How AI is Bad for the Planet: Fighting Data centers, CO2 emissions, and more

We are now three years into the age of ubiquitous generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), and well, things are not going well.  The world is not a better place for it; most people’s lives are not a better place for it, society is not better for it, and the ecosystem is certainly not better for it. If we think about the direction–nurturing, connected, nature-focused– that humanity could to tackle climate change, the 6th mass extinction, and build better human societies, AI is moving us in the opposite direction.

In my previous writings on AI, I have focused primarily on the implications of Generative AI use for various aspects of practices connected to druidry and nature spirituality. In 2022, I wrote about AI-generated images and their impact on artists and on human creativity. Then people started using AI to generate spiritual tools, like tarot decks, as well as rituals and so forth, so I wrote about that in 2023.  And then people started to use AI to help them read their astrology chart or as a divination system, and I tackled that in 2024.  These things still ring true and are even worse now than when I wrote about it to begin with.

But now, as things are getting worse quickly with AI, I want to focus my comments more generally about AI what are shaping up to be some very long-term detrimental impacts: for people and planet.  I will be sharing both stories from my community as we try to fight the largest AI-fracked natural gas data center planned for the USA and the harm AI causes the planet (this post), as well as from some of my ongoing professional research as a learning researcher who studies long-term development (next post = AI is bad for people).  And I want to create a space, with this post, to share how AI is affecting you, your community, and your ecosystem.

Collective Insanity in the Age of AI

We need to begin our discussion by talking about collective insanity. This is the term that I and a growing number of others use to describe the current civilization’s obsession with efficiency, money, and growth at all costs.  And…growth at all costs is now quickly becoming growth at the cost of all of us on this planet (human, plant, insect, fish, animal, bird…etc)

We live in a time of collective insanity–people have lost their minds and routinely do things that are not in the best interest of themselves, their children, future generations of any beings, or all life.  Even when the warning signs about planetary limits have become glaringly obvious, people continue to stick their heads in the sand and continue on their path, some in full denial and others in avoidance.  Collective insanity is also present in the idea that, regardless of how bad things get, this civilization just can’t stop. I feel like I’m on the Titanic: we’ve hit the iceberg, the ship is taking on water and sinking,  and people are pretending they don’t hear the alarms, while still drinking their tea and eating their crumpets.  And soon, the boat will end up in the bottom of the ocean.

Humans have known since the 1960’s that by 2025, we would be seeing serious effects of climate change.  Donella Meadows and company wrote The Limits to Growth in the 1970’s–which included many computer models that have proven to quite accurate in many cases (here’s an analysis from 2009; here’s another from 2022).  What is particularly bad right now is that the data coming in from 2025 suggests that we’ve been under-reporting and climate collapse is happening faster than the UN predicted–with the first tipping point being reached this year and being reported on this month.

Collective insanity is ignoring those warnings that we have literally known for sixty years (longer than many of us have been alive) and ignoring every warning and instead, continuing to pursue progress, growth, and efficiency–and ultimately, greed, money, and narcissistic thinking and actions. At this point, imagine humanity lives in a big house, and that house is the Earth.  If there is a fire in your pantry, do you keep pretending everything is fine?  Hence the term collective insanity–there is nothing sane about this.   Collective insanity is happening now, and rather than weakening, it seems to be getting stronger–and GenAI is the next phase  of humanity’s ongoing collective insanity.

The Age of the AI Data Center

As I write this, citizen groups all over the United States, including in multiple locations in my home state of Pennsylvania, are fighting against large-scale data centers.  Where I live, two years ago, the Homer City Coal Power plant was closed, and this coal plant was in the top three of the highest polluters in the US.  When it was closed down, many rejoiced because air quality standards went up dramatically, and there was no more CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere.

Now, a mere 2 years later, this new company has bought the old power plant, along with a lot of surrounding farmland and forests, to create this entire massive data campus–which they are proudly saying will be the largest in the United States.  Apparently, here in Indiana county, PA, we do things in extremes. You might take a look at the image partway down in the link I just posted–as you see, the data campus is not limited to just where the old power plant was, which was still pretty far from Homer City but instead, but is literally next to town.  These plans have only come out in the lat few weeks, long after any chance of people fighting its existence.  Even people who were initially supportive are now very upset locally because of these maps.

