The climate emergency and the AI crisis are separate issues but share many similarities.
On our current trajectory, both of these crises threaten to upend society. Thus, they’re equal urgent priorities which require equal urgent attention. Yet, you’d never know that from the lack of political action on both issues.
Below are seven parallels between these simultaneously occurring and civilisation-threatening crises.
The Intersection of the Climate and AI Crises
1. Some of the Wealthiest Corporations Profit by Accelerating These Crises
Tech companies and fossil fuel companies (like oil and gas giants), are some of the wealthiest on the planet. They continue investing in their dangerous products because of sheer greed. Their profits signal our collective demise.
2. Politicians Ignore These Crises Due to Effective Lobbying by Both Industries
Data from opensecrets.org shows that the oil and gas industry spent over $3 billion on lobbying in the US alone, between 1998 and 2025. Meanwhile, a report from CNBC shows that the tech industry spent $957 million on lobbying in the US, over the course of a single year – 2023.
These industries have bought political power to prevent regulation, thus hobbling humanity’s chances of survival. And they’ve been allowed to get away with it so far.
3. Experts Are Sounding the Alarm on Both Crises and Being Loudly Ignored
The world’s leading climate and AI experts including Dr James Hansen (the “Godfather of Global Warming”), and Nobel prize-winner Geoffrey Hinton (one of three “Godfathers of AI”), are warning that unless urgent action is taken, the climate emergency and the AI crisis will upend society.
4. The Media Has Failed Us Abysmally on Both Crises
The climate emergency and the AI crisis are complex issues. Nonetheless, there has been wilful and misleading information presented to the public by the media, which has failed to accurately emphasise the scale and urgency of the threats we face. Thus, society has been kept in the dark and we now face ruin.
5. The Fallacy of “Peak Oil” and the “AI Bubble”
Peak oil, AI bubble = separate issues, same concept. Peak oil predictions date back around 70 years. Yet, we’re still using enormous quantities of oil in 2025 (see graph below).
Energy Institute – Statistical Review of World Energy (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Oil consumption” [dataset]. Energy Institute, “Statistical Review of World Energy” [original data].Now we’re told that the AI bubble might be about to burst. We’ve heard this before… Peaks and bubbles have historically proven to be untrustworthy, and shouldn’t be used as a basis for refusing to regulate a product or an industry.
In short: dangerous products must be stringently regulated, regardless of potential bubbles or peaks.
6. AI Usage Is Increasing Energy Demand, Thus Worsening the Climate Emergency
The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that electricity demand from AI datacentres will quadruple by 2030. This means that AI will be using as much electricity as the entire country of Japan does today. One civilisation-threatening problem, exacerbating the other civilisation-threatening problem.
Water usage is another major environmental harm. It’s estimated that asking AI to write a 100 word e-mail, or having a short conversation with AI uses enough water to fill a 500ml water bottle. This is because water is needed in data centres to cool servers.
7. On Our Current Trajectory We’re Heading For:
– Worst Case Scenario: Human Annihilation
– Best Case Scenario: Upending Society and Precipitating Civilisational Decline
Nobel prize-winner and “Godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton, says there’s up to a 20% chance that AI will cause our extinction in the next 30 years.
Having surpassed the Paris climate target of limiting temperatures to 1.5C this century, we’re heading for climate chaos.
Thus, radical and transformative change is imminent unless our politicians change course, or we change our leadership.
Conclusion
Politicians have held back progress on the climate emergency and the AI crisis. It’s up to all of us to decide how we wish to change that political inertia, whether that be through replacing compromised politicians with new more capable and willing leaders, or through a transformation to citizen-led democracies (e.g. citizens’ assemblies and participatory democracy).
With democracy waning around the world, I fear that change will soon become nearly impossible. Yet I also believe that nothing short of this change will shift us onto a path that gives us a shot at a liveable future.
There are no easy options left given how late we’ve left the climate emergency, and how fast the AI crisis is accelerating.
We’ve shown that we can overcome much when we work together. The question is can we still unify when online AI-generated disinformation and AI slop are affecting our ability to discern facts from fiction, and reality from illusion?
As creatures of story, we’re extremely susceptible to this influence – people are less concerned with facts than with what makes a good story. Thus, we now live in an age when algorithms owned by some of the wealthiest people on the planet (people who don’t have our best interests at heart), are shaping people’s views on some of the most contentious issues of the day and polarisation feels like it’s reaching fever pitch.
Somehow, we have to find a way to navigate through this smog and find the path that leads us towards a viable future.
Time is short. Options are few. The power we’re up against is gargantuan. But, we can’t let society fall during our watch. We have to collectively fight for our future whilst we still can.
My cli-fi children’s picture book, Nanook and the Melting Arctic is available from Amazon, including Amazon UK and Amazon US. My eco-fiction children’s picture book, Hedgey-A and the Honey Bees about how pesticides affect bees, is available on Amazon’s global stores including Amazon UK and Amazon US.