Data centers (in the AI ​​boom) and the catastrophic environmental impacts of digitalization

dossier

“…The ETC Group is contributing to this debate with “Behind the Clouds – The Environmental Impact of Digitalization,” a new report on the serious environmental and social risks of digital technology. We have found that digitalization is exacerbating existing inequalities and requiring ever greater exploitation of resources from the earth, oceans and space. (…) Data is neither ethereal nor harmless. They are resource intensive, made of sand, water, coal and harmful chemicals that produce toxic waste. For example, the production of semiconductor chips, the building block of all digital things, requires quartz sand, quartz and highly pure water. The factories for these chips are built on large areas and it has been proven that workers there are exposed to harmful chemicals…” span.Report from September 4, 2024 from the ETC Group on the report “Detrás de las nubes” and more, also using the example of Latin America:

• “Techlash”: The resistance against data centers in the USA is so successful that without a post-capitalist vision it threatens to be politically co-opted
  “…“What needs to happen for Americans to accept data centers?” a Democratic Party official on Capitol Hill asked me recently. It was a sincere question, not a rhetorical one. Data centers have become a flashpoint in U.S. politics: Americans have had enough of them and activists are trying to prevent their construction, while a group of developers, financiers, technology companies and energy producers are pushing the projects forward, eager to reap the rewards. The failure to expand these data centers, they claim, is the bottleneck standing in the way of society-changing prosperity enabled by artificial intelligence.
  This conflict has refocused the political debate about AI, which is now entirely focused on how the country should build the physical infrastructure on which the fate of the AI ​​revolution depends. Some grassroots resistance to these projects is successful; At least twenty planned data center projects with an investment volume of almost 42 billion dollars were canceled in the first quarter of 2026 after violent public protests. Nevertheless, it remains unclear to what extent politicians are prepared to stop AI completely. Savvy elected officials like New York Gov. Kathy Hochul may well see election-year advantages in temporarily suspending AI expansion—an expansion that is disruptive in the short term precisely because it is (supposedly) inevitable in the long term. (…)
  All of these developments demonstrate the strength of the movement against data centers; its organizers have built a powerful political force, channeling new, popular energies that politicians have now found impossible to ignore. But without a broader vision for what to do with this technology – without a broader goal beyond the “no data centers” slogan – this “techlash” risks fizzling out, being co-opted by business elites and directed towards policies that merely manage the growth of AI infrastructure rather than challenge or redirect it. (…)
  We might characterize the resistance to data centers as a “coalition in media res,” offering a real-time glimpse into what cultural theorist Stuart Hall has called “the production of politics—politics as production.” We observe how new arenas of political contestation that arise from the interaction of different forces are “fundamentally open” and rarely reflect “already unified collective political identities or already constituted forms of struggle.” In fact, some protesters have used generative AI to create posters for anti-data center rallies - an indication that not everyone who opposes AI infrastructure thinks the technology is useless. Given internal contradictions, can opposition to data centers form a lasting political formation over time? For now, the nascent movement shows how “interests are not given but must be politically and ideologically constructed,” as Hall argued. Many of their identities and preferences are still in the process of being formed and are “inevitably contradictory.” The confusing political landscape has already led to debates about whether opposition to data centers will become the next Occupy Wall Street or the next Tea Party. When the broad masses have such unstable interests, Hall warned, “it is possible to win them over to very different political projects.” (…)
  Having taken control of the market, well-funded tech companies are shaping the economy according to their own development-oriented visions. If data centers are a symbol of these efforts to reshape social life, the left has a chance to make more ambitious demands, focusing less on “AI safeguards” per se and instead pushing for levers of economic control and coordination. Throwing sand in the gears of AI infrastructure construction through grassroots resistance is one thing; Transforming this oppositional force so that it actively shapes the economy is something completely different. (…)
  What does the AI ​​uprising say about the future of political life in the US? Grassroots movements are pushing for environmental and energy protections, while new and old capital groups—hyperscalers, asset managers, and real estate developers—accept demands for change as part of the cost of doing business.
  While many anticipate a potential AI crash, the more pressing issue from the perspective of a democratic society is the unprecedented mobilization of capital for a job automation technology that remains deeply unpopular in the United States. This raises questions that are less about this or that redistributive political solution than about our overall understanding of politics: If this is not the future we want, then what institutional forms of power are required to mediate and realize an alternative?
  Given the emergence of AI, the possibility of democratic planning – as a long-term vision that complements organizing around immediate concerns – must be one of the left's key hopes. It is time to announce bolder projects to rein in capital and coordinate growth across all manufacturing sectors, transforming not just the tech industry but the core of the US economy.” EnglishArticle by Brian J. Chen in the Fall 2026 Dissent Magazine (“After the Data Centers”, machine translated). See ibid, also:
  • Our technological bet
    “The AI ​​investment boom is a gamble of epic proportions. But on both sides of this bet the house appears to be winning…” EnglishArticle by Simon Torracinta 
• The trade tax reform that the federal government has initiated will secure millions for municipalities through data centers. This is intended to reduce local resistance.
