Beef, Cotton, and Chatbots: Putting AI’s Environmental Impact in Context
As someone who teaches and uses AI regularly, I am often asked, or informed, regarding the amount of water and energy AI uses. If you care about the environment and are skeptical about all the AI noise, this narrative is likely in your social media algorithms.
So, I wanted to take a moment and share the research in context so you can understand how your AI usage impacts the planet, how it compares with other consumption patterns, who is responsible for most of the impact, and what you can do as an AI user to be conscious of your sustainability footprint.
The Numbers Everyone Talks About (With Context Nobody Mentions)
So, the answer to the question is yes, AI uses water and energy. Data centers that power AI need cooling systems, and those systems use water. They also need electricity, and generating that electricity often uses more water.
Research estimates that AI-related data centers could use somewhere between 82 and 202 billion gallons of water globally in 2025. That sounds enormous—and it is a real number that matters.
But let's put it next to other things we do every day:
A single pound of beef requires about 1,800 gallons of water. That's counting everything from the water the cattle drink to the water used to grow their feed.
One cotton t-shirt uses around 700 gallons when you include cotton farming and processing.
Meanwhile, global beef production alone uses an estimated 660 billion gallons of water every single day.
When you ask an AI a question, it uses less than a hundredth of a fluid ounce of water.
The difference in scale is staggering.
This doesn't mean AI's water use doesn't matter. It means we need to understand what kind of problem we're actually looking at—and who has the power to solve it.
Why This Framing Should Make You Uncomfortable
Here's what's really happening when we focus all the environmental pressure on individual AI users:
We're repeating a pattern we've seen before.
Think about how sustainability conversations usually go. You're told to:
Take shorter showers, yet agriculture uses 70% of freshwater
Skip plastic straws, while corporations produce billions of tons of plastic packaging
Buy an electric car, yet freight and aviation remain largely unchanged
Bring reusable bags, though fast fashion dumps millions of tons into landfills.
The pattern is always the same: individuals are told to change their behaviors within systems they don’t control, while the organizations with the greatest impact continue operating without equivalent pressure.
And it creates a predictable outcome: everyday people feel guilty and limited, and companies continue to be more profitable and powerful.
The Real Problem: Who Decides and Who Pays
When a data center in rural Georgia uses 500,000 gallons of water per day—roughly 10% of the entire county's water supply—that's not happening because people are using ChatGPT too much.
That's happening because:
A company decided where to build that facility
Local governments approved the permits
Utilities negotiated the water contracts
Infrastructure decisions were made about cooling technology and water sources
These are system-level choices. You didn't choose this. The person asking AI for help with their resume didn't decide on it. The small business owner using AI to draft emails didn't opt for this.
Here’s the uncomfortable part: data centers are disproportionately built in communities already bearing environmental burdens, often in lower-income areas and communities of color. The economic benefits flow to tech companies and shareholders, while the environmental costs fall on residents through higher utility bills, resource strain, and limited voice.
When we focus on individual guilt, we look in the wrong direction.
The Two-Tier Trap
Here's what happens if environmental messaging about AI lands only on regular people:
Tier One—Corporations and Well-Resourced Organizations:
Deploy AI at scale to increase efficiency
Optimize operations and reduce costs
Move faster than competitors
Invest in AI infrastructure and expertise
Tier Two—Individuals and Small Players:
Hesitate to use AI because of environmental concerns
Self-limit out of ethical worry
Fall further behind in an economy increasingly shaped by these tools
Lose efficiency and leverage, and potentially their jobs
This isn't sustainability. This is creating a world where environmental consciousness becomes something that disadvantages the people who practice it, while rewarding those who ignore it.
We've seen this movie before with technology adoption. Those who adopted the internet early gained enormous advantages. Those who were told to "be careful" or "wait and see" were left behind. AI is following the same script.
The goal can't be to keep regular people from using powerful tools while corporations race ahead without accountability.
What Guilt Actually Does (And Doesn't Do)
Let's be clear about what individual guilt about AI usage accomplishes:
What it does:
Makes people feel bad
Creates anxiety about normal productivity tasks
Potentially keeps some people from accessing tools that could help them
What it doesn't do:
Change where data centers are built
Influence which cooling technologies companies use
Require water sourcing from recycled rather than potable sources
Mandate renewable energy for AI infrastructure
Create accountability for environmental impact
Give communities a voice in infrastructure decisions
Guilt is not a strategy. It's a distraction from the questions that actually matter.
The Questions That Actually Matter
If we're serious about AI and sustainability, here's where we need to focus our attention.
For Companies and Infrastructure:
Are data centers using recycled water or drawing from drinking water supplies?
Is the electricity coming from renewable sources or fossil fuels?
Are facilities being built in areas that can support them, without stressing already-limited resources?
Do the communities where data centers are located get meaningful input and benefit?
What transparency exists around actual water and energy use?
These questions require corporate accountability, regulatory standards, and public pressure—not individual abstinence.
