Oppose date centers, save your community

We must stand firmly against the construction of data centers, and concerned citizens should petition their local leaders for the cessation of their construction. The public must also demand full transparency- the construction of data centers should be negotiated publicly, not behind closed doors. 

According to a 2025 MediaJustice report entitled “The People Say No: Resisting Data Centers in the South,” there are $200 billion worth of potential data center projects across Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia.  

According to the report, these data centers will strain energy grids, drain local water supplies, and create "sacrifice zones," which are areas in which it has been accepted that there will be a level of environmental destruction, water pollution and higher electricity costs. These “sacrifice zones” have been connected to environmental racism and broader concerns about environmental justice, such as classism. 

We can look at recent history to show us what will happen if we allow data centers to ravage the South. It has been shown, time and time again, the South and Appalachia bear the brunt of the damage done by industries that wreak havoc on the communities they are conducted in. Within our region, communities that consist of a high percentage of people of color, in addition to low-income communities, bear an additional burden. 

Industries carry out destructive practices in our disadvantaged communities because they do not believe that we will organize to resist them. Prove them wrong. 

Data centers explored in the MediaJustice report are being placed in communities where people of color represent a greater portion of the population when compared to state averages. For example, in Georgia, data centers are in areas with an average of 61.1% of people of color, compared to the state average of 47.2%. At the national level, according to a 2024 report conducted by the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan, people of color make up 42% of the overall population of the U.S. but represent 52% of those living in counties with unhealthy air pollution levels. 

The data centers that are proposed to be built in the South will likely emulate similar patterns to those seen when examining the infamous “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana, or the coal ash disposal crisis in western North Carolina. “Cancer Alley", ccording to the aforementioned MediaJustice report, is “an 85-milestretch of land along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where Black and low-income communities have been dying due to emissions from over 200 petrochemical and fossil fuel plants in the area. It is the epitome of environmental racism— and a microcosm of the larger story of corporate extraction across the South.” 

In western North Carolina, pollution from coal ash, which is created when coal is burned to generate electricity, has been devastating to the region. Plants that burn coal and improperly dispose of coal ash are often placed in low-income areas, such as Cliffside, North Carolina. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average per capita income in 2022 in the United States was $65,423. In Cliffside, it was a mere $23,826. Across the South, low-income communities such as Cliffside are burdened not only by their poverty, but by pollution that comes from Big Coal, Big Oil, or now, Big Data. Reader, do not standidly while Big Data inflicts pollution, increased water prices and electricity costs on already struggling communities. 

Coal ash has been described as a “slow killer.” H. Kim Lyerly, a professor in Duke University's Department of Surgery, Pathology and Immunology, who has completed a review of the metals in coal ash and their health effects, described the effects of coal ash as “subtle and chronic and insidious, and that sometimes is the worst type of exposure you could have, because it doesn’t seem like you could do anything. And all of a sudden some tipping point occurs and you’re quite ill. And it’s almost too late at that point.” 

Burdens that have already been placed upon low-income communities and communities of color, such as coal ash pollution and petrochemical emissions, deeply impact the health of our neighborsin these communities. The effects of water pollution, such as those caused by data centers, are often not only subtle and insidious, but incredibly harmful to human health. 

How much more can our communities take? Should we burden already struggling communities with even higher prices? Should we force communities to accept drinking tainted water so that we can use data to produce AI-generated content? 

The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, admits, according to a May 2024 Vox article entitled "Can you safely build something that may kill you?”, that “AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there’ll be great companies.” 

Reader, ask yourself, is AI worth your life? Is the financial success of Sam Altman and his ilk worth enduring water pollution, increased electricity prices and environmental destruction? Is having access to Sora, ChatGPT and other water-hungry generative artificial intelligence tools worth you and your descendants not having enough water to drink? 

Reader, is it right to sacrifice our Black, Brown and low-income neighbors on the altar of profit? If your answer is “no,” peacefully resist the environmental racism and classism that data centers bring to low-income communities and communities with a high percentage of people of color. If you would be affected by a data center coming into a community near you, petition your elected officials to stop the data centers. Even if there is no proposed data center in your community, use your privilege for good. 

Leverage your privilege to organize, to protest, to protect your neighbors. Your actions, even if they don’t feel like it, do matter. Data Center Watch, according to MediaJustice, has documented over 142 activist groups organizing to block data center construction and expansion between May 2024 and March 2025. They have had success- $64 billion of data center projects have been blocked or delayed during this time from local opposition. 

You can make a difference. Organize and stop data center construction. Stop the sacrifice of both our neighbors and our common home, Earth.