  “AI’s hunger for electricity and space is great. Municipalities in whose area gigantic data centers are being built have often had a disadvantage in tax terms. That should now change. The federal government is planning on Wednesdaypresented government draft for the Income Tax Reform Act 2027 a far-reaching innovation in trade tax law.Due to the change in the assessment basis for the trade tax breakdown, around 90 percent of the tax revenue will in future remain at the location of the server farms. The procedure basically involves dividing a company's trade tax across several municipalities if it has business premises in different locations.With the initiative, the government is making a central promise of its ownData center strategy on the way and, in addition to strengthening municipal finances, pursues a clear goal: it wants to counteract possible protests at an early stage, beforeUS conditions with citizens' initiatives and blockades paralyze the expansion of digital sovereignty…”Article by Stefan Krempl from September 3rd, 2026 in heise news (“Tax coup against citizen protests: billions in reallocation for data centers”)
• AI victim zones: Resistance to data centers could become a central social power struggle
  "750 billion US dollars. That's how much OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is expected to spend on new data centers by 2030. These are gigantic investments, but in view of the madness on the international financial markets in recent years, they are comparatively modest sums. The "Magnificent 7" in the tech industry, i.e. Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook) and Tesla, have had around 1,000 in total since ChatGPT was introduced at the end of 2022 15 trillion US dollars in market capitalization. Even leading figures in the industry such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speak of an “AI bubble”, analogous to the “dot-com bubble” around the year 2000. Because investments in the financial markets only correspond to expectations of future profits, but not to real economic developments, there is a risk of a global financial crash that could eclipse the financial crisis of 2008. But there is still hope that one of tech companies wins the “AI race” with the development of a so-called general artificial intelligence and leaves the casino as the big winner. However, gigantic amounts of computing capacity are required for a so-called artificial general intelligence (AGI). According to the US initiative Data Center Watch, hundreds of groups in 49 of the 50 US states are now protesting against the construction of new data centers and, in some cases, against the operation of existing data centers Tech critics, but also conservative politicians, concerned residents and technology skeptics. And this unusual conglomerate is quite successful.In the first quarter of this year alone, at least 75 planned data centers were stopped or delayed. (…)How is it that the issue of data centers overcomes social divides and decides elections in times of extreme polarization? The criticism is not only sparked by the gigantic electricity consumption, which overloads local power grids and drives up the price of electricity, but also by the no less catastrophic water consumption for cooling the systems. A system with an output of just one MW consumes a good 25 million liters of water every year. For a typical 200 MW system, that's five billion liters annually. Dry regions are thus plunged into serious water supply difficulties. In addition, there is the immense waste heat that such systems generate, which is often not fed into the local heating networks. There is also criticism of the tax breaks that are given to tech companies so that they locate in a certain region. This often makes one of the two central arguments of plant operators – that the public benefits from tax revenue – invalid. Just as often, the other central argument – ​​data centers create jobs – turns out to be a nonsense: most jobs are created temporarily during construction. In the long term, only double-digit jobs are often created. (…) The EU now wants to get into this game and justifies this with “digital sovereignty”: IT applications used in Europe should be completely under European control. It would indeed be high time that central IT services in authorities, universities, hospitals and the like no longer depend on the discretion of US tech companies.But even the local politicians who are campaigning for the “Schuby Energy Park” project are not clear about which investors they are getting involved with. (…) The central question is: Who exactly is meant when “digital sovereignty” is strengthened? Is it the public infrastructure and private end users? No. Ultimately, at best, it's about the European tech companies, and they are based almost exclusively in the two countries that set the tone in the EU: France and Germany. (…) Instead of “sovereignty”, the EU strategy is more about establishing its own, “European” form of what the French economist Cédric Durand describes as “techno-feudalism”: the socio-economic dominance of individual tech companies that turns users into cloud serfs. (…) The EU definitely has the chance to show that there is another way: public infrastructure for precisely defined goals and open source software instead of dependence on private companies. The conflicts over data centers could become a focal point for central social power issues. (…) The experiences from the USA show that at least four things are needed for the protest: Firstly, information events and protest organization in affected communities (e.g. in the near future on the German North Sea coast), secondly, early networking with other locations, thirdly, non-dogmatic communication that does not immediately open the big barrel about the climate, and fourthly, an early political debate with right-wing actors. Article by Nico Graack in ak 728 from August 18, 2026 
• CO2 emissions from US electricity production could increase by up to a third if 99 planned gas power plants for AI data centers are implemented. 
