r/environment • u/humblerodent8 • 1d ago

Microsoft-backed AI data center faces backlash over alleged unpermitted gas turbines and 1.5M-gallon LNG tank — groups' issues with $19.4B facility range from illegal construction to noise pollution

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/microsoft-backed-ai-data-center-faces-multiple-complaints-from-community-issues-range-from-unpermitted-gas-turbines-to-illegal-construction-and-noise-pollution#xenforo-comments-3899862
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u/Head-Lack7828 19h ago

Those gas turbines really stick out like a sore thumb in the middle of all that desert.

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u/irrelevantusername24 1d ago

All powerful tools are agnostic of good or bad. They are simply powerful. It is how we use them that determines the result - and that result too is itself indeterminate until we judge for ourselves, individually and collectively. There are some things which we have established as being as true as we can see - no good alternatives that are more true. One of those is, especially if we remove the political overtones, that there is safety in numbers. Like unionization. It is easier to unionize when the group which is unionizing works in the same industry. It is easier still if they are in the same company.

Perhaps it is the stubborn cold war mindset that is preventing progress. Because from where I'm sitting, in most examples of an industry which is truly a single industry where the word "natural monopoly" would apply, it makes sense for all involved except for those people we elect to govern our society. Perhaps it is the government which is the problem. Like lead substituting for calcium.

What I mean is if all the different cloud providers in this country were brought under one umbrella, that would make it much simpler to standardize the data. To know where there was latent capacity, and when. Then we could decide if it makes sense to spend billions or more to build more datacenters or if Bezos is trying to scam us.

Which I guess highlights another group which might protest against unifying that which is, in reality, unified: the oligarchs who profit from fractured industries and people. It isn't only in employment or politics where it makes sense to be unified. If the infrastructure isn't unified, how could we ever even try?