Q. What are some sources which put the water usage or environmental harms of AI and data centers into perspective? Or, is it unethical for my course to ask me to use AI in an assignment or activity?

You can read TCC's AI policy, which addresses environmental and resource considerations, at this link. Whether or not you are allowed or told to use AI for an assignment depends on the policy of the instructor at TCC.

The issue of whether or not it is wrong to use AI because of environmental harms is a personal ethics one -- everyone has their own definition of what harm is and if those harms justify the means. We are often asked to use products for a course that our ethics might not align with, such as using a database from a vendor based in a country's whose laws we don't agree with, creating an account on a platform whose owner we don't like, or purchasing a textbook by an author or publisher whose views don't align with our own. Whether using an AI platform for an activity, such as in the library classroom when talking about research, or using it for an assignment to check your grammar and syntax, it can be helpful to put its usage into perspective.

The topic is often too big for one class setting, but here are some sources and suggested research tips that may contextualize environmental harms and where AI or data centers would fall into that spectrum (beyond just water usage). It is also important to note you can care about multiple issues at once:  

• "Water consumption of factory farming far outpaces that of AI data centers | It Is That Deep" The Free Daily Press, March 2026
• "Water Is Not the Problem With Artificial Intelligence" - The American Prospect, September 2024
• "How Agriculture and Data Centers Compete for the Great Lakes’ Most Precious Resource" Sentient Media, September 2025
• "Guilty about your ChatGPT environmental impact? Eat one less burger instead." The Daily Princetonian, October 2025
• "The Insight: The Data Center Dilemma" AllSides, June 2026 
• "This land isn’t for you or me. It’s for the meat industry," Vox, October 2023
• "Just How Bad Are AI Data Centers for Your Local Water?" Gizmodo, August 2026

"[...Water] is not the primary environmental impact that I would be concerned about. I do think that a lot of the use is overblown. So, just to give some stats: a ChatGPT query -- like, a normal question you ask -- is going to take, sure, a little more water than a Google search...but it uses way less water than a YouTube video. Or if you look at a data center as a whole...the total amount of golf courses in the US use four times as much water as the total amount of data centers." - Jasmine Sun, journalist in this video portion (13:40).

"If you'd like to reduce your carbon footprint you're much better off not eating red meat than you are not using ChatGPT." - Jordan Harrod, PhD student in this video portion shortly after 14:09.

Our Discovery Catalog searches through a lot of our databases all at once and is found on our library homepage. It can be a good place to start to cast a wide net to see what is available. It will even find items the library doesn't own, but can possibly get via interlibrary loan (ILL) – though you can limit those results out if you need something immediately. 

• results about "Water usage" AI  

After doing a search in Discovery, you can limit to the source type you are needing (articles, books, video, etc.) and even to specific dates. If searching for a peer-reviewed article, you can even limit to that!

For a list of all of our databases, see the "Articles & Databases" link off the library website, but a recommended database to search for this topic: 

• Statista

For tips on how to search in our databases and catalog, we recommend this FAQ. 

If searching on the web, here’s some FAQ and search examples that you might find helpful:

• Q. How can I get to Google Advanced Search?
  • AI water usage "animal agriculture" OR "google search" "data centers" site:vox.com
• Q. How do I find .GOV or .EDU or .ORG websites?
  • Search results for: AI "water usage" OR "water use" OR environment "animal agriculture" site:.edu
• Q. How can I find an article over a specific topic from a magazine (or other periodical) my instructor has recommended, published within a specific timeframe?
  • data center water OR usage OR environmental OR harms OR compared "animal agriculture" site:https://www.nytimes.com/
• Q. Can I access The New York Times online?

NOTE: As this FAQ explains, you might not find one perfect source that combines all facets of your topic. You will likely have to draw on multiple sources that focus on one area of your topic. 

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