Worried About AI Data Centers' Impact on the Environment? Stop Eating Beef

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is growing fast — and so are worries about how it affects the environment. AI requires large buildings called data centers to run, and those buildings use a lot of electricity and water. But experts say that when you compare AI data centers to other industries, like farming, flying, and fashion, AI is actually not the biggest problem for the planet right now.

Data centers in the United States used about 176 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2023. That sounds like a huge number, but it is only about 4.4 percent of all the electricity used in the country that year. Around the whole world, data centers make up about 1 to 2 percent of electricity use. Experts expect that number to go up as more people use AI tools.

Even so, many other industries cause much more damage to the environment. Things like growing beef, burning coal, making cement, flying on airplanes, cutting down forests, and even buying fast fashion all have bigger impacts on the planet. Alex Beene, a financial teacher at the University of Tennessee at Martin, said that data centers are not always talked about fairly. 'When compared to other economic areas like air travel and manufacturing, some data centers actually consume less energy,' he told Newsweek.

Beef production is one of the worst offenders when it comes to harming the environment. Cows release a gas called methane, which traps heat in the atmosphere even more than carbon dioxide does. Raising cattle also takes up huge amounts of land and water. Around the world, the gases produced by farm animals are greater than all the gases produced by every airplane combined — and beef is the single biggest cause of that within farming.

Coal power plants are another major source of pollution. Just one large coal plant can release millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air every year. That is often more pollution than many individual data centers produce. However, if a data center gets its electricity from coal, its environmental impact becomes much larger than one powered by solar or wind energy.

Making cement is also a huge contributor to climate change. Cement production is responsible for about 7 to 8 percent of all carbon dioxide released on Earth each year. That happens because of the fuel used to make it and the chemical reactions involved in the process. This makes cement one of the biggest industrial causes of climate change — far ahead of AI computing.

Air travel adds hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every year. A single long-distance flight can produce several tons of carbon dioxide per passenger. Even as demand for AI keeps growing, the total climate impact of aviation is still much larger. Still, some experts warn that there are other risks from AI that go beyond its effect on the environment.

The fashion industry is another big polluter. Making, shipping, and throwing away clothes creates about 10 percent of the world's carbon emissions each year. About 85 percent of all clothing and fabric ends up in the trash. On top of that, tiny plastic fibers from clothes — called microplastics — pollute the ocean, with around 500,000 tons flowing into the sea every year.

Heating and cooling homes also uses a massive amount of energy. Almost every home in the United States uses some kind of heating or air conditioning. Because so many buildings need climate control, the total pollution from heating and cooling homes is far greater than what data centers produce alone.

Cutting down forests, known as deforestation, is another serious problem. When trees are cut down, the carbon stored inside them is released into the air, contributing more to climate change than AI infrastructure does. Deforestation also destroys habitats for animals and plants, creating environmental problems that last for many years.

Cryptocurrency mining — the process of creating digital money like Bitcoin — is also extremely energy intensive. Between 2021 and 2022, Bitcoin alone used about 36 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, roughly the same as four northeastern U.S. states combined. Some reports suggest the true energy use was even higher than that.

Not everyone agrees that comparing AI to worse industries is the right way to think about the problem. Drew Powers, a financial expert from Illinois, warned against using this kind of comparison as an excuse. 'The fact of the matter is AI uses a lot of natural resources to power, and that should be concerning to everyone,' he told Newsweek.

The environmental impact of AI is expected to keep growing in the coming years. Local and state governments may need to make decisions about where data centers can be built and how they affect nearby communities. Understanding how AI compares to other industries can help people and leaders decide where to focus their efforts to protect the planet.