Rising Concerns: Over Half of Americans Fear AI's Growing Environmental Toll

Demonstrators hold a sign calling for regulation of artificial intelligence during a protest outside the G20 Innovation Ministerial summit, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, September 2, 2026 [Jonathan Drake/Reuters]

A new survey of adults in the United States reveals that more than half of the population worries about the environmental impact of artificial intelligence, marking a 12 percentage point increase from last year. Conducted jointly by The Associated Press, the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, and the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute, the poll shows that Americans are significantly more apprehensive about AI's carbon footprint than high-emission sectors like meat production and aviation.

Data released on Wednesday from interviews with 3,424 US adults in August indicates that 53 percent of Americans are either "extremely" or "very" concerned about the ecological consequences of artificial intelligence. This growing wariness builds upon the 41 percent recorded in the previous year.

While Democrats are leading this surge in environmental awareness—with two-thirds expressing deep concern compared to half of independents and 40 percent of Republicans—broader public anxiety is also surfacing regarding the impact of local data centres powering AI and cloud computing on nearby communities. According to the survey, the majority of Americans harbor strong worries about how these facilities might affect local electricity prices and water supplies.

“We’re undertaking a massive experiment in real time, and I don’t think there’ll be any putting the milk back in the bottle,” stated Michael Greenstone, director of the University of Chicago institute that collaborated on the survey. “Change is scary, and I think some of that is being reflected here.”

Despite bipartisan pushback, thousands of data centres already operate across the US, with extensive construction continuing to meet rising demand. This infrastructure includes decades-old conventional facilities alongside massive, newly built hyperscale centres designed for resource-intensive AI processing. Virginia and Texas currently lead the nation in operating facilities, closely followed by California, Ohio, and New York as key digital infrastructure hubs.

United States President Donald Trump has encouraged communities nationwide to welcome these tech facilities, promising they will generate employment opportunities.

“There’s a lot of water usage by AI data centres that’s taking away from other things like agriculture and farmers and places that really need it, and people who really need it,” said Gedeon Kebede, a computer science student and Democrat from Cincinnati, Ohio, in an interview with the AP.

Although data centres may not be the largest water consumers in the US, they utilize water to cool AI chips and computers, a usage that Fengqi You, an energy systems professor at Cornell University, describes as “nationally modest but potentially locally decisive.”

“I think that decisions are being made for the company, not for the community that they’re being built in,” Nancy Antunes, a 60-year-old retired Democrat from Waltham, Massachusetts, told the AP.