Stop Dirty Data Centers

Impacts

The explosion of AI data centres across our towns and cities is taking a toll that we can no longer afford. Join us and act now to prevent the irreparable harms data centres pose to the wellbeing of people and planet. There are a range of reasons we are motivated to act:

• Local communities Neighborhoods are losing green space, drinking water, clean air and nature. Previously protected sites are being earmarked for AI data centre development. Where data centres are built, neighbors suffer from painful noise pollution, increased respiratory disease, intensifying heat islands and worse.
• Jobs and economy Data centres don’t generate enough jobs and contribute little to the local economy. Despite receiving huge amounts of public subsidies, data centres have a poor track record when it comes to creating jobs. On top of this, the AI services which many are being built to house are directly linked to rising job losses, deskilling of labour, and reduction in worker power.
• Housing shortages and rising energy bills Housing shortages and rising energy bills. As energy bills climb for ordinary citizens, fuelled by data centre expansion, governments offer data centre developers discounted energy rates. New homes are delayed or left empty because data centres captured the available energy grid connections. Meanwhile, countless communities face housing shortages, rising rents and overcrowding.
• Climate crisis, heatwaves and water shortages Europe is the fastest warming continent and experiencing record-breaking heatwaves. However increasingly fossil fuels are powering AI data centres, undermining our ability to reduce pollution, meet climate goals and locking us into dependency on dirty energy. Data centres’ huge thirst for fresh water for cooling, greater when the weather is hottest—deprives people and nature of water when they are needed most.
• Big tech power is undermining our democracies Big tech companies lobby governments to fast-track construction and operate in secrecy, bypassing protections for our communities and ecosystems. Their extreme wealth distorts politics so that our democracies struggle to make independent and informed decisions about data centres in the public interest.
• Mental health crisis Europe is experiencing a crisis of mental health especially among young people who suffer from social isolation, depression, and anxiety. Research links chatbot usage to self-harm. More AI data centres will fuel more digital services and platforms designed to addict and manipulate us.
• Increased surveillance and erosion of privacy Data rights groups are signalling the alarm about what the AI-driven expansion of digital surveillance into every corner of our lives, including public services, will mean for our privacy, data rights and civil liberties.
• Securitization and militarization Data centres are increasingly being used in warfare and surveillance. They provide compute and storage for battlefields abroad and house tools used against civilian populations. Lucrative contracts with the defense sector fill the pockets of foreign tech companies, and under the protection of national security rhetoric, they operate as black boxes without democratic scrutiny and oversight.
• Toxic supply chain In Europe and around the world, mining for critical minerals and manufacturing hardware has intensified, displacing communities and polluting land and waterways. The specialized chips and hardware in data centres are replaced at a breakneck pace every few years and often discarded as harmful e-waste.
• Securitization and militarization Data centres are increasingly being used in warfare and surveillance. They provide compute and storage for battlefields abroad and house tools used against civilian populations. Lucrative contracts with the defense sector fill the pockets of foreign tech companies, and under the protection of national security rhetoric, they operate as black boxes with less scrutiny and democratic oversight.
• Global impact Communities around the world are sounding the alarm at the destruction of nature and harms to health and climate caused by accelerated demand for the computer chips and hardware inside data centres—chips being replaced every few years.

By coordinating our actions, we demonstrate the power we have to halt the unchecked expansion of AI data centres and prevent our democracy being taken hostage by big tech industry interests. Together we are calling on elected leaders to implement moratoria at local, national and European level that pause data centre construction until we, the people, have democratically decided what is needed to ensure AI and data centres serve people and the planet, not private greed.

Supporters

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