  “The AI ​​hype threatens to become an environmental catastrophe. Not only are large amounts of electronic waste generated, there is also a lot of noise and high water consumption - not only in hyperscale data centers themselves, but also in the power plants required for them. And these increase greenhouse gas emissions, as they are mostly new, less efficient gas power plants. Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BloombergNEF) points this out. Market observers know of 99 gas power plants that are planned or under construction in 22 US states. However, they should not be connected to the power grid, as they are only intended to generate electricity for hyperscale data centers for AI. If all 99 island systems are realized, it would increase CO2 emissions from US electricity generation by more than a fifth, perhaps even a third. The latter would be equivalent to twice the CO2 from the total combustion of jet fuel in the USA…”Article by Daniel AJ Sokolov from August 19, 2026 in heise-news (“New gas power plants for AI: enormous increase in CO2 feared”)
• AI and data centers: The federal government does not know how much water its expansion plans will swallow [but wants to at least double the capacities of German data centers]
  "Data centers consume enormous amounts of water. The federal government cannot say exactly how high their consumption is in Germany. It also does not know how the planned expansion of data centers will affect this important resource. The government cannot even give figures for the consumption of the data centers operated or used by the federal government itself because it also lacks an overview here. This is shown by research by netzpolitik.org on the water consumption of artificial intelligence and data centers. The national data center strategy envisages increasing the capacities of data centers in Germany by "Our goal is clear: more computing power for Germany - so that we can be at the forefront of the global AI race," said Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger (CDU), whose house presented the strategy in March 2026. Data centers are the most important infrastructure for the complex data processing behind artificial intelligence. In the area of ​​AI, German capacities should therefore be quadrupled. But data centers not only require a lot of electricity, but also water. (…) The topic is becoming more explosive due to increasing periods of heat and drought in Europe. (…) The Digital Ministry is nevertheless optimistic: “German data centers are already among the most sustainable in the world – thanks to high energy efficiency, mandatory purchase of renewable energies and innovative use of waste heat.” The data center strategy will strengthen this pioneering role, said the spokesman. In fact, the paper cites water-saving cooling systems as an important lever for sustainability and security of supply.(…) A report by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2025 showed that 65 percent of the data centers reported up to that point had a high efficiency value in water use. The central parameter here is the water usage effectiveness value, or WUE value for short. (…) According to EU figures, Germany had an average WUE value of 0.49 in 2024, which was above the EU-wide average of 0.4. (…) Upon request, the Federal Environment Ministry also points out that the data collected so far only reflects part of the actual water consumption for data centers. The reason: Only on-site use is recorded. However, a comprehensive life cycle analysis must also include the water that is used when building the data center or generating electricity. The water-intensive extraction of raw materials for hardware components and their production must also be taken into account. The survey data is also incomplete for two other reasons: Firstly, smaller data centers with an IT connection power of less than 300 kW are not subject to reporting. Secondly, according to information from netzpolitik.org, not all operators comply with their reporting obligations. (…) By July 6, 2026, a total of 482 reports had been received for the 2025 reporting year, the Federal Ministry of Economics informed us upon request. However, it is estimated that the total number of data centers subject to reporting could be around 1,000. As a result, consumption has so far only been recorded by just under half of the data centers required to report. (…) The federal government apparently does not even have an overview of water consumption in the data centers that the federal government itself operates or uses.(…) The federal authority is the federal government's central IT service provider and, among other things, operates its own data centers. However, they don't want to answer our request about their water consumption - because of "security risks", as they say. (…) The refusal to provide information comes at a time when several federal states and the federal government want to reduce transparency with reference to security concerns. Critics such as the federal and state freedom of information officers see this as a pretext “for incomprehensible and unjustifiable restrictions on freedom of information”. Contribution by Ingo Dachwitz from August 10, 2026 at Netzpolitik.org and also:
  • Enough for 600 million people: Why does AI use so much water? In the FAQ we provide answers to the most important questions and explain why the issue of water consumption belongs on the political agenda
    “It's summer in Europe and heat records are once again being recorded. Regular droughts and water shortages are no longer a phenomenon of the Global South. (…) The topic of water consumption by AI and data centers is very topical, even if it has hardly played a role in the political debate so far. Our FAQ provides answers to the most important questions (…) [For example:] How much water do Amazon, Microsoft and Google use? (…) Amazon, as the largest data center operator in the world, has kept its water consumption secret for a long time. After much public pressure, the company named a number for the first time in its new sustainability report in the summer of 2026: 9.4 billion liters of fresh water would have been withdrawn in 2025 to operate data centers. Amazon does not say exactly how much of it was used. According to the current sustainability report, Microsoft's data centers are expected to have consumed a good 8.1 billion liters in 2025. In 2020 the number was 3.99 billion liters. This means that Microsoft's water consumption has more than doubled within five years. However, according to the environmental report, Google has by far the largest water consumption. In 2025, the company's offices and data centers used 41 billion liters of fresh water. Five years earlier it was just under 14.2 billion liters, meaning Google's water consumption has almost tripled. (…) People often ask what they can specifically do. The radical answer that is being given more and more often is: restriction or renunciation, because without changes in one's own digital behavior it will not work. (…) The problem can hardly be solved at the individual level.Even industry insiders are now saying that strict rules and strong enforcement are finally needed for data centers. However, the Federal Government wants a reform of the Energy Efficiency Directive to go in the other direction. A petition from Algorithm Watch calling for improvements already has more than 150,000 signatures. Meanwhile, protests against the establishment of data centers are increasing worldwide, including in Germany. The political debate that you can get involved in if you want change – it’s happening right now.” Contribution by Ingo Dachwitz from August 10, 2026 at Netzpolitik.org 
• On July 17, 2026 there was a protest against the Google data center in Kronstorf: “There will be zero added value in Austria”
  The spokesman for the “Citizens’ Initiative at the Data Center Kronstorf” Harald Müllner explains inInterview by Lisa Wohlgenannt on July 20, 2026 in Pressenza Vienna , where the problems lie and what he hopes to achieve from the protest:"... In 2008 it was said that a data center was coming and that it would be great. There were even doctoral theses that asked themselves: "How will Kronstorf develop further?" Housing should develop, English-speaking kindergartens should be built, and so on. Nothing came of it. After that everything lay around for years and then it happened in quick succession. The data center is now expected to be 2.5 times larger than originally planned. In the first construction phase, everything was planned in such a way that, if possible, no environmental impact assessment was necessary. For example, water consumption was set below the EIA limit. Likewise the storage of diesel and other products. In addition, a number of individual reports have been prepared with regard to water use, noise or exhaust fumes. They were all created quite specifically according to the manufacturer's instructions. However, there is no report on overall noise, for example. Gathering all this information was tedious. But now we have it and can argue with facts. What bothers us is that you can't find open conversation partners and that democracy is only strictly adhered to by law - and not a step further. (…) There will be zero added value in Austria. Google uses land and electricity in Austria. We have to renew power grids, i.e. create the infrastructure. And we get heat and warm water in return. (…) The actual added value, profits and taxes go abroad. (…) We demand a public, independent and comprehensible overall review of the project.There must be no further political support until all impacts on the environment, water supply, electricity supply, health, transport, noise, network security and data security have been examined, transparently disclosed and assessed under democratic control. And we demand that all contracts, agreements and arrangements between politicians and the tech companies involved be unconditionally disclosed. There must also be an objective explanation of possible negative effects. Soil, water, climate and energy supplies must be protected. Profits should be taxed where the resources are used, and fair social standards and responsible business practices are needed. And we demand that the further expansion stage in Kronstorf be stopped. (…) We want to draw attention to this and something is already moving. The media has reported and we are receiving further inquiries. At the federal level, politicians from the Greens and SPÖ have now spoken out and called for improvements. We as individuals cannot achieve anything. But the mass of people can ensure that something changes.”
