AI Data Centers Pose Environmental and Health Risks to Communities, New Tracking Map Reveals
By
Erin Brockovich, Suzanne Boothby
If you only eat one bagel today, this is the bagel.
Summary
The article discusses the rapid expansion of AI data centers across communities, drawing parallels to historical environmental pollution crises. The author, who has experience fighting for communities affected by pollution, argues that data centers are being built near schools and neighborhoods without adequate transparency about their environmental and health impacts. The piece introduces a new map tool to track these data centers and their community impacts, calling for the same scrutiny that was applied to past environmental contamination issues.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThey had no idea they were being poisoned. When they asked questions, they were told that what was happening in their water, their air, their soil was fine. It wasn't fine then.
Data centers are going up in industrial parks, on the edges of neighborhoods, sometimes right next to schools.
The race to build AI infrastructure is real, and it's moving fast.
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