I first learned about the Homer City Data Center back in the spring, when apparently it had already gotten a full green light from the Governor’s office, local officials, and anyone else they could possibly find to sign off on it.  I learned about it when, without any public notice, the company blew up several old smokestacks, sending toxic plumes up into the air, again, without public notice.  Since this power plant was routinely cited for all sorts of awful emissions containing heavy metals, you can only imagine what was in that debris and dust cloud.

In working with some of our state-wide activist groups, what I’ve learned since then is that the project has been fast-tracked at local,  state and federal levels, which means there were no public hearings about whether or not we wanted this,  no opportunities for citizens to mobilize or fight back, especially since all government agencies were paving the way for it.  By the time we all learned about it, it was a done deal, and literally every government agency (even in a so-called democratic state) talking about it, and touting it as progress. Now, as more details are emerging, citizens are starting to get concerned, especially after the map of the sprawling campus was released, and we are hearing from other communities about the noise, pollution, environmental costs, and higher utility and water bills.

I’m heartened to hear how citizen groups are fighting back hard–and in some cases winning–in other places. But in our case, the land has already been purchased with multiple farms and landowners selling, the city and state officials have already given the green light, and poor and disadvantaged people are excited about the idea of more jobs in this very economically depressed area–even when the number of jobs that remain after construction will be minimal. As I’ve written about before, this land where I live has a history of extraction, and people here take environmental tradeoffs for work all the time--it is cultural.  And it is very sad.  And, there are other ways to localize our economy–but we don’t talk about that in collective insanity.

Our best fight now comes in the opportunity to get stricter environmental standards through our state’s Department of Environmental Protection and fight based on the state’s Environmental Rights Amendment, which guarantees clean air, water, and the preservation of the environment for future generations to come.  The data centers, tech companies, and fracking companies have a lot more money and power.  Still, we are fighting the fight.  This is part of the collective insanity we find ourselves living in today.

I’ve been sharing about this in various places online and among my friends, and the thing that I keep hearing is “oh, my community is getting one too.”  It seems everywhere you turn, more and more data centers are popping up and nobody is happy about it except those that are profiting.  And now our community is going to pay the price–is yours too?

The Steep Cost of AI on Planet and People

Data centers have already been shown to drive up regional electricity costs by over 250% because they are energy hogs and create a demand for even more electricity. Many people here in the US, already struggling with high costs, are being priced out of being able to pay for electricity to run their homes.  Winter is coming, and electric bills rose by 20% just this month alone in my state.

The increasing demand for energy means we will see even more fracking, more resource extraction, more fossil fuels being burned, more deforestation, and more air pollution.  For us here in Pennsylvania, many are seeing large-scale ramp-ups both of traditional coal mining and of fracking.  What is important to understand here is that Pennsylvania is fossil fuel-rich, but easy opportunities for gas and coal are all gone, so the new methods are particularly destructive–and that’s why fracking exists.  Fracking is a horrific practice that damages groundwater and streams, causes deforestation, and disrupts ecosystems.  I have done a great deal of land healing around fracking sites and gas wells.  The other thing to realize is that people don’t own the mineral rights to their land–someone else does. So while you might own the land and the surface of your land, someone else owns underneath it and can do whatever they want to extract those resources, including bringing equipment onto your property or digging mines under your house. In fact, both my parents and I have mines actively being dug under our houses now that weren’t there 10 years ago.  It really does make you feel very powerless.

Then there’s the water. Data centers are guzzlers of water, consuming up to five million gallons of water a day (which is about what a town of 40,000 – 50,000 humans would consume). In our case, not only will the AI Data center use millions of gallons of water from our Two Lick creek, it will also cause the loss of 500 feet of stream and loss of wetland habitat (which is now under review by our Department of Environmental Protection).

Data centers are also heavy polluters, releasing PFAS (forever chemicals), and various kinds of noxious chemicals into the air.  The chemical that is coming up a a lot we fight our data center’s emissions is ammonia–so apparently the whole town will smell like cat pee.

Perhaps the worst is that these data centers are making climate change worse–and quickly. Carbon emissions here are huge —he data center they are trying to build here will emit up to 17,000,000 tons of CO2 annually, which will be literally three times more of any facility in my state.  This plant alone will set the state back years in our emissions goals and will quickly speed up climate change for our region and well, for all of you too.   This truly horrifying video from NASA in 2025 shows carbon emissions globally– and right there in the horrible churing burning emissions, was the Homer City plant.