• Stopped AI data centers: New York is fighting back
  “AI data centers consume an incredible amount of energy and blow dirt into the air. The US state of New York has therefore decided on a moratorium. A role model for Europe?
  How much electricity and how much water does an AI data center draw from the networks? How many pollutants and CO2 are released? Because these questions are not easy to answer, the state of New York issued a moratorium on Tuesday: No new “hyperscalers,” i.e. data centers with an energy requirement of over 50 megawatts, should be built here for one year in order to protect taxpayers, the environment and the power grid, as it said in a statement.
  Who owns the planned data centerslook at it on a map , sees a panorama of the boom. Countless new centers are to be built in the USA. These provide ample opportunity for moratoriums, if not for tangible local resistance: In many places, residents suffer from the waste heat, noise and emissions from the diesel generators and gas turbines that operate many of the centers. (…)
  Things are looking less bleak in Germany. But blind trust is not the order of the day here either. The federal government wants to have doubled computing capacity by 2030. Instead of adopting moratoriums or putting more pressure on data center operators, it goes a long way toward accommodating them.
  With an amendment to the Energy Efficiency Act it is currently shortening the approval process,weakens transparency rules and suspends important requirements . Something positive: A small initiative in the Main Valley near Frankfurt has just thatEurope's first completely fossil data center prevented – including the planned gas power plant.”Comment by Raoul Spada from July 16, 2026 in the taz online , see also:
  • Resistance to data centers in the USA is leading to unusual alliances: anarchists, union activists, dissatisfied Trump supporters...
    “Paul Messersmith-Glavin reports that union activists and anarchists are joining forces with residents who have put up Trump signs in their yards, united by concerns about rising bills, water use and noise pollution.
    Everyone hates data centers
    Anarchists, union activists, indigenous activists and disaffected Trump supporters stand side by side in this fight.
    There are currently between 4,000 and 5,000 data centers operating in the United States, consuming enormous amounts of energy and, in the case of some hyperscale data centers, consuming up to 5 million gallons of water per day. But even that isn't enough to meet the demand fueled by the tech industry: At least 3,000 more data centers are under construction or planned, which has sparked a diverse grassroots movement against their construction.
    Indigenous peoples are resisting ongoing attempts to exploit their land, air and water. Rural white residents, some of whom voted for Donald Trump, are now going door to door outraged over rising electricity costs and water shortages.
    The resistance against data centers has brought the unions into action: The “Graduate Employees’ Organization” at the University of Michigan has the motto “AI is not inevitable” and sees artificial intelligence as a dystopian force that is only made possible by data centers. These efforts form the front line in the fight against attempts by high-tech billionaires to create a desolate world in which they hold all the power and the rest of us serve their interests…” EnglishArticle by Paul Messersmith-Glavin from June 9, 2026 in In These Times (machine translated)
• Resistance to data centers in the Schaffhausen region/Switzerland: “KI short-circuit camp” from July 2nd – 9th – evacuated and moved
  • Resistance camp evacuated – new camp announced!
    “The diverse program continues there until July 9th. Join us and stay up to date through our channels. Short-circuiting AI – together we resist the tech oligarchs’ AI project.
    On Thursday morning (July 2nd) the “KI short circuit camp” was set up in Benken on the private property of a solidarity farmer with a political and political program against the massive expansion of data centers in the Schaffhausen region. After initial negotiations, the police began to assemble. Masked plainclothes police surrounded the people on site - accompanied by drones and police dogs. People were checked and the police issued eviction notices.
    The cantonal police admitted to a journalist that they had no community order at the time of the attack.
    The police are doing the dirty work for tech oligarchs on their own initiative - showing once again that they are merely the armed hand of the rich and powerful. The resistance against data centers and Big Tech in Switzerland has begun and neither police attacks nor bans will stop the movement.
    After a press conference with a view of the data center in Beringen and a great program in the Grarage Schaffhausen, we have a new location for our camp since Saturday morning (July 4th)! Take public transport to the “Tengen primary and secondary school” bus stop, from there it is a few minutes walk. If necessary we can provide car transport…”Report from July 4th, 2026 at Barricade 
  • “AI short-circuiting camp” opens – resistance to data centers in the Schaffhausen region
    “July 2, 2026, Benken ZH - Under the slogan “Short-circuiting AI,” several dozen people have set up a resistance camp in Benken (ZH). They want to draw attention to the massive expansion of AI data centers in the region. They criticize the enormous waste of resources in data centers. Data centers are accelerant for the climate crisis.