We All Have a Role—But Our Roles Aren't Equal
Here's a more honest way to think about responsibility: the burden should scale with power and control.
A person using AI for work, learning, or creativity does not have the same accountability as:
Cloud providers operating hyper-scale data centers
Companies deploying AI across enterprise systems
Policymakers approving permits and setting standards
Utilities deciding infrastructure investments
This doesn't mean individuals have no role. It means our role is different—and pretending they're equivalent serves no one except the organizations that benefit from avoiding scrutiny.
Conscious Use: What It Actually Looks Like
If you care about sustainability and want to use AI responsibly, conscious use doesn't mean avoiding AI; it means using it like it matters—for you and for the larger systems we're all part of.
Use AI Efficiently, Not Wastefully
Learn to prompt well. Better prompts get better results with fewer attempts. Instead of generating ten mediocre outputs and hoping one works, learn to write clear, specific prompts that get you closer to what you need on the first try.
Think of it like this: asking AI ten vague questions because you're not sure what you want is like running the water while you figure out what temperature you need. Getting clearer about what you're asking for reduces unnecessary processing.
Resources for better prompting:
Most AI platforms have prompt libraries and guides
Take 20 minutes to learn the basics of clear instruction
Practice being specific about format, tone, and constraints
Don't use AI as a substitute for human connection. Some people treat AI chatbots like friends to pass the time, having long conversations that aren't serving any purpose beyond filling space. That's the digital equivalent of leaving the tap running.
AI is a tool. Use it when it helps you think more clearly, work more efficiently, learn something meaningful, or create something valuable. Skip it when you're just bored and scrolling would accomplish the same thing.
Reuse and refine instead of regenerating. If AI gives you a draft that's 80% there, edit it instead of asking for a completely new version. This is more efficient for the system and usually produces better results.
If You're Truly Concerned About Water, Look at the Whole Picture
Here's something that matters: if water use genuinely concerns you, the high-impact changes you can make have nothing to do with AI.
Consider:
Eating one less pound of beef per week saves about 1,800 gallons of water (more than thousands of AI queries)
Buying one less new cotton item saves around 700 gallons
Fixing a leaking toilet can save 200 gallons per day
Shorter showers (cutting 2 minutes) saves about 5 gallons per shower
You can use AI consciously and still have a much more positive impact by looking at consumption patterns that operate at a completely different scale.
This isn't about giving yourself permission to be wasteful with AI. It's about understanding that if water-use keeps you up at night, there are places where your choices have a far greater impact.
Demand Transparency and Accountability
One of the most powerful things you can do is refuse to accept secrecy.
When you use AI products, ask the companies:
Where are your data centers located?
What's your water source—recycled or potable?
What percentage of your energy comes from renewables?
What's your plan for reducing environmental impact?
Most companies won't have suitable answers yet. That's exactly why asking matters. Demand creates disclosure, and disclosure creates accountability.
Support policies that require:
Environmental impact assessments for new data centers
Community benefit agreements where facilities are built
Public reporting of water and energy use
Renewable energy standards for AI infrastructure
This is where individual action translates into systemic change—not through guilt, but through insistence on better standards from those with actual control.
A More Grounded Way Forward
The conversation we need about AI and sustainability isn't about whether individuals should use it. The conversation is about ensuring the infrastructure powering AI operates responsibly, transparently, and equitably.
That means:
Using AI when it genuinely helps—for efficiency, learning, problem-solving, or creation
Learning to use it well so you're not wasting resources on poor prompts and endless regeneration
Avoiding purely compulsive use that serves no real purpose
Demanding disclosure from companies about their environmental practices
Supporting policies that hold infrastructure operators to higher standards
Recognizing that your biggest water impact is probably not your AI use
What it doesn't mean:
Feeling guilty for using a tool that could help you work better or learn faster
Avoiding AI while corporations deploy it at scale without oversight
Accepting that environmental consciousness should disadvantage regular people while benefiting those who can afford to ignore it
The Bottom Line
If sustainability conversations around AI only ask everyday individuals to pause while systems speed up, we're not creating a better future—we're creating a less equitable one.
The people using AI to help with their resumes, learn new skills, run small businesses, and navigate increasingly complex systems are not the problem. The problem is the lack of accountability, transparency, and enforceable standards for the infrastructure that powers AI.
You can use AI consciously and still demand that the companies profiting from it do far better. In fact, you should, because the burden of responsibility needs to match the level of power and control.
The goal isn't less participation. The goal is smarter use by individuals and real accountability from systems.
That's how progress happens—not through guilt, not through abstinence, but through a clear-eyed understanding of where power lives and insistence that it be used responsibly.
Want to go deeper? The full research-backed analysis with detailed citations is available Here
At Hbird we use technology to run our business and have a mission to empower people with AI literacy and balanced understanding so purpose-driven initiatives. can succeed. Learn more about us at Hbirdco.com
