A comic essay that narratively explores AI and sustainability, showing how data-intensive technologies intersect with environmental concerns and inviting readers to think critically about technologically mediated futures.
Why it matters for ENACT-AI
The resource encourages learners to move beyond the idea that AI is inherently beneficial by examining both its potential to support sustainability and its own environmental costs, including energy and water consumption, emissions, data infrastructure, and wider social consequences. It promotes a balanced and critical understanding of AI rather than a purely technological or solution-oriented perspective.
Learning outcomes
Learners will be able to explain basic concepts related to AI and sustainability, identify potential applications of AI for environmental protection, recognise the environmental costs of developing and using AI systems, critically evaluate claims about AI as a solution to climate and sustainability challenges, identify ethical and social implications of AI, and reflect on when AI should or should not be used to address sustainability challenges.
Suggested activity
After reading the comic, ask learners to work in small groups and create a two-column “AI for sustainability” map. In the first column, they identify ways AI can contribute to environmental sustainability, such as climate modelling, monitoring ecosystems, improving energy systems, or detecting emissions. In the second column, they identify potential environmental and social costs of using AI. Groups then compare their maps and discuss the question, “When does using AI contribute to sustainability, and when might it make the problem worse?” The activity can conclude with learners developing three principles for sustainable and responsible AI use.