Influx of data centers threatens air quality, public health in Atlanta, environmental activists say

Meta s Stanton Springs Details Center is seen near the town of Social Circle in September Credit Grant Blankenship GPB News Clean air advocates say unchecked upsurge in Georgia s figures center industry could harm community fitness Especially for people in metro Atlanta where air quality has worsened More than of all electricity used nationwide powers records centers according to the Pew Research Center and AI-optimized hyperscale input centers use servers equipped with powerful computer chips that can perform trillions of mathematical calculations per second and require two to four times as countless watts to run than their traditional counterparts Five statistics center projects are ongoing and more are proposed all in the city of South Fulton They are being built in anticipation of improvement in artificial intelligence There s also a -million-square-foot one that s being proposed in South DeKalb reported Kiya Stanford with the advocacy group Moms Clean Air Force in Georgia If you look at the demographics of these regions they have in common that they re primarily communities of color And that s intentional While the projects may bring jobs and money into a society while under construction details centers won t sustain economic upsurge Stanford announced We need to connect the dots between industrial growth environmental defilement and our right to breathe clean air she announced adding that residents should attend local authorities meetings to share their concerns Pollutants that come from the power sources of these facts centers can have an adverse effect on human physical condition she noted In metro Atlanta specifically the number of unhealthy ozone days rose from days in to days in she mentioned So there are immediate correlations happening in terms of extreme heat and unhealthy ozone she commented That s happening within metro Atlanta specifically The post Influx of information centers threatens air quality citizens medical in Atlanta environmental activists say appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta