• 1995ToyotaCorolla@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    3 hours ago

    Honestly amazing that these tech companies are able to make a building full of computers look like an open strip mine. They don’t even try to beautify the campuses or anything, just bare dirt and ponds full of acrid water. I live in taconite country and have seen active mining operations put in more care for the communities they invade then big tech does

    • potpotato@lemmy.world
      11·
      2 hours ago

      I don’t agree with how data centers are being built out, but I also don’t think your assessment is accurate. The New Albany and Fayetteville sites look to preserve most of the existing trees. Abilene and Sandstone appear to be active construction.

  • Bieren@lemmy.today
    344·
    11 hours ago

    To be fair. This isn’t an AI issue. Or a data center issue. It’s an everywhere issue. If there is a plot of land, it will be leveled and something will be built. Strip mall. Gas station. Houses. So many houses. It’s never ending. If that piece of land can make money, it will be clear cut and built on.

    • velma@sh.itjust.works
      64·
      10 hours ago

      The use of passive voice throughout your comment is almost impressive.

      What do those other buildings provide that data centers don’t?

      • Bieren@lemmy.today
        9·
        5 hours ago

        I get what you are saying. I know. But that strip mall is gonna have a parking lot the size Montana. It will contain 2 mattress stores, a noodle place and a denture store. The noodle place will go out of business and shutdown. The other 3 will remain open for the next 12 years by magic or something, cause you never see a single person there. We need housing yes. Affordable housing. The houses that the forest was cleared for will be 500k plus, contractor grade, where you get to choose from 3 designs, and its built off a two lane road that is never improved to handle a 1000 home neighborhood. At least, that is all that is popping up around me.

        Id rather have the forest any day.

      • Brosplosion@lemmy.zip
        61·
        8 hours ago

        Not OP, but houses provide housing. Strip malls provide spaces for local businesses. Data center literally provide nothing to the local community they are built in other than stress on existing utilities. It’s not like factories of yore where 1k jobs would be created and lives were built around it.

  • fum@lemmy.world
    2·
    10 hours ago

    This behaviour is exactly why parts of the world are literary on fire right now. It’s not just the loss of trees, its the other impacts of these data centers too, such as increased use of fossil fuels.

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
      1·
      1 hour ago

      And the sprawl encouraged by such development leads to a longer interface between wild and built environments which is more space to defend from wildfires

    • HuePony@lemmy.ml
      1·
      3 hours ago

      Forest fire always was a thing even without humans. It even heals forest from old trees that blocks space for new one

  • PositiveNoise@piefed.socialEnglish
    15·
    18 hours ago

    To me, the problem seems to be bad regulators. They could have mandated that data centers have solar panels on their roof. They could have mandated a certain amount of greenery around the warehouse, so that the area was less impactful. It’s been a known issue that unregulated Capitalism will cause mass destruction quite frequently for decades if not centuries. You can’t expect every business to ‘do the right thing’ every time…that would be stupidly optimistic of regulators.

  • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
    101·
    16 hours ago

    Some day, the people may rise up… And maybe all of these will burn.

    I like to think the employees will do it. Who knows, though…

    I just know it needs to be done.

    • quakki@discuss.tchncs.de
      55·
      12 hours ago

      the people can just stop using the services to get rid of these. there is no need to get violent lol

  • AlecSadler@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    6·
    18 hours ago

    Are these places extremely patrolled and secure? I’m just surprised people aren’t burning them to the ground or disrupting them some way or somehow

  • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    443·
    1 day ago

    It’s a bit unfortunate the second xAI is taken in the winter, so we can’t really see how much of the trees are gone, but looks like a lot.

    • BCsven@lemmy.ca
      2·
      17 hours ago

      Just zoom I’m, you can see where it is bare ground and how winter pic still has trees in the other areas. Don’t go just by colour itself but the shapes of the masses