Simon WillisonApr 29, 2025

I'm glad somebody out there is brave enough to push back against the "personal ChatGPT usage is terrible for the environment" message https://andymasley.substack.com/p/a-cheat-sheet-for-conversations-about

"If you want to prompt ChatGPT 40 times, you can just stop your shower 1 second early."

"If I choose not to take a flight to Europe, I save 3,500,000 ChatGPT searches. this is like stopping more than 7 people from searching ChatGPT for their entire lives."

Using ChatGPT is not bad for the environment - a cheat sheet

The numbers clearly show this is a pointless distraction for the climate movement

Andy Masley
Show threadSimon WillisonMay 6, 2025
Here's a follow-up by someone with a whole lot more credibility than myself or Andy: Hannah Ritchie is "Head of Research at Our World in Data, and a Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford" and runs a high quality sustainable energy blog https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/carbon-footprint-chatgpt
What's the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT?

Very small compared to most of the other stuff you do.

Sustainability by numbers
Show threadGraham Knapp
@simon I think all these assessments miss the big carbon cost of devs buying bigger GPUs to play with ollama - carbon costs of making high end PCs are estimated in the 500 tonnes of CO2 range as far as I can tell, more if you go crazy
May 6, 2025 at 9:18pmWeb
Show threadTrevor BurrowsMay 6, 2025

@graham_knapp @simon

I think the cheatsheet from Masley at least starts to address this, but I'd like to learn more about this area, too.