Sudden tragedies test human capacity to respond in real time. When our alleged leaders are caught flat-footed and called out for their failures of preparation and imagination, they routinely fall back on some version of the ancient excuse, \u201cNo one could have seen this coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one has a crystal ball that reveals the future,\u201d they protest. \u201cSome things just can\u2019t be planned for or prevented.\u201d<\/p>\n
This excuse generally covers natural disasters that strike with little or no advance warning. A massive earthquake, for instance, can be expected for decades but still shocks the system when it finally arrives.<\/p>\n
After-the-fact alibis are worthless in the wake of invasive AI data center development. The crystal ball is there for all willing to see. It\u2019s cracked and leaking poison, a time-lapse disaster that can be prevented simply by listening to millions of witnesses standing up and shouting, \u201cSTOP!\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the most absurd elements of the data center \u201cdebate\u201d raging across the nation is the ridiculous notion that there is any reasonable doubt about their overwhelmingly negative impacts on host communities and society as a whole.<\/p>\n
Data centers have generated increases in tax revenue and temporary jobs in some places, but they have caused economic, environmental and public health havoc practically everywhere they already operate. The shallow payoffs are dwarfed by the deep sacrifices required in exchange.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, elected officials who swore oaths to protect the public interest are either cheerleading for invasive AI data center development or following the \u201ccommitted bystander\u201d script that always results in preventable disaster for citizens who don\u2019t deserve it and can\u2019t afford the consequences<\/a>.<\/p>\n Said consequences are reflected in the headlines daily. Water shortages<\/a>. Electricity rate spikes<\/a>. Grid strain<\/a>. Water<\/a>, air<\/a> and soil contamination<\/a>. Noise<\/a> and light pollution<\/a> and localized spikes in temperature<\/a>. Increased rates of miscarriage, cancer<\/a> and other diseases among populations living in the shadows of invasive AI data centers.<\/p>\n The evidence against invasive AI data center development is so strong, Erin Brockovich (yes, that Erin Brockovich) created an online map of operational and proposed data centers across the nation. Each pin represents a massive earthquake in the communities under attack.<\/p>\n Brockovich\u2019s map<\/a> looks like a developing diagram of a full-scale invasion \u2014 because it is.<\/p>\n I still get razzed by rubes who identify more with their political affiliations than with their status as human beings, but more and more Republicans, Democrats and independents are waking up to the fact that there\u2019s nothing partisan<\/a> about an existential threat to everyone who breathes.<\/p>\n Grassroots organizations like Stop Archbald Data Centers<\/a> are coming together across the nation and delaying or stopping invasive AI data center projects. Local opposition blocked $18 billion worth of data center projects and delayed another $46 billion in projects over the past two years, according to Data Center Watch<\/a>, the Wall Street standard for tracking the industry.<\/p>\n Time is on humanity\u2019s side. The longer these preventable disasters are stalled, the less likely they will ever be built.<\/p>\n Even if every data center \u201ccampus\u201d proposed for Lackawanna County broke ground today, they would likely be obsolete before they went online. The technology is advancing faster than even the billionaire tech \u201cbroligarchs\u201d behind it ever imagined.<\/p>\n