Environmental groups embrace AI despite its environmental costs

Environmental groups worldwide are using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze climate data, track forest fires and count endangered wildlife – embracing a technology they also warn is driving a surge in electricity demand, water use and greenhouse-gas emissions.

The tension is forcing organizations to weigh AI's benefits for conservation against the environmental costs of the data centers powering it.

Reuters interviewed 15 major environmental, conservation and development organizations. All said they used AI in some form and expressed concern about its environmental impact.

"We recognize that AI can come with environmental costs, and we need to be thoughtful about how we use it," said Ali Swanson, AI lead at Conservation International.

The nonprofit recently began using AI to assess satellite-detected hotspots and alert community forest patrols to potential wildfires in remote, environmentally sensitive parts of Cambodia.

Those applications come as data centers expand, requiring large amounts of electricity and water.

The International Energy Agency estimates global data centers will consume about 945 terawatt-hours of electricity annually by 2030 – roughly double current consumption and about equal to Japan's annual electricity use.

It also projects their annual water consumption will rise from about 560 billion liters in 2023 to approximately 1.2 trillion liters by 2030. These figures cover data centers overall, rather than AI alone.

Microsoft, Amazon and Google have reported rising emissions linked partly to data center expansion, raising questions about their ability to meet their climate targets.

Amazon told Reuters its AI products were among the most sustainable, citing low-carbon energy purchases and efforts to improve power and water efficiency. Microsoft and Google did not respond to requests for comment.

Accelerating conservation work

Many organizations told Reuters they believe AI's benefits currently outweigh its costs because it enables work that was previously difficult, expensive or impossible.

Kenya's Save the Elephants uses machine learning to improve population surveys and study elephant communication.

An aerial survey of Kenya's largest protected area last year produced roughly 200,000 images that took nine people nine months to review, said chief executive Frank Pope. AI can now complete similar analyses in hours.

"The results have been eye-opening," Pope said. "We found that human surveys were missing about a third of the elephants, roughly half of zebras and giraffes, and three-quarters of oryx populations."

More accurate wildlife data can help secure conservation financing, he said.

At the Jane Goodall Institute, researchers are using AI to digitize decades of handwritten notes on chimpanzee behavior in Tanzania's Gombe National Park.

The work was expected to take 13 to 15 years because the records used the local Kiha language and scientific shorthand. A tool developed with Amazon Web Services has reduced the estimated timeline to about two years, said Lilian Pintea, the institute's vice president of conservation science.

Goodall supported AI's use in conservation provided people retained control, Pintea said.

"AI technology should be seen as tools which are human-centered," he said.

Limiting the environmental impact

Some organizations are experimenting with ways to limit the environmental impact of their AI use.

The World Resources Institute limits resource-intensive applications such as image and video generation and saves query results so identical requests do not need to be processed again.

The Nature Conservancy uses AI to analyze footage from commercial fishing vessels to identify catches. Instead of sending large volumes of video to centralized data centers, AI-powered cameras process information aboard vessels, reducing data transfers and energy use, said senior scientist Vienna Saccomanno.

Greenpeace International takes a more skeptical position. It uses some AI tools, mainly through software platforms with built-in AI features, while developing guidelines emphasizing transparency, human oversight, and deliberate use.

But it continues to challenge data center expansion.

"While other organizations are asking how to use AI responsibly, Greenpeace is asking whether it's necessary to build all these massive data centers in the first place," said climate and energy campaigner Katrin Xueying Wu.

BirdLife International chief scientist Stuart Butchart sees a responsibility to explore AI when it can make conservation more effective with limited resources.

"If we don't do it, then we're sort of being derelict in our duty."

(With input from Reuters)