RootsAction has created the Data Center Action Network, a new campaign that connects activists across the country working to stop new data centers from damaging human and environmental health and safety.
We’re in the midst of a data center construction boom, with nearly five thousand already finished across the country. These facilities use millions of gallons of water daily for cooling, and too often, the surrounding communities are forced to subsidize them in the form of rate hikes. Companies that build data centers are often given tax breaks and incentives that have reached one billion dollars, in some states. That’s a billion dollars from regular people, into the pockets of big tech.
And what do they get for their money? Data centers produce light and noise pollution, as well as local and global climate effects that accelerate climate change and make life difficult or impossible for their neighbors.
Tech companies are using NDAs, shell companies, and other techniques to conceal their involvement in unpopular data center projects.1 These companies often do not disclose the full extent of the water and energy demands of these centers.2 New data centers will fundamentally change the lives of the communities that surround them, yet too often they are imposed with little to no input from those communities.
And now, the Trump administration is trying to build them on federal lands.
