Is Every Innovation Safe?
By ISNA Green Initiative Team
Nov/Dec 25
The adoption of AI technologies has accelerated rapidly across virtually every sector of society. Artificial intelligence (AI) brings with it both anticipation and apprehension even though its influence on the future is undeniable. Proponents claim that AI offers solutions to pressing global challenges including climate change and drought mitigation. Yet alongside this promise lies the growing reality of increasingly large and energy-intensive neural networks. The resource demands of these complex systems raise profound concerns regarding AI’s environmental sustainability.
AI and Energy
AI is an umbrella term encompassing a set of technologies designed to process information and, at least superficially, mimic human cognition. Early forms of AI date back to the 1950s, but recent advancements in computational power and the exponential growth of training data have fueled its development. Marketed as a transformative tool capable of providing guidance on everything from personal decision-making to professional tasks, AI is often imagined as an omnipresent advisor in everyday life.
But the infrastructure needed to sustain this expansion is vast. According to Business Insider, 1,240 data centers had already been built or approved for construction by the end of 2024. Major technology corporations — Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta — are engaged in a race to dominate the AI landscape, announcing unprecedented increases in infrastructure spending. Amazon alone plans over $100 billion in capital expenditures, while Microsoft forecasts a record $30 billion, Google anticipates an additional $10 billion, and Meta projects further increases in its existing spending plans.
These facilities, however, are highly energy and water intensive. For instance, an AI data center currently under construction in Cheyenne, Wyoming is projected to consume more electricity than all the residential households in the state combined. Large-scale data centers may use up to 5 million gallons of water daily, the equivalent consumption of a town of 10,000 to 50,000 residents. “The rapid expansion of data centers processing the vast amounts of information used for AI and crypto mining is forcing grid operators to plan for new contingencies and complicating the already difficult task of balancing the country’s supply and demand of electricity,” stated a report by Reuters. These pressures not only strain electric grids but also elevate the risk of power outages, particularly as on-site backup generators prioritize the protection of facilities over the broader public good.
The scale of investment underscores the concentration of resources: billions of dollars in infrastructure are being directed toward serving a handful of corporate mega-customers. This expansion requires additional transmission lines, generators, and associated infrastructure, driving massive expenditures for utilities and energy suppliers. Beyond environmental consequences, such costs raise serious concerns for ordinary consumers. Utilities, state governments, and municipalities have often courted data centers for economic gains, but the financial burden of meeting their enormous energy requirements is disproportionately shifted onto households and smaller industries. A Newsweek report indicated that rising data center demand contributed to a 6.5% increase in energy prices between May 2024 and May 2025. Similarly, research by Monitoring Analytics, an independent market watchdog in the Mid-Atlantic, found that 70% ($9.3 billion) of the 2024 increase in electricity costs was attributable to data center demand.
Forecasts indicate this trajectory will only intensify. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s United States Data Center Energy Usage Report (2024), prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy, projects that between 2023 and 2028, the electricity consumption of data centers will rise substantially, accounting for an estimated 6.7% to 12% of total U.S. electricity use by 2028.
Cryptocurrency
Crypto mining is the process through which computers validate cryptocurrency transactions and add them to a blockchain, a digital public record. Solving complex encryption puzzles of crypto mining requires specialized and powerful computers. Bitcoin, the original and most popular cryptocurrency, and other currencies use a system known as proof-of -work, a decentralized mining process for verifying and adding new transactions to blockchain. It is fundamental to ensure a secure, unchangeable, and censorship-resistant record.
These operations require the use of enormous amounts of electricity and water. The decentralized nature of crypto mining also means that multiple miners compete to solve these problems, leading to even higher energy and water consumption. An oversight group estimated that Bitcoin has a global annualized energy consumption that matches Poland’s annual power consumption. One Bitcoin transaction uses as much energy as hundreds of thousands of credit card transactions.
Energy-intensive crypto mining strains local electric grids, raises electricity rates for residents, and increases local air and water pollution. A 2024 report by the U.S. Energy Administration (EIA) says electricity demand associated with U.S. cryptocurrency mining operations in the United States has increased rapidly over the last several years. Its preliminary estimates suggest that annual electricity use from cryptocurrency mining probably represents from 0.6% to 2.3% of U.S. electricity consumption.
Environmental Impact
AI data centers and crypto mining facilities significantly influence the environment as they devour vast amounts of electricity and water among other materials.
- Increased demand: Electricity mostly is generated by fossil fuel-operated plants, many of which are old. The recent relaxation of regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency will encourage the use of highly polluting electricity generation, placing further strain on power grids that often rely on fossil fuels.
- Greenhouse Gas Emission: The burning of fossil fuels to power data centers releases significant amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases which contributes to rising global temperatures.
- Air Pollution: Data centers and their associated power plants release harmful pollutants like fine particulate matter which negatively affect human health and contribute to conditions such as asthma and heart disease.
Resource Depletion
- Water Usage: AI Data and crypto mining hardware require large volumes of water, straining local resources, particularly in regions already facing scarcity, and threatening local water supplies.
- Mineral Extraction: The manufacturing of AI chips and hardware relies on critical minerals and rare elements. Mining these minerals depletes natural resources and causes excessive environmental degradation.
Electronic Waste
- Short lifespans and hazards: The hardware used by data centers, such as graphics processing units (GPU), have a short lifespan, leading to a significant and growing problem of electronic waste. This waste contains hazardous substances that contaminate soil and water if not disposed of properly.
Public Health Impacts
- Air Quality: Air pollutants from the power plants and backup generators that serve data centers can have severe public health consequences including increased rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
- Vulnerable Communities: Along with potentially developing health concerns, residents near crypto mining centers must deal with continuous mechanical and construction noise pollution.
To offset the harm caused by data centers, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) has recommended five main actions for countries to follow:
- Establish standardized procedures for measuring the environmental impact of AI. As of right now, there’s a dearth of reliable information on the subject.
- With support from UNEP, governments can develop regulations requiring companies to disclose the direct environmental consequences of AI-based products and services.
- Tech companies must make AI algorithms more efficient while recycling water and reusing components where feasible.
- Governments should encourage companies to construct green data centers by using renewable energy and offsetting their carbon emissions.
- Governments must consider the AI industry and related business interests with their articulated environmental regulations.
Due to the race for dominance in AI among global political powers, a comprehensive agreement may not be possible. However, if the builders of increasingly energy-needy data centers are serious about the environmental impact of these projects, they can reduce their effect on the climate by powering them with renewable energy rather than fossil fuels. Regardless, residents in these areas might still see their electricity bills increase as utilities have to compensate for massive data projects on the grid. This is almost always achieved by passing additional costs onto residential consumers.
As always, the ISNA Green Initiative Team requests all to be advocates of environmental sustainability as a responsibility ordained by God to us as guardians of this earth.
ISNA Green Initiative team: Huda Alkaff; Saffet Catovic; Nana Firman; Uzma Mirza; S. Masroor Shah (Chair).
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