• Bieren@lemmy.today
    43·
    2 days 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
      8·
      2 days 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
        11·
        2 days 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
        8·
        2 days 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.

      • SparroHawc@piefed.worldEnglish
        15·
        3 days ago

        As long as they continue to spout pie-in-the-sky for-realsies gonna-be-fantastic totally-not-gonna-fall-apart-like-half-Elon’s-schemes plans for the future, they don’t have to spend ANY money on stuff like ground-based solar panel arrays, and they get more investors who get suckered by the pitch too!

      • nitroemdash@lemmy.wtf
        1·
        2 days ago

        Solar panels produce 36.6% more energy in space than on earth at noon with ideal atmospheric conditions (clear sky). As it’s not always clear and not always day on earth, so I suspect the difference to be 300-400%, plus storage inconvenience.

      • Flames5123@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        Devils advocate, I don’t agree with this, but maybe because first to market and innovating quickly gets more money? The solar panels would be a bigger up front cost (they gotta make sure the building is rated for it, buy a bunch of wires if it’s out in a field, etc) than just paying the city for 6 months-3 years of electricity vs how much the return will be in the timed bubble we have?

        I don’t think that’s a good business decision unless you think what you’re making isn’t going to last…. But maybe they know the bubble will pop and don’t wanna invest long term? It’s just dumb or evil.

    • ghurab@lemmy.world
      4·
      3 days ago

      The roof might be used for cooling, which is probably be a better use of space for a datacenter roof.

  • 1995ToyotaCorolla@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    2 days 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
      1·
      2 days 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.

  • stevles@aussie.zoneEnglish
    37·
    3 days ago

    There is no greater threat to humanity, than humanity itself. There is so much evidence of this throughout history, and yet we have collectively learnt nothing from it. As a species, we are the most destructive force in existence, and time and time again the value of the almighty dollar, that we ourselves have created, is put first above all else. Even the existence of the only known planet that we can successively survive on, is put behind the priority of the dollar.

    On the plus side, at least there’s no bloody rain in Melbourne this weekend!

  • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    50·
    3 days 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.

      • BougieBirdie@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        27·
        3 days ago

        I can’t tell from this far away, but if those trees are deciduous then they lose their leaves in the cold weather

        So a winter photo might not be as good of a comparison as a summer photo because even if there were exactly as many trees in each photo, the winter one would look like there are fewer.

        • PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world
          7·
          3 days ago

          You can still see the trees on the left and the right 🤔 like outer border is identical, just a swath cut through the middle. Season can have an effect but it seems pretty clear here.

        • Einskjaldi@lemmy.world
          3·
          3 days ago

          In that region they typically hold on to their leaves and they slowly come off but keep most of it through the winter, depending on wind to blow them off.

  • PositiveNoise@piefed.socialEnglish
    18·
    3 days 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.

  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    38·
    3 days ago

    1. Summer vs winter picture, not a very honest take

    2. It would look the same for any commercial building - a warehouse, shopping center (would be even worse), etc.

    No need to be disingenuous, it just weakens the argument and gives someone who disagrees with you valid ammunition.

      • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
        3·
        3 days ago

        At least here in the US the people arguing against data centers are also against housing developments and want to reduce urban sprawl (by say tearing down all the empty malls and building apartments there for example). At least that’s what it seems like to me, someone against the never ending suburbia.

    • Annoyed_🦀 @lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Summer vs winter picture, not a very honest take

      How so? Not like the data center will wilted away after the winter and trees grow back on spring.

  • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
    11·
    2 days 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.

  • fum@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 days 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
      2·
      2 days 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·
      2 days ago

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

    • MBech@feddit.dk
      11·
      2 days ago

      After picture is taken during fall or winter. The areas of dirt you see is just what every single construction site looks like.