Now, if everything else I’ve just written in this section isn’t insane enough, here’s where the collective insanity really starts to come in. Up until a few years ago,  most companies used to have climate goals, but those goals have largely been abandoned.  Tech companies have abandoned their climate goals right when AI came out because it was obvious to them that they couldn’t have both AI and climate goals. At this point, many of them are flat out saying they don’t care about the cost to the climate.   I think we are in a situation where the rich and powerful, including those in the highest level of government, have decided to let it all burn, even to pursue a scorched earth policy.  This is insane, these people are criminals, and we need to fight for our future. .

As I step back from what is happening in my community, I ask: how many data centers are being built right now around the world? In PA alone, they are trying to build over 10 different facilities. The world has already blown past 1.5 degrees C, and when we get close to 2 degrees C, we start to see the breakdown of the entire Earth’s biosphere.

And we aren’t done with the collective insanity yet:  let’s talk about the next phase of AI – artificial general intelligence (AGI).  Perhaps you’ve seen this website.  Likely coming our way in the next few years, this is human-like AI that can not only solve problems like a human could, think like a human, but also learn, self-direct, and teach itself.  Remember all of those stories about machines that got out of control and tried to wipe out all life (Star Trek’s Borg, Star Gate’s replicators, the Matrix…you get it)?  Yep, those kinds of machines. This isn’t fantasy; unfortunately, it is just collective insanity. The same tech companies that are destroying our planet with AI data centers also realize the potentially destructive force of AGI and how it could destroy all of humanity.  These companies are now publicly on the record saying that before the release AGI, they are building bunkers because they know how badly it could fuck the world.  These are the actions of people who have gone utterly insane. They cannot stop, they do not care about the cost, and they will keep moving forward regardless of the risks to people and planet.

Reflecting on What to Do

Perhaps this information will give you pause and have you reconsider your own use and/or advocacy of AI. Perhaps it will make you stop paying for paid versions of these technologies, stop using them, and even start advocating against them in your family, workplace, and community.  These are not neutral technologies, and they are destructive to the planet and will absolutely speed up the ecological collapse and climate change.  They are also being created by people who are truly insane and do not care about the future of the world. And they are showing up in all of our backyards–including mine.  Is your backyard next?

When I think about all of the things I’ve been practicing and living on this blog: Sacred Actions, permaculture, rewilding, regeneration of ecosystems–these are the answers.  These are the solutions.  The more of us that can embrace these–especially on a community level–the more that we no longer need their systems, their technology, and their data centers.  At least here in the US, our society has stopped working for most of us a while ago.  It’s time that we build something new right under the existing structure, so as it collapses, we have something to fall back on.  In my community, that looks like mutual aid groups, free herbalism classes, community gardens, building stronger friendships and social groups, and learning how to bring our power and our production back into our own hands.  I’ve written about these larger movements here–and if you were on the fence about it, it is a good time to choose a new path.

I’ve been writing about this stuff on this blog for almost two decades now.  We already have the answers and tools we need, the question is how to employ them while we are all still so emeshed in this collective insanity.  But as things grow less and less stable and that broader collective insanity civilization is providing less and less needs, people are transitioning, many out of necessity.

But this is also personal for me. These days, I try to stay off the screen as much as I can.  I lean into the things I enjoy doing–writing, painting, working with my hands, foraging and growing food, herbal medicine making, teaching real humans in person, hanging with my geese, going in the woods, and so on.  This fall, we’ve spent a lot of time outside, cooking food in the earth oven and just being outside, leaving the phones in the house. Doing all of this makes me feel true to my nature-based spiritual path and true to my very skilled ancestors, who lived directly from the land. And I find people who share my values to spend time with and who keep me sane in this insane world.  I am not interested in AI, I try to engage with it as little as possible, and I try to share this information with others who will listen.

But I hope some of the above helps you consider your own principled stance with regard to these technologies.

I’d also love to hear from readers: feel free to share how AI is affecting you, your community, your life, and your ecosystem.  Do the ideas I’ve shared resonate? What is your perspective?

Reminder: New Book Release – Free Webinar!

In things that are helping end collective insanity and moving us forward with hope–I have some news about my new book!

Nate Summers and I will be holding a new book release webinar this Tuesday, Nov 11th, from 8:30 – 10:00 pm Eastern Time.  We will share about the new book and how nature spirituality can help build a better world through rewilding, reconnection, reenchantment, and more!   You can sign up for a link here!