    Criticism of AI hype: “No drinking water for tech oligarchs”
    Switzerland is currently in the midst of an AI hype and is trying to establish itself as a hotspot for Big Tech. Although Switzerland already has one of the highest densities of data centers in the world, ten more are expected to be built in the next few years. At the same time, the city of Zurich has a higher density of tech companies than Silicon Valley.
    Media contact Laurent Gschwind describes the developments as follows: "We are currently experiencing a gigantic AI offensive. Fascist tech oligarchs like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are expanding their power at the expense of us and our livelihoods." (…)
    Bringing the movement against data centers and Big Tech to Switzerland
    With the “KI short-circuit” camp, “Uprisings of the Commons” wants to bring the growing global resistance against data centers and Big Tech to Switzerland. At the camp, which runs from 2nd to 9th. July lasts, there should be space for exchange with the local population and the movement against data centers should be further built up. A diverse program of workshops, panel discussions and concerts was organized for this purpose. According to the action consensus, the camp should be an accessible place for solidarity.”Report from July 2, 2026 with photos
  • AI Short Circuit Camp from July 2nd – 9th –all information 
• [Sustainable AI] Artificial Intelligence: Energy Consumption and Environmental Impact
  “Artificial intelligence eats up electricity, water and resources – and thus endangers the energy transition. A new Greenpeace report shows how the AI ​​boom can become a climate problem and makes suggestions for solutions…”Article by Michael Weiland & Andi Nolte from June 17, 2026 at Greenpeace including report
• UN report on AI environmental costs: Well-intentioned, poorly calculated
  "A new UN report warns of the growing energy and water consumption of data centers due to the AI ​​boom. But instead of insisting on the responsibility of tech companies, it gives tips for users on how they could change their behavior. A missed opportunity, criticize researchers.
  A newly released report from the UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health examines the environmental costs of the AI ​​boom. It not only quantifies the CO₂ balance, but also the water and space consumption of the data centers - i.e. the infrastructure behind large parts of our digital everyday life. (…)
  Outdated data, missing comparisons
  The Science Media Center Germany asked a total of eight researchers to provide a scientific assessment of the UN report. The experts see this as a helpful introduction to a relevant topic. At the same time, they criticize the report as superficial, methodologically difficult to understand, undifferentiated and shortened in places. He neglects comparisons with other sectors and concentrates on individual usage behavior when proposing solutions. (…) The report emphasizes the land use of renewable energies, but largely ignores that of fossil fuels. "The role of photovoltaics is not discussed at all. Although it performs very well in most key figures and has grown particularly strongly in recent years," says Kappel. The report also works with outdated energy mix figures from 2015. (…)
  Savings potential is a question of power
  The researchers' strongest objection, however, concerns the direction of the savings potential. Gröger says: "The tech companies benefiting from this boom - in particular Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft - are not named in the study. There are also no suggestions made as to how their power can be limited and how they can be held responsible." Instead, software developers and consumers are given tips to reduce their individual environmental footprint, says Gröger. “After the study mentioned the dramatic problems that arise from the expansion of AI, I would have expected that much more aggressive solutions would be proposed.” (…)
  The researchers themselves propose different solutions: Routing systems that automatically redirect simple AI requests to smaller models are technically sophisticated and are already being used in isolated cases, says Maaß. An underestimated problem is information asymmetry: In contrast to the municipalities with which they negotiate about the approval and location of data centers, tech companies often have specialized negotiating teams. This leads to the underestimation of the scarcity of land, water and grid connection capacities in particular, which is why standardized assessment frameworks are needed at the federal level. (…)
  Tilmann Rabl from the Hasso Plattner Institute advocates legal intervention: “Without regulation, it will not be possible to reduce electricity consumption due to the high investments in AI.” The UN report does not express that current developments are “strongly driven by investor interests” and industrial and commercial AI use.
  “The consumption of end users is controlled by the offerings of internet companies, which are in an arms race with each other,” says Rabl. Smaller models and adapted use of AI are the responsibility of software manufacturers and Internet companies. "However, they have no interest in it due to their existing business models. The greatest savings potential is the reduction of AI applications and IT in general.”.”Contribution by Denis Glismann from June 8, 2026 in Netzpolitik 
• In the USA, resistance to AI and data centers is growing: As a precaution, the government sees “anti-tech extremism” as a new threat of terrorism
  • New data centers: That doesn’t have to be the case
    “There are protests against “artificial intelligence” in the USA. In Germany, too, people are noticing that the consumption of resources has noticeable consequences.
    While the plans for new data centers are still viewed with skepticism in this country, things are really getting going in the USA. “Fuck AI!” raged actor and satirist Ronny Chieng during his speech at Harvard University’s graduation ceremony last week. And was applauded for it by the fresh graduates of one of the most renowned universities in the USA. “I tell you: The mission of your generation is to destroy AI.” This took place against the backdrop of several other graduation ceremonies at which prominent speakers such as former Google boss Eric Schmidt were booed for praising AI (and clearly did not expect this at all). (…)
    In 2025, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that global electricity demand for data centers would double by 2030. In 2024, almost 50 percent of the electricity consumed in data centers worldwide came from fossil fuels. “Creating a one-minute online video – and trying it out three times – can require as much energy as driving over 100 kilometers by car,” explained Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, deputy chairwoman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in January.
    In addition, data centers usually use enormous amounts of water for cooling because a large portion of the energy they require is converted into heat. The higher the temperatures climb, the more water the AI ​​needs. This water is then missing in the area in addition to the increasing water shortage. (…)
    In May theAI Resist List published, which compiles activities against the “AI empire”. It's not just about data centers, but also about the effects of AI or working conditions in tech companies. The list is still small, but it will certainly grow soon. According to Petra Molnar, researcher at the Refugee Law Lab at York University and herself involved in the list, the project is based on the Countering AI Inevitability Framework, which is what he wantscounteract the supposed inevitability of AI . Several projects deal more specifically with data centers in the USA and the protests against them.Data Center Watch has calculated that in 2025 alone data center investments will amount to156 billion dollars were blocked. The point has now been reached where the rejection of data centers has become an issue at the national level. What were initially regional disputes could now influence elections and legislation.
    TheData Center Tracker has observed more than 1,200 activities to date and contains information on investment levels, energy consumption, floor space and size of petitions against the projects, as well as describing the political reaction to each. TheNo Data Center Resource Center gathers information about protests and their successes: in the first three months of this year alone, more than 20 data centers are said to have been prevented. Protests now take place all over the USA every other Saturday. There were almost 50 this Saturday. Erin Brockovich (yes, that one!) also collects information on her website »Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting«. She has received over 3,000 reports and, in addition to an overview map, there are sections onsuccessful moratoriums and rejections of planned data centers. (…)
    So far, the smaller protests against data centers have been barely visible, but that could change if it becomes clear that neither AI nor data centers are without alternatives. If the AI ​​bubble does burst, there will be very large industrial ruins left that no one will need anymore. They don't offer many jobs after they're built anyway. In any case, Algorithmwatch has already created a guide for local initiatives: »How to defend yourself against data centers«.
    This is currently urgently needed because the federal government is currently in the process of reducing the obligations for companies to provide information about water and electricity consumption. The new energy efficiency law from Economics Minister Reiche contains theseDemands from companies like Google and Microsoft are sometimes verbatim , revealed research by Lobbycontrol and Campact. If the law passes, data center consumption will become a trade secret. It was originally supposed to be decided in the cabinet last week, but that has now been postponed. That leaves a little more timepetition»Climate protection instead of AI madness«to support data centers that require data centers to be operated with renewable energies and consumption to be published…”Article by Anne Roth from June 1st, 2026 in ND online 
  • US law enforcement warns of “anti-tech extremism” as hatred of AI grows
    “As Americans fret about the looming threat of AI and data centers taking jobs away from their neighborhoods, federal authorities are sounding the alarm about a new kind of threat, according to documents obtained by WIRED.
    In the wake of attacks on corporate CEOs, a nationwide protest movement against data centers, and growing fears about AI replacing jobs, federal intelligence agencies and domestic law enforcement are spreading reports that have a new domestic target in mind: anti-tech extremists.
    More than 1,000 pages of unpublished reports from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and fusion centers obtained by WIRED show that a shift is taking place across the country aimed at monitoring this new and worryingly broad category of people and activities deemed an emerging threat.
    This new initiative follows President Donald Trump's National Security Presidential Memo 7, which directed the Justice Department to take action against anyone who espouses "anti-American," "anti-Christian," and "anti-capitalist" views. Earlier this month, Trump's counterterrorism envoy, Sebastian Gorka, released onepublic anti-terrorism strategy , in which he claimed that far-left forces were one of the top three priorities in the fight against terrorism for the United States.
    Taken together, these directives from the Trump administration have resulted in the abuse of the domestic surveillance apparatus to monitor and criminalize speech and gatherings that contradict the ideology of the White House. The new focus on anti-tech extremism adds a previously unmentioned category to the already public classifications, under a presidency that has invested massive political and material capital in AI and data center expansion.
    Among the documents in the tranche obtained by WIRED is a report from New York's Office of Intelligence and Counterterrorism that warns of widespread unrest as a result of the introduction of artificial intelligence. Of particular note is a new term for what the office calls an emerging extremist threat.
    “The chaotic atmosphere that new AI technologies could create over the next five years could fuel large-scale protests that escalate into civil unrest and violent extremist activity against technology, particularly in large metropolitan areas such as New York City,” the report said. The term “violent anti-tech extremism” does not appear in any publicly available DHS or FBI reports or guidance on domestic extremism and represents a novel lumping of a broad range of ideologies under a single extremist category. (…)
    A report from the Northern Virginia Regional Intelligence Center warned that AGAAVEs - violent anti-government and anti-authority extremists - influenced by anti-government dissatisfaction and conspiracy theories, have been preparing to target data centers and other critical infrastructure facilities to disrupt government operations. However, when breaking down the indicators for reporting suspicious activity, the intelligence report lists activities that legal experts say could easily be carried out by peaceful protesters. (…)
    The documents available to WIRED also show that fusion centers are currently also keeping an eye on on-site meetings. The Northern Virginia Center prepared a report on demonstrations at local town hall meetings, including the Arlington County budget meeting and the Fairfax County School Board meeting. Across the country, town halls and budget committee meetings are among the primary forums in which residents express their opposition to the construction of data centers in their neighborhoods.
