Scientific Paper · 2024-09-03
The Environmental Impacts of AI
AI's lifecycle consumes resources and emits greenhouse gases, requiring sustainable solutions.
Scientific papers
Research papers and scholarly literature on impacts, applications, and methods.
Browse all 502 records →502Public records
502With a publication date
502With provisional topic labels
501Source URLs checked
What this collection can—and cannot—tell you
A paper listing is not a quality assessment. Peer review and findings require source-level confirmation.
Source: the public Scientific Paper sheet in Nate’s Resource Hub. Snapshot: 2026-09-15. Records remain linked to their original rows. Classification is proposed from existing metadata, not a fresh review of full texts.
Open the source spreadsheet ↗ · Read the codebookExplore by environmental topic
Cross-cutting sustainability · 271Governance and society · 173Research tools and geospatial methods · 59Education and skills · 14Energy and electricity · 177Climate and greenhouse gases · 238Water · 81Materials and critical minerals · 21E-waste and circularity · 9Land use, heat, and noise · 8Air pollution · 6Biodiversity and ecosystems · 85Oceans and coasts · 60Agriculture and food · 27Weather, hazards, and adaptation · 117Built environment and infrastructure · 96Transport and logistics · 19
Inside the collection
A sample in source order, not a recommendation or ranking.
Scientific Paper · 2019-06-05
Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP
Training large neural networks improves NLP accuracy but requires significant computational resources, leading to high financial and environmental costs.
Scientific Paper · 2024-10-15
Power Hungry Processing: Watts Driving the Cost of AI Deployment?
Generative AI models consume significantly more energy and emit more carbon than task-specific models, raising concerns about their environmental impact.
Scientific Paper · 2024-03-27
The Climate and Sustainability Implications of Generative AI
The unchecked growth of generative AI increases energy demand and environmental impact, requiring a sustainability-focused approach beyond efficiency improvements.
Scientific Paper · 2023-11-30
How Much Water Does AI Consume? The Public Deserves to Know
AI drives scientific progress and business growth but depends on vast data and computational resources, raising sustainability concerns.
Scientific Paper · 2025-03-26
Making AI Less “Thirsty”: Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models
AI models have a significant yet overlooked water footprint, requiring transparency and holistic sustainability efforts alongside carbon reduction.