AI: How is Your City Affected?

Gerardo Castillo, John Hancock College Preparatory, Junior, Fall 2025

“I use AI every day, especially when I need things clarified in subjects.” Maryangel Padilla, a student at John Hancock High School, stated, when asked about her usage of Artificial Intelligence. Whether seen on social media posts, school lessons, or social interactions, AI is commonly used and considered a helpful resource. Yet, AI is bad for the environment and changes our ecosystem. 

Illinois has been thrilled to build the centers to produce AI.  However, the technology could hurt cities like Chicago because the data centers require a substantial amount of water to produce and cool the computers. Block Club Chicago reports data centers “use more than 365 million gallons of water a year — the equivalent to what 12,000 Americans use in that time” to cool down the machines (Hernandez, 2025). While the water is returned, Mark Potosnak, professor at DePaul University who focuses on Environmental Science and Studies, made a good point that it will be  “more heated, which affects the animals since they are sensitive to different temperatures, and therefore could lead to a loss of animal life.”

AI also requires a lot of electricity, and the rapid growth of data centers has sharply increased overall energy demand. Much of this new demand is being met with fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, because data centers need reliable, around‑the‑clock power, and clean energy sources cannot yet scale quickly enough to meet the surge. The sudden demand for coal and gas to help develop the centers and technology is expected to increase air pollution. An overconsumption of these resources will cause a difference in the climate and the environment because pollution will rise, which will affect the areas around us.

There is a domino effect with the production of artificial intelligence. If you build the data centers, you add to the deforestation issue, worsen climate change, use up natural resources (water), and potentially damage the ecosystem. Continuing this trend of AI usage could mean disastrous effects for people, animals, and their environment. There’s “a problem when a 1/4 of humanity already lacks access to clean water and sanitation” (Environment Programme, 2024). The more people use AI and support the industries being built to accommodate the technology, the more of an environmental impact there is going to be.