Ai wastes water and is harmful to the environment.

Question

The Guardian: ais-craving-for-data-is-matched-only-by-a-runaway-thirst-for-water-and-energy

 

Answer 1

This claim is partially true, according to data from foodandwaterwatch.org. AI systems do require a lot of energy and water, mostly through the data centers that power them. Water is used to cool servers and also indirectly through power plants that generate electricity. For example, a single AI training run can use hundreds of thousands of liters of water, and researchers predict AI could consume more water than the UK by 2027. This is especially concerning in places already dealing with drought. However, only a few drops are used per use.

https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2025/04/09/artificial-intelligence-water-climate

Comments

I agree with your conclusion, as the article doesn't specify technical measurements, even though the main claim is true. However, I believe the article states that the predicted AI water consumption would reach more than half of the UK’s annual water consumption, which highlights some technical inaccuracies in your response.

Answer 2

This claim is true about AI being harmful for the environment.

https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about: This piece of evidence from the United Nations Environment Program explains how the usage of artificial intelligence does lead to longterm environmental effects due to its massive energy consumption and the overall usage of resources. Additionally, the houses that store AI servers lead to a lot of electronic waste, as well as the exposure of planet warming greenhouse gases. The UN Environment Program states, "a request made through ChatGPT, an AI-based virtual assistant, consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google Search, reported the International Energy Agency." This is a massive amount of energy lost that is almost just "wasted" instead of being used for a better reason.

https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117: MIT News also supports the claim that Artificial Intelligence has long-lasting consequences on our environment. They state how a great deal of water is being used on a constant basis during every search during AI use. This abnormal use of water can affect local ecosystems as well as strain the actual storage of water.

https://earth.org/the-green-dilemma-can-ai-fulfil-its-potential-without-harming-the-environment/:  Alokya Kanungo states, "E-waste contains hazardous chemicals, including lead, mercury, and cadmium, that can contaminate soil and water supplies and endanger both human health and the environment." This quote from Kunango supports the fact that there a numerous environmental consequences that stem from the usage of AI throughout our nation and others around the world.

Answer 3

This claim is true as AI is harmful to the environment. According to an article on https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about, it explains how even though AI is helping us with jobs and solving problems and all of the positives it has, but when it comes to the environment there is a negative side to AI. The article says that "The proliferating data centers that house AI servers produce electronic waste. They are large consumers of water, which is becoming scarce in many places. They rely on critical minerals and rare elements, which are often mined unsustainably. And they use massive amounts of electricity, spurring the emission of planet-warming greenhouse gases. " and that is just what we know. Sally Radwan, the Chief Digital Officer of the United Nations Environment Programme said that “There is still much we don’t know about the environmental impact of AI but some of the data we do have is concerning,” another article I was looking at was https://hbr.org/2024/07/the-uneven-distribution-of-ais-environmental-impacts and this article was done by Shaolei Ren and Adam Wierman. In this article they explained the rapid growth of AI technology but also highlighted the environmental effects AI has. They stated that, "the training process for a single AI model, such as a large language model, can consume thousands of megawatt hours of electricity and emit hundreds of tons of carbon. This is roughly equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of hundreds of households in America" They also expanded on how these impacts are expected to escalate considerably as the demand in AI is only increasing. The last article I looked at was https://medium.com/@techempire/every-time-you-use-chatgpt-half-a-litre-of-water-goes-to-waste-really-e37a069ba2b0, and it talked about the cooling systems for AI data centers. it said that "Water comes into the picture because many data centers use water-based cooling systems. Water absorbs heat efficiently, making it a practical choice for cooling." And keeping servers cool is essential because overheating can damage the AI equipment and hinder its performance. 

Answer 4

this is somewhat true, after researching this further, Penn State institute of energy and enviornment has an article that dives deeper into this topic. their article talks about how AI data centers take up 4.4% of national electricity, and that those numbers could triple by 2028. the article talks about the cooling systems take up vast amounts of water, which is bad for drout areas. we need the tech industry to adopt greener practices, https://iee.psu.edu/news/blog/why-ai-uses-so-much-energy-and-what-we-can-do-about-it

Answer 5

https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117

https://earth.org/the-green-dilemma-can-ai-fulfil-its-potential-without-harming-the-environment/

While Ai offers immense potential it also comes with many serious environmental challenges. MIT News says that training these Ai models uses a large amount of electricity and water. Most data centers use tons of water to cool its servers, this strains freshwater resources and contributes significantly to carbon emissions. Beyond this Ai generates lots of waste when disposing of the hardware. The toxic substances like lead or mercury contaminates the soil and water of the surrounding areas. All this together creates a growing problem of ecological damage unless we begin to focus on sustainability.

Answer 6

The central claim of the article published by The Guardian is that AI has increased the water and energy consumption of large data centers.

Throughout the article, The Guardian presents numerous statistics and evidence from multiple sources, all of which are linked and cited. After examining all the cited sources, I found that most of the works are from highly reputable sources and are published in research studies. I would put my faith in every piece of evidence the Guardian presents to us.

Through my own research, I have also found multiple other studies that support the Guardian's claims. Findings from the EESI state, "Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people." and "With larger and new AI-focused data centers, water consumption is increasing alongside energy usage and carbon emissions." (1). Both of these pieces of evidence not only support but also go hand in hand with the evidence and claims made by The Guardian.

Another article from Stanford University stated that "in 2014, U.S. data centers used 21.2 billion liters of water. By 2023, 84 percent of the water was used to run the larger 'hyperscale' centers, and the total water use had tripled to 66 billion liters" (2). Once again, supporting the claims and evidence made by The Guardian.

Ultimately, the claims and evidence made by The Guardian have been proven factual and backed up by countless other reliable sources and studies.

1)https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption

2)https://andthewest.stanford.edu/2025/thirsty-for-power-and-water-ai-crunching-data-centers-sprout-across-the-west/

The Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/02/ais-craving-for-data-is-matched-only-by-a-runaway-thirst-for-water-and-energy