The call for climate solutions is impossible to ignore. As storms impact every reach of the globe, many organizations, nonprofits, and governments are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help. But is that really the answer?

The environmental price of AI is just as massive, if not much greater, than its potential. AI consumes water to power its cooling stations at rates much higher than typical web searches, with a bottle of water lost per every ChatGPT request. The enormous amount of power to run AI models worsens air quality. The rare earth minerals required to build the hardware contaminate water and soil. And building the data centers can leave local communities polluted and displaced. In this week’s Climate Justice newsletter, we ask: Is it worth it?

First, AI has the possibility to assist climate change researchers. But along with its own outsized ecological footprint, AI has often entrenched inequality for marginalized communities. Next, we hear from NTEN’s Amy Sample Ward on the pressure nonprofit professionals often face to adopt new tools under the false urgency of “falling behind.” Then, an article from Nonprofit Quarterly Magazine’s winter 2024 issue calls for establishing parameters rooted in love, equity, and justice to guide AI’s continued development and deployment. Finally, all our answers don’t have to come from new technology. The return to an ancient, Indigenous practice shows potential for sustainability and feeding communities.