I’ll also say that this seems to be an issue across the board with data centers…
If we were being people-centered rather than corporate centered on these issues, we’d be seeking out ways to ensure that we minimize the environmental impacts, and we’d focus some of our research into that and in figuring out how to shape our technology in a way that doesn’t contribute to this (more efficient computing that uses less power, etc), but that has really been focused on whatever is going to deliver the biggest profits. And unfortunately, corporate money has become such a huge part of R&D at the university level, that the needs of private industry trump the needs of humanity. This is the outcome of years of neoliberalism. As Karl Polyani argued, that putting the needs of the market ahead of the needs of people has serious consequences. In the 30s it led to the rise of fascism and it’s doing so again.
