A thought on sustainability in the age of artificial intelligence.
We live in a time when many things happen at once: The climate crisis is worsening, visibly, tangibly, undeniably. And while we’re still discussing how to live more sustainably, new technologies enter our lives at breakneck speed, whose impact on environment, society, and thinking we can barely assess.
Artificial intelligence is here. It wasn’t introduced slowly, it wasn’t regulated. It was suddenly just there: available, efficient, impressive. And we, especially students, integrated it immediately: into research, writing, and daily thinking.
But at what cost?
Few talk about AI’s environmental footprint. Behind every prompt, image, or text is hidden infrastructure: vast data centres consuming massive energy. They rely on electricity, cooling, water, and hardware running 24/7.
AI feels weightless, floating in the cloud. But that’s an illusion. It’s not immaterial or neutral. It leaves a footprint, and it’s growing fast.
We talk about sustainability in terms of plastics, flights, or fast fashion. But as our digital habits expand, so does the responsibility to question what we don’t see, especially when it feels effortless.
And at the same time, it changes something in us. The more we use it, the more we unlearn to trust our own thought processes. Reflection is replaced by efficiency. Sustainability doesn’t just mean using materials more consciously. It also means thinking consciously.
And this is where my concern begins: that we live in a time when ecological action is already difficult, shaped by contradiction and political inertia now our thinking risks being outsourced. Yet this is precisely the time to be more alert than ever. More alert to the consequences of our actions. More awake to the systems we plug into. More alert to what becomes routine without our consent.
I’m writing this because I believe we can use it better more consciously, more purposefully, more reflectively. We need a new ethic of digital behaviour. Sustainability that doesn’t stop at the water bottle, but also includes the server room. A responsibility that grows in attitude, not just in sacrifice.
I want us, especially the young, the deciding, the shaping to feel again what it means to think for ourselves. To have the courage to say, even in the digital space: I want to know what I’m doing. I want to know what it costs. And I want it to make sense.
Because sustainability is not just the question: What am I doing with the world? It’s also the question: What am I doing with myself?
So use your year abroad wisely. Not just to experience something new, but to reflect on what you take for granted. To see habits for what they are. To question what feels automatic. Sometimes distance is what helps you see more clearly. And maybe that’s where real sustainability begins, not in doing everything right, but in paying closer attention. Because in a world where everything gets faster, awareness might be the most radical form of resistance.
