Letter to Sen. Schumer on Climate & AI

The letter argues that large language models (LLMs) increase carbon emissions through high energy demands and accelerate the spread of climate disinformation. It calls for mandatory reporting on energy use, emissions, and critical mineral consumption, as well as safeguards against AI-generated disinformation.

• Large language models (LLMs) negatively impact the climate by increasing carbon emissions due to their high energy requirements and by enabling the rapid production and distribution of climate disinformation, which sustains climate denialism.
• The energy consumption of AI is substantial and often opaque; for instance, Google's 2020 energy use was 15.5 terawatts, double that of San Francisco, and the integration of generative AI into search engines could increase this fivefold. Other data suggests training ChatGPT3 used more energy than 120 average American homes in a year, and some estimates indicate data center carbon emissions have surpassed those of the commercial airline industry.
• Generative AI risks amplifying existing climate disinformation trends seen on social media, such as false claims linking wind power to whale deaths or blaming oil and gas infrastructure failures on wind power, by allowing the creation of vast volumes of tailored misleading content.

APA

Climate Action Against Disinformation (n.d.). Letter to Sen. Schumer on Climate & AI. https://caad.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Letter-to-Sen.-Schumer-on-Climate-AI.pdf

Chicago

Climate Action Against Disinformation. Letter to Sen. Schumer on Climate & AI. n.d. https://caad.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Letter-to-Sen.-Schumer-on-Climate-AI.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Climate Action Against Disinformation |title=Letter to Sen. Schumer on Climate & AI |url=https://caad.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Letter-to-Sen.-Schumer-on-Climate-AI.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{climateactionagainstdisinformationndletter, author = {{Climate Action Against Disinformation}}, title = {{Letter to Sen. Schumer on Climate \& AI}}, publisher = {Climate Action Against Disinformation}, url = {https://caad.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Letter-to-Sen.-Schumer-on-Climate-AI.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }