Original comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1uyyywv/comment/oy3cgd7/
Trees vs. Data Centers
Photo 1: Memphis, TN (top)
Photo 2: Sandston, VA
Photo 3: Abilene, Texas
Photo 4: New Albany, OH
Photo 5: Fayetteville, GA
Not even solar panels on the roofs.
There's all this talk of solar-powered space-based orbital data centers , but they can't be bothered to put up cheaper, simpler, grid-relieving ground-based solar, on the real estate they've already got, when that would start producing some juice like right now? How does this make any sense?
As long as they continue to spout pie-in-the-sky for-realsies gonna-be-fantastic totally-not-gonna-fall-apart-like-half-Elon's-schemes plans for the future, they don't have to spend ANY money on stuff like ground-based solar panel arrays, and they get more investors who get suckered by the pitch too!
VC money
Not even panels over the parking lots.
Is there a /c/extremelydepressing? This would go perfectly there.
That's just world news.
I wouldn’t really categorize rampant ecological destruction as something calling for merely mild annoyance
Yeah it needs to be c/extremelyinfuriating
c/pants-shittinglymaddening
Agree
It's a bit unfortunate the second xAI is taken in the winter, so we can't really see how much of the trees are gone, but looks like a lot.
I’m genuinely confused about why the season matters?!
I can't tell from this far away, but if those trees are deciduous then they lose their leaves in the cold weather
So a winter photo might not be as good of a comparison as a summer photo because even if there were exactly as many trees in each photo, the winter one would look like there are fewer.
You can still see the trees on the left and the right 🤔 like outer border is identical, just a swath cut through the middle. Season can have an effect but it seems pretty clear here.
To be fair. This isn’t an AI issue. Or a data center issue. It’s an everywhere issue. If there is a plot of land, it will be leveled and something will be built. Strip mall. Gas station. Houses. So many houses. It’s never ending. If that piece of land can make money, it will be clear cut and built on.
The use of passive voice throughout your comment is almost impressive.
What do those other buildings provide that data centers don't?
I get what you are saying. I know. But that strip mall is gonna have a parking lot the size Montana. It will contain 2 mattress stores, a noodle place and a denture store. The noodle place will go out of business and shutdown. The other 3 will remain open for the next 12 years by magic or something, cause you never see a single person there. We need housing yes. Affordable housing. The houses that the forest was cleared for will be 500k plus, contractor grade, where you get to choose from 3 designs, and its built off a two lane road that is never improved to handle a 1000 home neighborhood. At least, that is all that is popping up around me.
Id rather have the forest any day.
Not OP, but houses provide housing. Strip malls provide spaces for local businesses. Data center literally provide nothing to the local community they are built in other than stress on existing utilities. It's not like factories of yore where 1k jobs would be created and lives were built around it.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
Haha yeah that's exactly what I was getting at.
Summer vs winter picture, not a very honest take
It would look the same for any commercial building - a warehouse, shopping center (would be even worse), etc.
No need to be disingenuous, it just weakens the argument and gives someone who disagrees with you valid ammunition.
Destroying a forest area for a concrete jungle is never a good thing
Housing developments and apartment blocks are built on former forests in a similar timeframe too
There is no greater threat to humanity, than humanity itself. There is so much evidence of this throughout history, and yet we have collectively learnt nothing from it. As a species, we are the most destructive force in existence, and time and time again the value of the almighty dollar, that we ourselves have created, is put first above all else. Even the existence of the only known planet that we can successively survive on, is put behind the priority of the dollar.
On the plus side, at least there’s no bloody rain in Melbourne this weekend!
at least there's no bloody rain in Melbourne this weekend!
I should hope there's no bloody rain...
(Sorry not sorry I had to. I needed a chuckle)
This is violence against the bulk of humanity
To me, the problem seems to be bad regulators. They could have mandated that data centers have solar panels on their roof. They could have mandated a certain amount of greenery around the warehouse, so that the area was less impactful. It's been a known issue that unregulated Capitalism will cause mass destruction quite frequently for decades if not centuries. You can't expect every business to 'do the right thing' every time...that would be stupidly optimistic of regulators.
Makes me sad
Let’s just all die
This in exchange for something that just invented nonsense words and inserted them into my science presentation?
Some day, the people may rise up... And maybe all of these will burn.
I like to think the employees will do it. Who knows, though...
I just know it needs to be done.
the people can just stop using the services to get rid of these. there is no need to get violent lol
Honestly amazing that these tech companies are able to make a building full of computers look like an open strip mine. They don't even try to beautify the campuses or anything, just bare dirt and ponds full of acrid water. I live in taconite country and have seen active mining operations put in more care for the communities they invade then big tech does
And still no jobs..
I don't like AI data centres, but try to get photos of the same month/season to make this point.
Not all development that removes trees are created equally, just saying. If it's a new interstate power transmission line, solar or wind farm, new non-market housing, passenger rail line, it would be better than a data centre, ICE concentration camp, oil pipeline, intensive agriculture, etc. The end use matters more to weigh against, than saying clearing trees is never worth it as a blanket statement. If it is worth developing, officials have to weigh the importance the forest as a natural habitat compared to natural bogs, lakes and meadows as alternatives, to maintain biome diversity.
This is not mild. This is infuriating.
Are these places extremely patrolled and secure? I'm just surprised people aren't burning them to the ground or disrupting them some way or somehow
Using the data centers when you posted this, classic sign of these times
You're joking right? These are AI data centers and such. They aren't hosting general public cloud servers.
Your posts go to ai, no? Ai is scraping this site/app. Anything you post on here... Ai is taking too some degree. Directly or not you are helping Ai. It was mostly in jest but wow you all went hard with downvotes which I guess you deep down assume means something real. The new age of online discussion forums is wild.
That's because it's propaganda. The person who created the image has a particular point of view and has manipulated what they choose to present to push that view forward.
Whether that view is correct or not is irrelevant to the fact that this is manipulative.
Post more images of things being built! Thanks for having beautiful summer days as the before, and fugly winter as the after to make the difference that much starker, the point of view we're intended to have after viewing this almost wasn't clear enough
Looks like they cleared the area with agent orange 😌
Not to be that guy but you can easily find something a thousand times worse with suburbia than some measly data centers.
Those things eat up land at a much larger scale than anything else aside from farming or logging.
Regardless of any similarities, are you actually comparing places where human beings live with empty buildings that eat unlimited power and water and terrorize the communities they infiltrate?
The "not to be that guy" people have never once come in good faith.
This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.
This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?
Just post some stuff and don't spam.