Telegraph to AI: Real hidden environmental cost

From the telegraph to artificial intelligence, communication technologies have always carried hidden environmental and human costs.

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When people send a message in a group chat or interact with an AI chatbot, they rarely think about the massive infrastructure and resources behind these systems.

While metaphors like “the cloud” or “AI” suggest something intangible, these technologies are deeply material, powered by data centres, undersea cables, and complex networks that consume enormous amounts of energy and water.

Historically, the pattern is not new. The first global communication system, the telegraph, enabled near real-time contact between continents, but it came at a steep human and environmental cost. Submarine telegraph cables were insulated with gutta-percha, a rubber-like latex harvested from tropical trees by colonial labourers. Entire forests were felled to grow plantations, and Indigenous communities were exploited to meet the global demand.