The REAL Impacts of VIRTUAL Tech

Several years ago, the Province made a concerted effort to move toward the principles of environmental care represented in the Pope’s encyclical, Laudato Si’. At the time, this was more of an informal effort, made at the request of the Council and Provincial leadership, asking all ministries to be aware, conscious, and intentional in working toward alignment with the basic principles represented in Laudato Si’.

Recently, the Province has made a more concerted effort and formalized a more coordinated approach by bringing on a Laudato Si’ Coordinator, Dennis Kalob, and asking tasking him with the responsibility or overseeing, coordinating, and promoting the efforts being made by the various ministries of the Province as well as encouraging and supporting additional projects going forward. This initiative began with the documenting and promotion of past projects and projects currently taking place as well as the review and consideration of proposals for future projects.

It is worth noting that this is an important topic, but also one that can very quickly and unnecessarily become politically charged. Politicians and lobbyists are often eager to leverage strong opinions and inflated narratives on these topics for personal or political gain. The Province feels it is important to observe and take action in this area without clouding the issue with the political baggage that so often gets dragged along with it and so chooses to approach them from more pragmatic, but also very human, perspectives. There are simple changes and efforts which may be undertaken to provide undeniable improvements to quality of life: financially, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

For instance, several of our schools have instituted and developed large shared outdoor garden courtyards and community gardens. These spaces not only help cool the buildings naturally, but also provide students and staff with enjoyable areas where they can take a much-needed respite as they pass between classes or spend time studying. Being able to sit outdoors in a garden area you helped create and help maintain can be deeply beneficial for overall mental health.

Additionally, concerted efforts are being made to have lights and other devices automatically turn off when rooms are empty, to use clean energy sources where fiscally possible and appropriate, and to reuse and reduce consumption whenever possible. There are also more far-reaching and ambitious possibilities, such as the installation of solar panels and conversion to electric or natural gas vehicles where appropriate.

Regardless of one’s political opinions, we can certainly all agree that doing things to enhance and support God’s garden, which we all share, through both environmental and personal health efforts, is a worthwhile endeavor.

Another area taking an ever-growing portion of attention in the public discourse is AI. This includes not only environmental topics such as land and water usage and energy consumption, but also moral and ethical considerations surrounding the proposed uses and potential abuses of AI and their impact on society and humanity. These topics were recently addressed in the newest encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas.

Artificial intelligence is not an entirely virtual technology. It depends upon physical data centers, electricity, cooling systems, computer hardware and mined materials. Its environmental effects can include energy consumption, greenhouse-gas emissions, water use and electronic waste.

Responsible AI use does not necessarily mean avoiding AI. It means using it purposefully and proportionately: choosing simpler tools for simple tasks, giving clear instructions, avoiding unnecessary regeneration, requesting only as much content as needed and using computationally intensive image or video generation selectively.

AI may also provide environmental benefits when it helps reduce waste, improve energy efficiency, monitor ecosystems or solve problems that would otherwise require greater resources. The goal should therefore be thoughtful use: weighing the value produced against the resources consumed.

The most useful principle is proportionality: use the least resource-intensive tool capable of doing the job.

Use ordinary search, a calculator, templates or conventional software when generative AI adds little value. Task-specific systems can require substantially less energy than large general-purpose models.

Prepare a clear request before submitting it, rather than repeatedly regenerating nearly identical results.

Request concise responses when a long answer is unnecessary. Output length is a strong driver of inference energy consumption.

Revise a good result rather than generating numerous complete replacements.

Use image, audio and particularly video generation selectively. Generating media is generally much more computationally intensive than straightforward text tasks, although exact differences vary among models.

For organizational purchasing, consider asking providers to disclose energy consumption, water consumption, carbon accounting methods, data-center locations and hardware lifecycle policies. Current reporting is inconsistent, so apparently precise comparisons between providers should be made carefully.

Consider the benefit as well as the cost. AI can sometimes reduce resource use through better grid management, building efficiency, environmental monitoring and other applications.