You don’t have to look far to see how young people are presented as champions of climate action. Sustainability has almost become part of our generations’ identity. It is something we wear proudly, something we post about, something we use to signal that we care.
But the moment environmental responsibility becomes inconvenient, the moment it impacts our day-to-day life and the habits we’ve grown accustomed to, that identity seems to fall apart.
Nowhere is that more obvious than in our growing dependence on artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT.
We rely on it for homework, research and writing, rarely pausing to consider what the cost of that convenience is. We talk about protecting the planet in class, then turn around and outsource our thinking and cognitive abilities to systems that actively atrophy it.
AI feels harmless because it lives on and is contained within a screen. It does not smoke, spill oil or clog highways. It responds instantly and without noise. That illusion makes it easy to forget that every prompt relies on massive industrial infrastructure.
Rania Masri, co-director of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, explained the severity and extent of environmental consequences resulting from our reliance on AI.
“Data centers are fueling expansive fossil fuel expansion,” Masri said. “They’re projected that in a few years, data centers in the United States are going to use as much energy as the entire country of Japan.”
That should be shocking. It should force us to stop and reconsider how casually we use these tools. Instead, people manage to scroll past it, literally. We worry about paper straws and reusable cups, but seemingly ignore energy consumption on a global scale. It appears as though it is easier to feel environmentally responsible than to actually be environmentally responsible.
Energy consumption is only part of the problem. Data centers also rely heavily on water, a resource that is already limited in North Carolina.
“Data centers are notoriously highly consumptive of water, in a state in which 98% of our counties are considered drought, two of our counties are considered severe drought,” Masri said. “We do not have water to waste.”
Additionally, while data centers and corporations drain millions of gallons of fresh water with little public disclosure or associated backlash, sustainability becomes our personal burden. This is something we should be mindful of while those same corporations’ pockets overflow with cash that’s costing us more than economically.
Masri said that communities are often paying the price for corporate expansion without receiving meaningful benefits.
“We are paying them to pollute our air, to use our water, to transform our land and to take away our jobs,” Masri said. “It’s a no-brainer to me that we oppose data centers and generative artificial intelligence.”
Public money and public resources help keep these data centers running, even as they damage nearby communities. Students are helping fund systems that contradict the values we claim to care about. We are told to do our part while corporations are given permission to do whatever is profitable.
At the same time, the usefulness of generative AI is often overstated. Many companies promote it as an essential innovation, even when its practical value is questionable.
“Generative artificial intelligence is being designed as a product in search of a market,” Masri said. “It is not in response to a market need.”
In other words, we are being sold something we never asked for and told we cannot live without it.
The choice to buy into AI matters because climate change is not theoretical; it is happening right now. Climate change is not an abstract issue. It affects access to food, water and clean air. Treating environmentally harmful technologies as though they have no long-term consequence is merely a result of short-term convenience.
You’ll just ask one question? You’ll just draft this one email? You just need help with that one chemistry problem?
This is not about being perfect, it is about being honest. You cannot claim to care about the planet while ignoring systems that actively harm it just because they make your life easier. Environmentalism that collapses under pressure is not environmentalism at all. It is performance.
None of this means we are stuck on this path. The systems behind AI were built by people, and they can be changed by people.
“Data centers are not inevitable,” Masri said. “Generative artificial intelligence is not inevitable. This is a fight we could possibly win.”
That means we have a responsibility. Students can ask professors for clear policies on AI use. They can support campus organizations focused on environmental justice, such as the Campus Community Alliance for Environmental Justice. They can choose not to use AI as their first instinct and treat these tools as last resorts instead of default settings.
Most importantly, they can stop letting convenience dictate their values.
If we want to be taken seriously as advocates for climate justice, our beliefs must show up in our habits. Sustainability cannot disappear when deadlines approach. Caring about the planet means choosing effort over ease, even when no one is watching.
If our generation truly wants to confront climate change, we must start by confronting our own contradictions. Until then, sustainability will remain a slogan rather than a practice.
