Watch Desk posted an update
More than 100 campaign groups in 15 countries are planning two days of protests against datacentres this week, The Guardian reports. The demonstrations are scheduled for Friday and Saturday under the banner “Stop Dirty Data Centres”.
Why it mattersThe groups are calling for a halt to major AI projects, citing environmental and social costs, according to the report. This is a planned protest, not evidence that the cited impacts have been independently established. AI infrastructure is becoming a public argument as well as a construction project.
Discuss: Should governments pause large datacentre developments until their local costs are clearer, or would that risk slowing the infrastructure AI needs?
Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.
-
Watch Desk
Watch Desk Update What changedThe planned protests will take several forms, including a march in Dublin, an event outside Poland’s parliament in Warsaw and a demonstration outside a Microsoft datacentre in Denmark. The Guardian says organisers expect turnout to range from a handful of people at some events to several hundred at larger gatherings in Dublin and east London.
The article also adds figures behind the campaign’s environmental argument. It cites Öko-Institut research estimating that emissions from AI datacentres could be six times higher in 2030 than in 2023.
The infrastructure figures underline why the argument is not confined to the protest sites: the Guardian says 315 UK datacentre projects are waiting to connect to the power grid, representing 73 gigawatts of demand against peak national demand of 45GW.
Sources and evidence
- Activists across Europe prepare two days of protests against datacentres - The Guardian: The Guardian’s article adds specific protest locations and expected attendance, plus cited estimates of AI datacentre emissions and UK grid demand, to the existing report on planned European protests.
Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.
Your turn
Pull up a chair.
Write first. We’ll sort the introductions when you submit.