A new research report provides a sobering account of the damage data centers are having on the global environment and what their growth could mean for the future.
The report, published June 3 by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, found that the energy, land and water used by AI dwarf the needs of hundreds of millions of people globally. The findings are relevant for the Dallas area, which is home to over 230 data centers with more on the way, making it one of the largest data center markets in the United States.
The environmental cost of data centers
The researchers estimated that in 2025, global data centers consumed enough electricity to power the homes of the 1.3 billion people living in sub-Sarahan Africa for 2.6 years, based on electricity usage reports from the International Energy Agency. By 2030, it is predicted that data centers will consume 9.3 trillion liters of water and cover 14,500 square kilometers of land. And AI infrastructure could generate up to 2.5 million metric tons of e-waste annually by 2030, the equivalent to discarding nearly 250 Eiffel Towers every year.
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For Texas, the water implications alone are staggering. “Three to 10% of our water use in the state of Texas could become devoted to powering data centers,” said Ian Seamans, the city hall advocate for Environment Texas, who was not involved in the report.
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The report also highlights the social harms these data centers can have, noting how data centers remain concentrated in a small number of locations.
“The benefits might go into the pockets of a certain group of people who are not even in that region,” said Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations University institute that produced the report and the report’s lead investigator. “But it would be the locals who have to suffer from the impacts.”
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Locals are already feeling the impact in places like the Granbury area, which has a notoriously loud data center. “The sound impacts from that data center have been reported nationally because of how terrible they are,” Seamans said. Residents described the constant noise as sounding like chainsaws or gas leaf blowers being used outside their homes, he said.
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Can infrastructure and policy keep up?
Researchers caution that the explosive growth of AI usage needs to be taken seriously, especially considering the impact AI can have on the environment. But they also say it’s difficult to develop policies or infrastructure at the speed necessary to keep up with the growth of data centers.
The researchers involved in this report experienced those difficulties firsthand. “As we were doing the study, new models were being introduced. New products were coming into the market and we had to bring them in to do the analysis again,” Madani said. “That meant that some of our numbers got outdated as we were doing the study.”
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People on a group tour look down into Dallas TX1 data center’s server vault at the NTT Data center campus in Garland, Texas, March 4, 2026.
Tom Fox/Staff Photographer
That experience, Madani said, reflects the speed of change in this sector, which is a cause for nervousness as much as excitement regarding the future of technology.
“The data center boom is real, and it’s really growing at a frenetic pace,” said Venky Shankar, the Briarly Endowed Professor of Marketing and academic director for the Briarly Institute of Customer Engagement at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business, who was not involved in the report. Shankar likened the growth of AI and data centers to a train that has already left the station.
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Ensuring responsible AI use
The report’s authors propose six principles for minimizing the adverse environmental impacts of widespread AI usage: transparency, efficiency by design, equity and environmental justice, life-cycle responsibility, global cooperation and sustainable use.
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The excitement about AI’s economic potential must be matched with concern about the environmental impact, Madani said. Data centers are not by themselves good or bad, he said, but they can be detrimental without proper planning to account for resource usage, like water and land.
“Data centers are a new development,” Seamans said. “However, we both have existing tools and we can create new tools to ensure that they do not harm our wildlife, our environment and our communities.”
Construction workers build out the rooftop chillers and water lines feeding them atop Dallas TX4, which is under construction at the NTT Data center campus in Garland, Texas, March 4, 2026. It will take 40 of those water-filled chillers to cool the fourth data center built on the property.
Tom Fox/Staff Photographer
One of those tools, Seamans says, is the planning and zoning authority held by local governments.
“Cities can decide to fit data centers into one of their existing zoning categories, or create a new one and decide where, if anywhere in the city, they should allow those data centers to be built,” he said. “Those tools are available and we would encourage cities to use those.”
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The best path forward, the report’s authors argue, requires governments, companies and individuals to make responsible choices regarding AI to ensure neither vulnerable communities nor the planet have to face the consequences.
Niamh Ordner is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.