Climate Conscience Man's Chat Bot and AI Dilemma

Climate Conscience Man has mixed feelings about AI.

On one hand, it’s made a few things a lot easier. Working out how to fix something on his iPhone. Changing the clock in his car after daylight savings. Helping his mum when she calls for help with a difficult cryptic crossword. And of course, researching and sorting through mountains of climate science and data. That used to take hours. Now with AI, he can get straight to the good stuff.

But on the other hand… he knows AI is a beast. His teenage daughter, who’s quietly cancelling Taylor Swift for flying private, keeps reminding him just how thirsty and carbon-hungry AI is. She asks if maybe he should be cutting back too.

AI doesn’t run on sunshine and good vibes. It runs on massive servers that chew through electricity, water, and hardware like a combine harvester through a wheat field. Climate Conscience Man listens to his daughter and he's also read the stats. Every interaction, every prompt, every chatbot response, is backed by energy-intensive computation. Some estimates say AI use could double or triple data centre emissions in the coming years. Water use is climbing too. Data centres need heaps of it for cooling, and they're guzzling it at unsustainable levels in Sydney, Melbourne and all over the world.

So yeah, Climate Conscience Man feels the pull. He's using AI tools. But he knows the cost.

He tries to square it like this:

"Am I using AI to avoid thinking - or to think better?"

If it’s the former, he steps away. If it’s the latter, he keeps going - carefully. Because there’s no question AI has helped him sharpen his climate communication. Reach new audiences. Visualise complex data. Cut through noise. And even get advice on how to make his veggie garden grow better (that's still a work in progress).

Climate Conscience Man reckons the real problem isn’t AI itself. It’s the scale, the hype, the blind sprint towards “more” without asking why or how much is enough. He doesn’t need AI generating 500 fake emails or deepfakes of himself mowing the lawn. He needs it to help climate science. Break down energy policy. Spot greenwashing. Summarise a 200-page report into something his mates might actually read. And occasionally help his mum with those difficult cross words.

So that’s how Climate Conscience Man is trying to use AI: with purpose. Minimally. Transparently. And always with the climate in mind.

He’ll keep using the tools. But he won’t worship them. He still believes brains, bikes, beans, renewable energy and a half-decent compost heap are the real drivers of a better world.

AI might be a booster. But it’s not the answer.

Climate Conscience Man worrying about the energy intensiveness of AI.