    According to Data Center Watch, a project by AI security company 10a Labs that tracks data center opposition, hundreds of organizations in 42 states have banded together to prevent data centers from being built in their cities and counties. These efforts are often controversial. In California, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, state and local police have ejected or arrested speakers at town hall meetings criticizing data centers - in one case before they were even allowed to speak. (…)
    Perhaps the clearest example of how nonviolent criticism of technology can be lumped together with threats can be found in an open source report that SITE Intelligence circulated in April 2025. The report points to a video from progressive nonprofit More Perfect Union discussing the harmful effects of a data center on Georgia residents. Nothing in the video advocated violence against property or people. But thanks to targeted surveillance by fusion centers, the advocacy group is now being viewed as a potential threat vector by U.S. intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies nationwide.” EnglishArticle by Daniel Boguslaw from May 26, 2026 in Wired (“US Law Enforcement Warns of ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’ as AI Hatred Grows, machine translated)
  • The resistance from data centers is there
    “Local opposition to data centers skyrocketed in the second quarter of this year, according to a new report…” EnglishArticle from November 14, 2025 in Wired 
• AI data centers are expected to consume as much water as 1.3 billion people in 2030
  “A new report assesses the environmental impact of data centers and AI requests - and recommends, among other things, foregoing politeness. Experts view this critically
  They are growing out of the ground like mushrooms: data centers are being built, currently primarily to meet the needs of AI applications. Google has been building its first data center in Austria in Kronstorf an der Enns since April; the US tech giant bought the property in 2008. Switzerland is one of the countries with the highest data center density in the world. Most of them are in the USA; by 2025 there were already more than 4,100.
  This not only brings economic benefits. There has long been resistance, partly due to high water and energy consumption. That's why the United Nations University (UNU) has now published oneReport on the environmental costs of artificial intelligence and its energy use . The forecast for 2030 is: The water footprint of all AI data centers should then correspond to the annual water needs of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, i.e. around 1.3 billion people. If current developments continue, the electricity consumption of all data centers will reach more than 945 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2030, almost three percent of global electricity usage. This amount could provide 1.3 billion people with electricity for five and a half years, the report says…”Article by Julia Sica from June 3, 2026 in derstandard.de 
• Italy's new rule: Anyone who covers fields with data centers pays three times as much
  “Lombardy is showing Europe how to slow down the unbridled AI boom - with a law that even companies like Google and Amazon should feel the effects of.
  AI is digital, its infrastructure is not. In Lombardy, the fight for land, water and electricity is now being decided politically - with a sharpness that is unrivaled in Europe.The region passed Italy's first specific law regulating data centers at the end of May 2026.The core is Article 5 paragraph 4 : Anyone who builds a data center on agricultural land pays double the construction fee. In parks and green areas, even three times the rate is due - a surcharge of 200 percent on top of the regular building tax,it says Il Sole 24 Ore.
  The message to hyperscalers like Microsoft, Google or Amazon is unmistakable: build on brownfield sites, not on fields. There are no additional fees for disused commercial areas, so-called brownfields - on the contrary, approvals are to be accelerated there.(…)
  Associations wanted to hit even harder
  That's not enough for environmentalists. In the hearings of the Lombard regional council, Federparchi and Legambiente called for penalty increases of 300 percent - plus an express ban on building on agricultural land. Coldiretti and the agricultural association CIA warned of the irreversible loss of fertile land, which they described as a “strategic, non-renewable resource.” The law remained below these requirements and continues to allow construction as long as operators pay the surcharges. That's exactly the crux of the matter: for a company that invests 6 billion euros in three campuses, 15 million euros in additional costs are chump change.
  30 gigawatts applied for, 2 approved
  The figures cited by the Lombard regional assessor Massimo Sertori illustrate the dimensions of the problem. Applications for data centers with a power requirement of up to 30 gigawatts are available for the whole of Italy, around 62 percent of them (18.6 GW) in Lombardy. In fact, they only want to approve 2 GW based on “real and concrete projects,” Sertori told Il Sole 24 Ore. There are already 33 data centers active in the Milan metropolitan area, with 10 more under construction and 23 in the approval process. (…)
  At the same time, Rome's Ministry of Economic Affairs, Mimit, is pushing ahead with the establishment of data centers. Minister Adolfo Urso received the leadership of EdgeConneX in mid-May and celebrated their investment plan of 6 billion euros for three new campuses between Milan and Lodi.(…)
  A model for Germany?
  Lombardy is therefore caught between two fronts: national AI strategy versus regional soil protection. The contradiction is blatant – and it sounds familiar to Germany.The federal government also wants to double data center capacity in this country by 2030. Federal Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger (CDU) promised the industry “enough space, affordable, secure electricity and quick approvals”.But in the Rhine-Main area, two billion-dollar projects recently failed due to resistance from citizens and municipalities, such as Telepolisrecently showed …”Contribution by Bernd Müller from May 28, 2026 in Telepolis 
• Data centers, for example in Arizona and Latin America, cause temperatures to rise - in addition to other harmful health effects
  • Data centers: effects you can feel on your skin
    “You see them, you hear them. The impact of artificial intelligence data centers can be felt in different ways, through dirty water coming out of the tap, through the incessant noise of machines working non-stop, through the electricity bill that increases every month. But there is one effect that you can feel on your skin: the warmth.
