"The data centers that power the artificial intelligence boom are beyond enormous. Their financials, their physical scale, and the amount of information contained within are so massive that the idea of stopping their construction can seem like opposing an avalanche in progress. Despite the scale and momentum of the explosion of data centers, resistance is mounting in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and in Latin America, where data centers have been built in some of the world's driest areas."
"Local opposition in all three regions has often focused on the environmental impacts and resource consumption of the gargantuan structures. Paz Pena is a researcher and fellow with the Mozilla Foundation who studies the social and environmental impact of technology, particularly data centers and particularly in Latin America. She spoke to the Guardian at the Mozilla festival in Barcelona about how communities in Latin America are going to court to pry information away from governments and corporations that would much rather keep it secret."
Data centers powering artificial intelligence are massive in financial, physical, and informational scale, creating momentum that can seem unstoppable. Local resistance is growing in the United States, United Kingdom, and Latin America, driven by environmental concerns and resource consumption. Many data centers have been sited in extremely dry regions, intensifying worries about water use. Governments, including leftwing administrations, are actively courting foreign investment in data center infrastructure and offering incentives. Big tech companies engage in heavy lobbying around infrastructure placement. Communities in Latin America are pursuing legal action to obtain information from governments and corporations, challenging secrecy and demanding accountability.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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