We are approaching the end of summer (“officially,” it ends on September 22nd, not on Labor Day). Watching from my terrace in NYC, I can see that the sun rises a bit later and sets a bit earlier every day – days are getting shorter and nights longer. Fall semesters are starting and presidential elections are visible on the horizon. It’s time to think about the future.
About two weeks ago, I got an email from Sonya Landau, my editor and friend who lives in Arizona and is studying at the University of Arizona:
I think that your new focus on technology, specifically AI, is really interesting but I also think it’s important to talk about the environmental impacts of that technology. I don’t have time to write a guest blog about it and I’m not asking you to drop everything and write about this but maybe you could cover it soon.
I assumed that the request came as a partial response to the Global Digitalization and Algorithmic Decision Making (August 13, 2024) blog that she had just finished editing. But it’s very likely that her focus was also on the huge price in energy use that these technologies extract. Some of you might remember her previous guest blogs on October 9, 2018; June 22, 2021; and June 11, 2023, and wish that she would change her mind and write a guest blog on the topic. Please use the comment area to let both of us know.
I promised her that I would have a look.
The first thing I did was to check what I had already written on the topic. Just put AI into the Search box and scan a few of the entries. I followed with a literature check of the topic. There is already a rich array of literature on the topic that I will refer to in future blogs. A Nature reference can serve as an example: The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
I followed this with a Copilot (Microsoft AI) exploration of “Global human survival and sustainability” and the “energy cost of AI,” which will be discussed next week.
The final thing that I did, trying to respond to Sonya’s request, was to search for interesting recent contributions that her home state, Arizona, is now offering. The best example that I could come up with was a recent change that Arizona State University has made to its General Education Program.
I will start with the statements that the university’s website issues about the objectives of its undergraduate General Studies (General Education) classes (according to ASU’s website):
In addition to preparing students for careers and advanced study, a baccalaureate education should prepare students for satisfying personal, social and civic lives. Students should both acquire a depth of knowledge in a particular academic or professional discipline and also be broadly educated, with knowledge of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to address an array of questions. They should develop the general intellectual skills required to continue learning throughout their lives. The ASU general studies requirements complement the undergraduate major by developing critical learning skills, investigating the traditional branches of knowledge, and introducing students to approaches applicable to addressing contemporary challenges.
The structure of the new General Studies program is shown in Figure 1
Figure 1 – Structure of the undergraduate General Studies program at ASU (Source: University undergraduate General Studies requirements | Academic Catalog)
The main innovation here is the last contribution, which introduces “Sustainability” as a required category rather than just a course (even though it is still in the form of a single 3-credit course), with the following learning objectives:
Upon completion of a course in Sustainability, students will be able to do the following:
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demonstrate an understanding of the earth and its ecosphere, including the measures that indicate their capacities and limits
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trace historical impacts of a range of socio-economic, political or cultural choices on integrated human-environmental well-being
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envision pathways toward futures characterized by integrated human-environmental well-being
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articulate an approach to addressing contemporary questions or challenges that employs concepts or practices of sustainability.
According to the site:
The learning objectives emphasize systems thinking, where human and non-human systems are understood as intimately connected, with human actions affecting all life on a planet with limits and boundaries.
Here is how the course works:
All students, regardless of major, will fulfill a three-credit course that address sustainable development, socio-ecological systems and how they relate to global challenges and opportunities.
The last thing that I explored was the meaning of sustainability. I searched Google for synonyms and I got the following list: green, imperishable, livable, renewable, supportable, unending, and worthwhile.
Two of the four learning objectives of the Sustainability category are anchored on timing (trace historical impacts and envision pathways toward futures). All of them are globally targeted. Only one of the 7 synonyms directly refers to timing (unending). Renewability can be interpreted as a mitigation for unsustainability.
Most people interpret sustainability as “green,” as in environmental. The synonyms of environmental (also Google) are: ecological, conservationist, environment-friendly, eco-friendly, ozone-friendly, sustainable, and recyclable. Again, of these terms, only recyclable can be related to timing, and even then, only indirectly. On the other hand, if you ask for the opposite of environmental sustainability you will get environmental degradation, which definitely involves time.
I haven’t decided whether I’d like to try to enroll at ASU as a student (there’s no age limit) or join as an adjunct professor to teach the Sustainability course. However, I have one strong piece of advice for these students: I recommend taking this course toward the end of their degree; all the other 32 General Studies courses serve as excellent prerequisites. Meanwhile, the Sustainability program/course is excellent preparation for the students’ post-undergraduate lives. By the time present students graduate, it is probable that they will be able to generate content for a sustainability course through AI. The challenges will be to motivate the students to go beyond this and to give them the tools to critique the generated content.
