AI and the Planet

The G20 Interfaith Forum with which IEF collaborates, together with the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation is holding an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Webinar Series. The webinar on 9 July 2026 was on AI and the Planet featuring John Haven, David Korten and IEF President Arthur Dahl. An IF20 blog summarising the webinar can be viewed here. The recording of the one hour livestream is available from this page. 
It is very much worth watching! 
For more information about the speakers, go here: https://www.g20interfaith.org/webinar-ai-and-the-planet/ . Several other webinars follow.

AI can help protect the planet by improving how we monitor ecosystems, predict climate patterns, and manage natural resources. AI harms the planet when its data centers consume massive amounts of electricity, much of which still comes from fossil fuels. The production of AI hardware—especially chips—requires intensive mining, water use, and manufacturing processes that strain ecosystems. As AI models grow larger, their carbon footprint increases, making sustainable design and energy‑efficient systems essential for reducing environmental damage. When guided by environmental values, AI becomes a tool that strengthens planetary stewardship rather than straining it.

David Korten, author of the international bestseller When Corporations Rule the World, argues that AI is a product of humanity’s shared information commons and should be governed as one. He is calling for a pause on major new AI expansion until the world decides what the technology is actually for.

“Before investing trillions of dollars and vast environmental resources in expanding AI capacity,” Korten said, “we must first ask a more fundamental question: what purposes should AI serve, and who should own and govern it?”

Environmental scientist Arthur Dahl, President of the International Environment Forum, warns that AI’s environmental and social costs are routinely ignored when systems are built for short-term returns — and that the deeper danger is dependency.

“The commercial interests aggressively selling AI applications are leading us to a fatal technology dependency,” Dahl said, “which could then be exploited for endless profit for the few, making us passive consumers.”

Technology ethicist John C. Havens, a founding architect of global AI-ethics standards, challenges the very language of the debate, arguing the field has been shaped for decades by a narrow, GDP-driven idea of intelligence that ignores caregiving and the planet. He calls for ecological and human flourishing to become the core driver of how AI is designed and deployed.

“‘Artificial Intelligence’ originated as a marketing term in 1956,” Havens said, “and that conjecture has driven various assumptions and misinformation for decades.”

The text of Arthur Dahl's contribution is available here.