There are few images that haunt me. One of them was hanging on a wall of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago as part of the Blue Paradox Exhibit on microplastics. In the image, a person wades waste deep through a seemingly endless sea of plastic bottles, the refuse of wealthier nations that can afford to transfer the cost of their consumption to those with fewer resources to handle it.
This image flickers in my mind when I read about the environmental toll of AI.
According to the UN Environment Programme, the environmental cost of AI includes waste during production, the environmentally damaging extraction of rare earth minerals, excessive water use, and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions (one model suggested that, in Ireland, AI data centers might account for 35% of the nation’s energy consumption by this year). These are just the known environmental impacts of AI. We still do not know if there will be other direct or indirect environmental costs of emerging AI technologies.
AI seems to be setting us up to find ourselves in a situation that is similar to the one we face with plastics: on the one hand, it has real value and would be difficult – if not impossible – to give up, while, on the other, it is damaging our world in ways that we are only just beginning to understand. It also impacts on some of us in ways that others are blind and deliberately blinded to.
In his encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo touches on these issues and highlights the Church’s social doctrine that ought to inform our responses. Indeed, his framing of our response to AI as the “construction site” of our time recalls environmental destruction and the necessity for environmental safeguards.
In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo says, “In the digital age, a just social order guarantees everyone equal access to opportunities, protects the youngest and weakest members of society, combats hate and misinformation and subjects the use of data and technology to public oversight, so that the guiding principle is not solely profit but the dignity of every person and the common good of all.” (80) This is founded upon the Church’s emphasis on the principle of the common good and the universal destination of goods which Pope Leo previously connected to Pope Francis’s teachings in Laudato Si’.
The Church’s understanding of the universal destination of goods is, according to Pope Leo, the consequence of all of the earth’s goods being “given by God to the entire human family to sustain the lives of all, and that every person has an inherent right to the use of such goods both now and in the future.” (65). He goes on to quote Pope John Paul II who said, “God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members without excluding or favoring anyone.”
Considering the universal destination of goods, the Church’s social doctrine includes the protection of the environment from the interests of a select few. It also involves a long-term understanding of the common good that seeks to preserve resources for future generations. This is why technological advancement cannot come at the cost of the environment.
Of course, the creation and implementation of AI is not an all or nothing proposition. In fact, from a purely environmental standpoint, many hope that AI will assist us in protecting the earth more effectively and taking better care of our common home. However, to navigate the AI revolution in a way that promotes the common good, implementation and development must happen with care and oversight. As Pope Leo says, “The gains in efficiency and the potential to improve certain services are clear, yet rapidly and uncritically adopting them exposes us to a range of risks, including the tendency to overlook the environmental impact.” (101)
If we let the interests of a select group of technological innovators unilaterally control the course of human development, we will build a tower of Babel that is doomed to failure. Their views and motivations are far too narrow and apt to forget the issues that their technologies will have on many distinct aspects of human life.
Therefore, just as Pope Francis saw environmental issues as intricately bound up with issues of poverty and social justice, we must view the environmental impact of AI as a factor that should be understood and addressed through the lens of Church social doctrine on the common good. In this way, “we cannot consider AI to be morally neutral.” (104) Instead, we must measure its costs and benefits from a morally sound viewpoint, while demanding oversight and examining our own use of the technology in light of its environmental impact.
Image: “Open dump” (CC BY 2.0) by Giuliano Belli
Ariane Sroubek is a writer, school psychologist and mother to two children here on earth. Prior to converting to Catholicism, she completed undergraduate studies in Bible and Theology at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. She then went on to obtain her doctorate in School and Child Clinical Psychology. Ariane’s writing is inspired by her faith, daily life experiences and education. She is currently writing a women's fiction novel and a middle-grade mystery series. Her non-fiction book, Raising Sunshine: A Guide to Parenting Through the Aftermath of Infant Death is available on Amazon. More of her work can be found at https://mysustaininggrace.com.
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