On the intersection of tech and climate

Did you know, every time

it wasn’t until early 2024 that I knew tech could be used to solve climate change. but the more I started reading the beautiful work that tech is doing — apps to book EV cabs, websites communicating about the impact of climate change,

soon after I came across TK’s report on how AI is highly damaging to the environment. later, I watched a reel on how tech-chauvinism is becoming a thing — how we’ve begun to imagine that we can solve every problem with tech (the day is not far when we’ll try to solve intersectional feminism with a gamified app where you make points every time you ...)

here’s some sobering data:

if the internet were a country, it would be the sixth most polluting country in the world.

and that was in 2018, when AI wasn’t a part of the picture.

every email you send releases anywhere between 4—50 grams of carbon

and every Google search you make releases about

now, we have genAI and the stats worry me:

One ChatGPT query consumes 6-10 times more energy than a traditional Web search

plus, AI’s growing energy demand is outpacing the increase in renewable energies, meaning significantly higher GHG emissions

An average hyper-scale data center, such as those used for training AI models, uses around 550,000 gallons (

2.1 million liters⁠

) of water daily. This amount could easily meet the water requirements of about 1.5 million people in Somalia for a year (rough estimate).

but it’s beyond question that the internet is now an integral part of our lives — it won’t be too much of a stretch to say that it’s become our need (right there with food, water, and house) rather than just a want. and it’s also beyond question then to even think that we could limit or avoid a widespread adoption of AI. AI is in 2024 what the internet was in 2000s.

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