AI is impacting every part of our lives—and we need to start paying more attention.
Listen to this thought-provoking conversation with Dr. Miriam Aczel, a sustainability and environmental justice researcher at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, whose research explores the hidden carbon, water, and land footprints of artificial intelligence.
We discuss:
The environmental costs behind AI—and why focusing on energy use is not the whole story
Why “green” AI is more complicated than simply switching to renewable energy
How AI has the potential to drive powerful climate solutions
Why empathy and environmental justice must shape how we build AI—especially for communities bearing most of the environmental costs
If you’re concerned about the impact of AI on climate change and climate justice—you don’t want to miss this conversation.
00:00 Preview
00:42 Episode introduction
03:21 About Dr. Miriam Aczel
02:14 Miriam’s backstory
08:56 Miriam discusses the UN report “The Environmental Cost of Artificial Intelligence: Carbon, Water, and Land Footprints” that she authored
10:02 The physical infrastructure hidden behind “the cloud”
14:09 Why AI’s environmental footprint depends on where its infrastructure is built
17:50 What the fracking industry can teach us about the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure
21:00 Are AI data centers repeating the extractive patterns of traditional energy industries?
26:18 Why running AI queries at off-peak times reduces their environmental impact
27:45 How AI can improve wildfire prediction and model sea-level rise
33:40 The UN’s new AI Environmental Transparency Initiative
36:14 How smarter prompts can reduce AI’s energy consumption
38:47 How to reduce AI energy consumption by being intentional about the model you use
45:34 Dr. Miriam Aczel’s Purposeful Empathy story
Episode #11 of Empathy in the Age of AI part II, a special 25-part series: https://tinyurl.com/exyw2nua
CONNECT WITH MIRIAM
✩ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriam-aczel-ph-d-693b8066/
✩ Website https://unu.edu/inweh/about/expert/miriam-aczel
CONNECT WITH ANITA
✩ Email purposefulempathy@gmail.com
✩ Website https://www.anitanowak.com
✩ Buy a copy of Purposeful Empathy http://tiny.cc/PurposefulEmpathyCA
✩ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/anitanowak/
✩ Instagram https://tinyurl.com/anitanowakinstagram
✩ Podcast Audio https://tinyurl.com/PurposefulEmpathyPodcast
✩ Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/anitanowak.bsky.social
SHOW NOTES
✩ The UN AI Environmental Transparency Initiative https://unu.edu/inweh/news/un-secretary-general-launches-ai-environmental-transparency-initiative-calling-ai
✩ Environmental Cost of AI’s Energy Use https://walkearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/unu-inweh-report-the_env_cost_of_ai-2026.pdf
✩ Environmental Cost of Artificial Intelligence: Carbon, Water, and Land Footprints https://unu.edu/inweh/collection/environmental-cost-of-AIs-Enrgy-Use-Carbon-water-and-land-footprints
✩ MIT Climate Change Engagement Program https://climateproject.mit.edu/education/climate-change-engagement-program
Video edited by Jad Misri, Green Horizon Studio