    Temperature increases within 4.5 km
    Onescientific study , published in March by researchers from Asia and Europe, found that an AI data center can increase the temperature of the Earth's surface by an average of 2°C once operational. (…)
    An investigation published in April by the Uruguayan media Amenaza Roboto (Robot Threat) came to a similar conclusion: Since a data center owned by Antel, Uruguay's state-owned telecommunications company, began operating in the town of Pando near Montevideo in 2016, the temperature has risen by 2.1 °C compared to the surrounding area.
    What is at stake
    The rapid development of AI could increase the heat in our neighborhoods. Antel's data center is just a harbinger of what's to come. And it is five times smaller than the complex that Google is building eleven kilometers away, in Ciudad de la Costa. The same thing is happening in the rest of Latin America. (…)
    The rise in temperature poses a risk to health, work and the entire economy. The heat has an impact on mental and physical health, in addition to the impact on work and, as a result, incomes. The workers most exposed to weather phenomena due to their activities, such as suppliers, are among the most affected. It is estimated that in Latin America this group comprises around two million people. But the heat knows no difference and will affect everyone, even business people. The UN's International Labor Organization warns that its impact on productivity could become the worst economic consequence of climate change. They estimate that by 2030, high temperatures could reduce working hours in South America by an amount equivalent to a loss of 1.6 million full-time jobs. (…)
    When journalists from the American news website SFGate asked the US Environmental Protection Agency about the study on heat islands caused by data centers, the agency replied that under the current administration it plans to fulfill President Donald Trump's goal of turning the US into the "AI capital of the world." It remains to be seen whether the United States will truly be the AI ​​capital of the world. Our countries, for their part, are on the way to becoming heat islands of data centers built for this race. The question is: Is it fair that people and our public funds suffer the consequences of these infrastructures that benefit so few? (…)
    It's not about being against data centers. It's about asking whether these are the data centers we want and need. In Brazil that bringsTechnology Center of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto (MTST – Homeless Workers Movement), a movement of activists for the right to housing, launched a project to build its own critical infrastructure with a sovereign data center. The goal is to “break free from privatized and limited connectivity and create spaces to advance the fight.” They build the physical infrastructure, with their own servers, to bring their own solutions without having to outsource this service to a large technology company…” span.Article by Laís Martins in El Surtiin theTranslation by Christa Röpstorff  on May 25, 2026 in the Latin America news pool – Brazilian investigative journalist Laís Martins specializes in technology and its interfaces with politics and human rights. 2026 Journalist-in-Residence at El Surti, Fellow at the Pulitzer Center AI Accountability Network and reporter at Intercept Brasil. See also:
  • Data centers in Arizona are causing temperatures to rise
    “Data centers in Arizona cause temperatures to rise by up to 4 degrees in Phoenix - air-cooled data centers create heat clouds that exacerbate public health risks and increase heat buildup in cities and towns…” EnglishArticle by Benedict Collins from May 19, 2026 in techradar.com 
• Climate protection instead of AI madness: AlgorithmWatch starts a petition against weakening the energy efficiency law in favor of Big Tech
  “The federal government plans to weaken the energy efficiency law in favor of Big Tech. AlgorithmWatch, on the other hand, has started a petition with four specific demands, which can now be signed.
  "Next week, the Federal Cabinet would like to introduce changes to the Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG). In addition to a reduction in the efficiency standards for data centers, the plan also includes a drastic reduction in the originally planned transparency requirements for their operations. To this end, Federal Economics Minister Reiche's ministry is taking on board the demands of the large tech companies, some of them verbatim. AlgorithmWatch is launching the petition "Climate protection instead of AI madness" today and is calling on Chancellor Merz and Economics Minister Reiche to respond to pressure from Google, Not to give in to Microsoft and Amazon and instead ensure real transparency and sustainability in data centers. (…)
  In the planned changes, demands from lobbying papers from Google and Microsoft were partly incorporated verbatim into the Ministry of Economic Affairs' draft law. This was the result of joint research by LobbyControl and Campact with the support of the Munich Environmental Institute, which was published at the end of March.
  According to the current schedule, the Federal Cabinet is scheduled to decide on May 27th whether the Energy Efficiency Act will be weakened in accordance with the wishes of the large tech companies. (…)
  In a petition starting today, AlgorithmWatch is now making four central demands to the federal government:
  1) New data centers should only be approved if they can be proven to be operated with additional renewable energy.
  2) Operators must publish their energy and water consumption bindingly and individually, i.e. also for specific data centers. Contrary to what is planned in the current draft law, they should not be allowed to hide their consumption values ​​as “trade secrets”.
  3) The prescribed efficiency standards must not be lowered.
  4) The consumption of individual AI applications should be disclosed. Only this enables a social debate about which AI applications make sense and which should perhaps be limited for climate and environmental protection reasons...”Press release dated May 21, 2026 from AlgorithmWatch with more information about
  • Petition: Climate protection instead of AI madness
    “The data centers of Google, Amazon and Co. are destroying our climate. But instead of protecting against this, Merz and Reiche are siding with the tech giants. We have to prevent that!..”Petition at AlgorithmWatch 
• The AI ​​boom is increasingly becoming a problem for the environment and climate. Experts demand: The federal government must bring AI on course for climate change
  “Experts have now outlined for the Environment Ministry what a more sustainable alternative could look like. Their report avoids criticism of the current course, but the recommendations amount to a drastic policy change.
  How can artificial intelligence become more ecologically sustainable and at the same time a competitive advantage for Germany and Europe? The Federal Environment Ministry published a report from five experts on this question last week