital jobs. It can handle boring, repetitive tasks faster and more accurately than people and can reduce human error.
But how does this affect our environment?
Since AI systems are able to process massive amounts of data quickly, it allows scientists to monitor climate changes, deforestation, and wildlife populations more accurately. It has advanced time efficiency in researching for those on a tight timeline and can be a helpful virtual assistant for daily tasks.
One major concern for the continuous use of AI is energy consumption. Training and operating large AI models and data centers require powerful computers that use huge amounts of electricity. A MIT research paper says that the “…power required to train generative AI models … such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, can demand a staggering amount of electricity.” Many data centers depend on fossil fuels, which increases carbon emissions and contributes to climate change already happening. Another issue is electronic waste. AI systems rely on advanced hardware, and with the quickly evolving generations of AI, that becomes outdated quickly, leading to discarded electronics that can pollute our environment with toxic chemicals like mercury if not properly recycled. Water usage is also a major concern because many data centers require large amounts of water to cool their equipment, placing stress on local water supplies.
In conclusion, AI has both positive and negative effects on our environment. It can help improve work efficiency and eliminate errors, but it also consumes significant resources like water and produces waste that harms our environment. By examining and studying both the positive and negative sides of using AI, we can understand how to use AI responsibly to help ourselves and our environment.
Works Cited:
Lumenalta. “Positive Impacts of AI for Good.” Lumenalta, Lumentalta, 5 Sept. 2024, lumenalta.com/insights/the-positive-impact-of-ai-for-good. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
UN Environment Programme. “AI Has an Environmental Problem. Here’s What the World Can Do about That.” UN Environment Programme, 13 Nov. 2025, www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
Zewe, Adam. “Explained: Generative AI’s Environmental Impact.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT News, 17 Jan. 2025, news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
