With the AI dilemma growing ever more present, it’s important that we understand what exactly is going on and grasp the likely effects of AI growth.
For starters, there are 309 Californian data centers in operation, mostly clustered in Silicon Valley, the Bay, LA, and San Diego. However, we have nineteen here in the Sacramento area and many more being pushed for and planned in the Central Valley. These centers are being built by big corporations like Nvidia, Google, Databricks, and FloQast. In response, corporations and local governments supporting them are receiving lots of opposition and ill-sentiments from the public.
The number one concern is the environmental impact. AI data centers use millions of gallons of water to cool their processors, even though they are usually in places that have little water to spare, like a Kern County data center that is predicted to use 12-16 million gallons of water a year in an already drought ridden environment. Meanwhile, there is a present danger of constant noise pollution from the data centers, with its effects on the human mind and the wildlife around us.
In an attempt to cut down on water usage, many companies are using and pioneering so-called “green coolant.” This coolant is actually much worse because it utilizes PFAS (per- and polyfluorroalkyl substances), chemicals that have been found by the EPA and the Agency For Toxic Substances And Disease Registry to cause higher cholesterol, antibody reactions to some vaccines, numerous birth defects, and cancer. The industry does admit that the PFAS coolant does leak quite frequently. When it does, computer parts damaged by the coolant need to be thrown out, right into our landfills. This would be less of a problem if data centers didn’t coat infrastructure like their pipes, cables, and other instruments with PFAS too. In fact, the AI chips themselves cannot work without PFAS.
This necessity for chemical components has been enthusiastically supported by most major chemical and fracking companies, who are churning out more chemicals than ever, some of which are getting into our waterstream and other public natural resources. Residents near the chemical factories are now complaining of waste and higher rates of cancer. Despite this, the big corporations are still continuing their manufacturing of such compounds.
The fight about AI has drawn lines through groups and united old rivals together into two sides, one supported by the Trump Administration in the name of money,the other composed of the people more likely affected, and in the name of our environment and public health. Most people in California, especially in our home city of Sacramento, are opposed to the new data centers. Many see the value in protecting the environment and our health, while the corporations still continue to pump water, chemicals, and money into AI.
